There are only 24 hours in a day, and around 13 of them are typically used for sleeping. Therefore, overly ambitious people have long pondered whether they might utilize this time to acquire a new skill or perhaps a language. So, is it possible to learn while you sleep?
Depending on what we understand by “learning,” the answer can be either yes or no. It is almost probably impossible to learn a new skill or comprehend complex material by listening to an audio recording while dozing off, for example.
However, studies demonstrate that the sleeping brain is not completely inactive and that some types of learning can take place. We still haven’t decided if that’s worth losing sleep over, though.
Sleep Learning: From Fiction to Science
Hypnopedia, sometimes known as sleep learning, has a lengthy history. German psychologist Rosa Heine released her initial research on the advantages of sleep for memory and learning in 1914.
She discovered that learning new information right before bed improves recollection compared to studying during the day.
We now understand that sleep is essential for creating lasting memories of the experiences we have during the day as a result of several research conducted since then. The hippocampus, where memories are originally generated, is where the day’s experiences are first replayed and stabilized by the sleeping brain.
Given that memories undergo a lot of processing while we sleep, It makes sense to wonder if memories may be improved, expanded, or even created from scratch.
The Psycho-phone, a popular device in the 1930s, was one way of sleep learning that was widely used. It played out inspirational words to sleepers, such as “I radiate love,” in the hopes that the people would internalize the concepts and awaken with a radiant sense of self-assurance.
At first glance, it appeared that studies supported the theory behind technologies like the Psycho-phone.
Early research revealed that people learn the information they come across when they are asleep. But when researchers started using EEG to track brain waves during sleep in the 1950s, those findings were refuted.
The only reason learning had occurred, according to the researchers, was because the stimuli had awoken the participants. These subpar studies cast sleep learning into the pseudoscientific garbage bin.
However, recent research indicates that the brain may not completely bloat when you sleep. According to these studies, the sleeping brain may be able to take in information and even create new memories.
The memories are implicit, or unconscious, which is the trap. To put it another way, this type of learning is considerably more fundamental than what your brain must do to learn German or quantum mechanics.
It turns out there are a few things you can truly learn while you sleep, or at least get a better handle on. The majority of them rely on sound. Here are several skills that you might be able to improve on while you sleep;
Foreign Language
In a recent study, researchers had native German speakers begin learning Dutch, starting with some fundamental vocabulary. They were then told to retire to bed.
Unknown to the sleeping Germans, some of those foundational words were played to one set of them while they slept by the researchers. No such sounds were played for the other group. The group that had listened to the words overnight performed better when they were later evaluated on their ability to recognize and translate them.
Another group was given the same instructions to listen to while engaging in other awake activities, such as walking, to ensure the results were related to sleep and not merely the consequence of people hearing the words. The sleepers remembered the words much better than the walkers did.
Musical skills and Abilities.
In a another study, researchers used a method they learned from the video game Guitar Hero to instruct a group of participants in how to play guitar songs. All the volunteers were able to slumber after that. They were all invited to play the song again when they all awoke.
The group that had just learnt the tune while they slept was played to them while they were unconscious. The opposing team wasn’t. Even though they couldn’t recall it, the participants who had heard the music while they slept performed the tune much better than those who hadn’t.
In a 2013 study, 60 healthy adults were asked to use a computer to drag a virtual object to a specific spot on the screen. They chose a spot and set the thing down there, and they began to hear a certain song. The subjects were then given 1.5 hours to slumber during two studies.
Participants had their first snooze as usual while no sounds were playing. Although none of them claimed to hear it, the song that had been playing while they were placing the object was played again during the second slumber.
It was expected that following either slumber, people’s memories would diminish. But after they had been exposed to the music that had been played when their memories had gone, even subtly or unintentionally, to the sound that had been played when they’d placed the item. Interestingly, their memories were sharper still when they’d been told the virtual object was of ‘high value’.
How to Protect Precious Memories
According to scientists, our brains utilize a unique tagging system to distinguish between important and less significant memories. Less significant memories are erased by more significant ones as the brain sends those it deems “important” directly to our long-term memory.
However, scientists believe there might be a method to manipulate this system in our favor.
In a recent study, it was discovered that listening to a sound one had associated with a memory—even a trivial one—improved one’s capacity to retain it.
First, they asked a group of volunteers to arrange a certain number of icons on a computer screen.
Each time an object was placed, the computer was programmed to make a specific sound. Placing a bell icon caused it to ring, while placing a cat icon caused it to meow.
Then they let the participants take a snooze. The scientists played some of the symbols’ sounds as one set of individuals drifted off. The other group was silent. All of the objects were easier for participants to remember after hearing any of the sounds: Multiple memories seemed to be triggered by a single sound.
What happens while we Sleep that is Beneficial to our Brains?
Overnight, our brain activity slows down in distinct waves, with some people spending more time than others in a distinct stage known as slow-wave sleep (SWS).
However, slow-wave sleep is also the stage of sleep during which some of our short-term memories are thought to be transferred into long-term storage in our prefrontal cortex, according to scientists.
Researchers noticed that those who were exposed to sound overnight, whether it was the German words played during the first study or the guitar tunes played as part of the second, also tended to spend more of their sleep time in slow-wave sleep when they were able to observe brain wave activity on the dozing volunteers. In other words, perhaps the more slow-wave sleep we get, the better – both for learning new skills and preserving important memories.
Note: Part of this article was first published on Business Insider.