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Sleep Learning Facts

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Picture Credit: Sleestak66
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What is Sleep Learning?

It is important to distinguish sleep learning from the normal learning processes that go on during sleep. Many studies have shown that a good night's sleep assists the learning process. Sleep helps you to learn information that you have come across during the day. Some people speculate that one function of sleep is to allow the human brain to "organise" the day's memories.

Sleep learning is different. It is specifically about learning information whilst asleep rather than consolidating the day's input. Using the night time hours like this is intended to result in accelerated learning as you learn while you sleep.

One of the earliest references to sleep learning comes in Hugo Gernsback's 1911 novel Ralph 124C 41+: A Romance of the Year 2660. This describes a "Hypnobioscope" that implants electrical signals directly into the brain of the sleeper.

Most of today's methods of sleep learning involve audio tapes. These gently repeat certain information or affirmations during the course of the night. Some of these tapes contain simple statements, others include hypnotic inductions. Some tapes contain music or binaural betas, some have the information encoded subliminally.

Sleep learning can theoretically be used for anything, however the most common applications appear to be learning languages and breaking bad habits. In the latter case sleep learning is often associated with self-hypnosis.

Does Sleep Learning Work?

There is some scientific evidence to suggest that sleep learning does have an accelerated learning effect, however much of this is outdated. The curent scientific fashion seems to be to dismiss sleep learning.

Some people who have tried sleep learning, subliminal or otherwise, found no benefit. Others who have report excellent results.

Some of these differences might be due to the exact nature of the sleep learning material used - what works for one person might not work for another. Other factors might also come into play such as the stages of sleep at which the tape is played. In addition, terms such as accelerated learning and super learning are difficult to define and judge outside of scientific experiments.

Speaking personally I haven't found sleep learning to work as a replacement for ordinary learning or behaviour modification techniques. However when used alongside other methods it certainly seems improve their effectiveness and accelerate other forms of study. It's arguable that this is simply a self-fulflling prophecy: if I care enough about something to go to the effort of sleep learning then my brain is more likely to remember it. The important thing for me is the result, not the mechanism.

As with all these things, what matters is whether or not it works for you. The only way you'll know that is to try it.


IMPORTANT NOTE: This is not a medical site. You should always discuss medical matters with your doctor.



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