Sleep and learn... a good dream

The actual times don’t make us possible to do all things that we want, so anything that makes us save money is welcome. A urban myth says that you can learn while you sleep, but is it real?. “Understanding the brain: the birth of a new learning science” by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development dedicates a chapter to dispel “neuromyths”.

One of the first researches in this ambit was carried out by Kulikov on 1968. He narrated Tolstoy histories to subjects sleeping normally. The investigation shows not difference between the memorization of sleep and awake subjects when instructions are added to the story. This studies (and others conduced in Russia and Eastern Europe) were the basis to the wide use of this, apparently, new technic of learning. Despite the results, without compromising the seriousness of the studies, it had some faults. First, the experiment were done once subject fall asleep or in the early hours, so the situation could be different if it had considered deep sleep phase; and second, the scientist used the concept “sensitive”, but they didn’t specify what really meant.

Due to poor evidence, later investigations were made in anesthetize patients, where again the results were positive. But this time, the big problem and questioning was that those were not asleep.

I think the myth have some of true. Any subject shows a real memorization of things heard when they are asleep or anesthetize, but there are evidence to claims some influence on the organism. So, maybe hear books are not useful, but relaxation programs could be a great help to stressed or sick people, for example.