What people learn while sleeping

We can remember the words of a new language, if the sounds of these words are turned on during sleep.

In addition to the ability to memorize vocabulary when learning a new language, people can store memories and practice music skills while sleeping, thanks to sound effects or special smells.

Remember vocabulary

In a recent experiment, scientists asked some volunteers, who used German, to learn Dutch and start with some basic vocabulary. The new word sounds will be turned on while volunteers go to sleep, but they don't know it. Compared to people who have not heard these sounds overnight, the group that hears new words in sleep is better able to identify and translate words.

To be sure, experts set up another group, practicing the habit of listening to new words while walking. The result is almost similar to the first experiment.

According to experts, when going to sleep at night, brain activity will slow down at certain stages. During these slow-motion stages, the human brain transfers short-term memories from temporary storage to the prefrontal cortex, where they are recorded for a long time.

When researchers observed the brain activity of German-speaking volunteer groups, they found that people who heard from the night before had slow wave activity in the brain. With this characteristic, the ability to remember words and translate new words can be better.

In periods of slow motion in the brain, short-term memories will be transferred from temporary storage to the prefrontal cortex, where they are recorded for a long time.(Artwork: Flickr)

Keep memories

People can forget a great amount of information, especially dates and things that we think are not important. The brain uses a special "tagging" system, which distinguishes the difference between important and unimportant experiences. Important cards are sent straight to long-term memory, while the remaining cards are pushed back to temporary oblivion and easily swept away with new memories.

However, scientists have found that people who hear the sound associated with an unimportant memory can still keep that memory in memory.

In research, volunteers choose icons on computer screens and place them in a different location. Earlier, the computer programmed a separate sound depending on the subject. Symbolic sounds are turned on during a nap.

After waking up, this group of listeners can recall all the original objects or symbols better than others. In other words, a sound can recall many different memories.

Train music skills

The study was applied to a group of practitioners who played some guitar melodies. While sleeping, some selected people listen to the same melody they had learned before. After sleep, the requirement for them is to play these tunes again.

According to research results, those who listen to music while sleeping, even without knowing it, play the original melody more fluently than the rest.