Can you really get smarter in your sleep? The answer is...

[Dien Rice]

Imagine if you could effectively learn in your sleep...

You could instantly multiply your "learning capacity".

There's a friend of mine who learned how to speak the Korean language in a very short time (he's an American). He used a bit of "sleep learning"... Did it help him? I think it probably did...

He was very focused on learning Korean. He had a string of Korean girlfriends, who he persuaded to read out Korean words to him (numbers, common phrases, etc.) while he tape recorded them speaking. He would listen to these recordings as he fell to sleep.

He also got Korean movies. He'd watch them in the day, of course, but he'd also play them late at night while dozing off, so he'd also be listening while he was asleep.

At the same time, he was also taking Korean classes. However, he was a quick learner. I'm convinced his "sleep-time" activities helped him learn the language more rapidly than he would have otherwise. Nowadays, he's practically fluent in the language.

There's now evidence now that you can improve your learning while you sleep...

In one experiment, they showed pictures on a part of the computer screen, while playing an appropriate sound. (E.g. they might show a cat in the top right hand corner, while playing a "meow" sound. Then, they might show a drum in the bottom left hand corner, while playing a drumming sound.)

Then, they had participants take a nap. While they were napping, they played half of the sounds. They didn't play the other half.

They then woke them up. They found that the pictures for which they had played the sounds, the participants remembered better the location of where that picture was on the screen.

To double-check, they did the same experiment again - except this time, the participants did not sleep, but stayed awake during the second playing of half of the sounds. When participants were awake, there was no improvement.

Listening to the sounds - while they were asleep - was the key!

You can read more about these and similar experiments in the following articles...

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3...ry-study-finds

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...html?full=true

I wonder if you can use this to improve various aspects of your life? I'm now wondering if it could be a good idea to fall asleep listening to educational audio books... It couldn't hurt, I figure... I think I'll give it a try...

What do you think? Does it sound plausible, or is it just a waste of time?

Any other ideas for "sleep learning"?

- Dien