It Is Possible To Learn Things And Strengthen Memories While We Sleep

The idea of ​​learning while we sleep has long been considered unlikely. Today, neuroscientists claim to have found a way to improve memory with closed eyes.

This idea does not mean that there is an infallible method that allows us to acquire a skill from scratch when we are unconscious. However, we can use our sleep to stimulate memory.

The brain is not off while we sleep

It is proven that in the dream stage the human brain will process the memories of the previous day. Although we do not assimilate important data while we sleep, that does not mean that the brain is totally at rest.

Memories are stabilized throughout the day and integrated into memory for the long term.

Technological aid

In the near future, technology will offer new ways to improve sleep cycles in the brain. The consolidation of memories occurs in slow oscillations of electrical activity. Therefore, the idea will be to stimulate those brain waves without waking up the subject.

For those who wish to use these types of techniques in the future, it is okay to use, for example, sensory cues to aid in exam preparation.

To learn a new language

Is it possible to learn a language while sleeping? Certainly not his compositions, ways of conjugating verbs and fluent dialogues. However, studies have been done showing that we can retain vocabulary while we sleep.

• In one of the more recent experiments, people of German descent were beginning to learn Dutch.
• While they slept, the researchers spoke the Dutch terms to a group of Germans.
• Shortly after waking up, the Germans who had heard the words in their sleep were able to identify and translate them. The other group does not.

Musical skills

In another study, researchers taught a group of people to play guitar melodies using a technique taken from the Guitar Hero video game . After this, half of the group fell asleep and they listened to the melody again while they slept.

The volunteers who had heard the sound while they slept, although they had no recollection of it, played the melody much better than those who did not hear it while they slept.

Keep special memories

Scientists think that the brain uses a “special labeling” system to separate critical memories from less important ones.

Those marked as important are sent directly to our long-term memory, while the rest are replaced by new ones. However, the researchers believe that there may be a way to turn this system in our favor.

In a recent test, they found that people who heard a sound they had linked to a memory, even a minor one, were better able to hold onto it.

By linking sounds to objects, people who heard any of the sounds were able to remember all of the objects. Thus, a sound seemed to help trigger many memories.

What Happens During Sleep?

Our brain activity goes through specific stages at night. Some of us spend more time in a special phase called “slow wave sleep” (SWS) than others.

Scientists believe that some of our short-term memories are transferred to long-term storage in our “mental archives” at this stage. If we differentiate the types of sleep, it may be that slower wave sleep is the most important phase for these theories.

Therefore, we can use it to learn new skills and preserve important memories.

Current theories

According to the latest theories, what we learn is briefly recorded on a temporary medium, the hippocampus. It will be during sleep when these memories are transferred to the neocortex, the storehouse of long-term memory.

This consolidation of memories occurs because our brain takes on the task of deliberately collecting those memories that could be forgotten and transports them to the final warehouse.

There is still much to discover about these mechanisms. There are clues that the brain has this work surprisingly well organized according to the type of memories. On the one hand, there is the declarative memory, for facts and data. On the other, the emotional and procedural.