Does listening to another language in your sleep help?

Every few weeks or so, I start planning to travel to Europe. I've never actually booked anything, but I love researching cute Airbnb places on the coast of Italy, or looking up trains that could take me from Paris to Provence. Of course, then I start adding up costs, calculating travel times, and trying to decipher brochures that are all Greek to me [literally], and I get a little discouraged. If you've always dreamed of ordering a French pastry, in French, in an actual French cafe, worry no longer. Learning a new language in your sleep is actually possible, according to a new study.

For the study, which has been published in the scientific journal Current Biology, researchers from the University of Bern in Switzerland had 41 young, German-speaking participants drift off into a midday nap. Once they were asleep, the researchers introduced new [imaginary] vocabulary words and their German "definitions." After the participants woke up, they were given a test, during which they had to match the imaginary words with their definitions. According to the study's results, the participants were able to answer the test questions more accurately than they would as a result of chance, meaning that, per the researchers' conclusion, even during sleep, your brain can absorb a pretty decent amount of new information.

In fact, another study, published in the neuroscience journal Cerebral Cortex, found that learning a language in your sleep could actually be more effective in terms of memory than learning while you're awake. During the study, 60 German students were introduced to Dutch words they didn't know. Thirty participants were told to stay awake for four hours and listen to the words, and the other 30 were allowed to fall asleep listening. The study found that those who went to sleep were, surprisingly, significantly better at remembering the Dutch words than those who had been kept awake.

If you're excited to put your brain to work while you snooze, you might want to look into getting a pink noise machine. While "pink noise" might sound extra pretty, it's really just a description of certain nature sounds. According to Berkeley Wellness, an online resource that collaborates with the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, "Pink noise is like white noise, but instead of having equal power across frequencies, pink noise comes out louder and more powerful at the lower frequencies [think of it as white noise with the bass turned up]." Common nature sounds like waves, leaves, or rain all fall under this category, per the online resource.

X-Sense Sleep Sound Machine

Amazon

But how exactly can pink noise help your brain hold onto that new list of Mandarin vocabulary words? One study, published in the psychology journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, found that listening to pink noise, specifically, was linked to improved sleep-dependent memory storage in older adults. “The effect here, at least for memory, is quite related to the ability of the sound stimulus to enhance slow-wave sleep,” the study's senior author, Dr. Phyllis Zee, professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told TIME. “That’s very much tied to what part of the slow wave the stimulus is hitting on.” In other words, something about the sound of pink noise, and the way it affects your brain waves, might help you store memories more effectively. Is your mind blown yet?

Now, I can't promise you'll suddenly wake up speaking fluent Portuguese after sleeping with a pink noise machine in your room for a few nights, but if you're curious about doing your own experiment [hey, it can't hurt], there are a number of YouTube videos designed specifically for learning a language during the night. Now I, for one, have to go nap and study for my possibly-less-hypothetical European excursions.

Sleep is a time for fantasizing. But, Can You Learn A Language In Your Sleep?

Sleepyhead, there’s good news! However, it depends on what we mean by “learning,” the answer is yes or no.

Well, the brain is a strange thing. And there is still a lot of mystery surrounding both sleep and the learning process. Despite hundreds of years of research, there are still many unanswered questions.

Learning another language is a challenging task for many of us. We’ll make slow progress unless we practice it every day and find people to practice it with.

It doesn’t matter if we can write perfectly grammatical sentences or read menus in another language. We won’t get very far if we can’t speak it or understand it when we hear it.

If you learned a second language as a child, consider yourself fortunate. For the rest of us adults, learning a new language can be challenging. Especially if we don’t have a “musical ear.”

Tonal languages, such as Vietnamese, may appear to be near-impossible. Because we are physically incapable of producing the necessary sounds. When we are young, our ability to mimic and record these new sounds is lovely.

While You Sleep, You Can Learn A Language.

So how are we supposed to overcome the challenges of learning a new language? You may be surprised to learn a language while sleeping!

You were mistaken if you believed that your brain sleeps when you sleep. During this period, the brain creates a large number of new neural connections.

Uninterrupted sleep also allows us to record this new information more optimally. The brain replays the events and learnings of the day in a process known as ‘consolidation.’

So, whatever you learned during the day, your brain will replay. And store this information while you sleep. Whether it was a dance routine, a recipe, or a new vocabulary from Spanish lessons.

1. Sleep Learning: From A Sham To A Science:

Sleep learning, also known as hypnopedia, has a long history. Rosa Heine, a German psychologist, published the first study in 1914.

She demonstrated that sleep benefits memory and learning. She discovered that learning new material in the evening before going to bed results in better recall than learning during the day.

2. Can I, However, Learn A New Language While Sleeping?

Unfortunately, it is not as simple as that. That would be incredible though. However, learning new things while sleeping would imply that no one would go to school, work, or participate in any further educational training. Why bother when they can take a nap?

Yet, while sleeping, you can improve your memory of things you’ve already learned. Because the consolidation process ensures that you remember what you discussed that day.

The brain becomes preoccupied with reactivating and replaying information from your waking hours. Thereby strengthening neural connections formed during the information acquisition/learning process.

What you learned that day becomes ingrained in your mind, and when you test yourself on that Spanish vocabulary the following day. You could be amazed as to how much you remember.

3. Why Would You Want to Learn a Language While You Sleep?

One of the best reasons to learn a language while sleeping is that you will not waste time. Even if you don’t learn anything, you’d be sleeping anyway. So you won’t have wasted any valuable time that could have been spent doing something else.

Also, it is beneficial to gain exposure to your target language. Even if you don’t learn anything in your sleep, you might wake up for a few minutes in the middle of the night. And make the most of the opportunity to expand your vocabulary or improve your pronunciation.

4. The Influence Of A “Power Nap” On Language Development:

There’s a reason it’s so effective! This is due to the same consolidation process that occurs during your nightly slumber.

Indeed, according to one study on word learning and napping. Encouraged children who sleep immediately after hearing new words performed better in school. Compared to other kids who stayed awake.

So, after you’ve finished those language books, perhaps you should take a nap. Not only do you deserve a break, but it will also help you retain what you’ve just learned. That is some powerful stuff.

5. Perform The Following Tasks:

While awake, listen to an audio recording of new words.

Replay the same recording while sleeping, setting it to run for the first two to three hours of sleep.

Test yourself when you wake up.

Do this for a few weeks before your summer vacation, every night. And you’ll find yourself impressing the locals with your fluency!

A] Sleep Is Essential:

We’ve seen how sleep can help us learn new skills. Such as increasing our knowledge and memory of a second language. However, many of us are unaware that sleep has many other practical uses in our lives. Fortunately, experts can tell us how important sleep is and how to get more of it.

Sleep boosts your immune system, aids weight loss, and makes you a more positive, tolerant person. And that is only the tip of the iceberg.

Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, puts people at risk of a lot of medical risks. It is varying from diabetes to heart disease, anxiety to full-blown depression.

So getting a good night’s sleep is essential not only for self-improvement but also for survival needs.

B] What Can You Do To Take A Healthier Night’s Rest?

According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults should get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, while children need more.

If that seems impossible, perhaps you have some terrible pre-bedtime habits that you need to break.

Caffeine intake should be reduced. If you must have a cup of coffee, do so before 2 p.m. Caffeine can linger in your bloodstream for up to 6 hours. Being buzzed when you should be winding down is not ideal.

Turn off screens. Turn off your TV, laptop, and even your phone 30 minutes before bedtime. So that the blue light they release does not overstimulate your mind and keep you awake.

Make time for yourself. Then just staying up until the early hours, take some time to relax before bedtime.

Take a bath, read a book, meditate. Whatever you need to do to help your body and mind slow down.

Sleep your way to a more knowledgeable life!

Final Words:

As previously stated, this is not entirely correct. Sleep, on the other hand, can help you remember what you’ve learned! So, whether you’d like to learn a new language or live a healthier, more restful life, better sleep can help you get there.

There is an adage that we can solve problems more effectively if we “sleep on it.” It might be especially true when learning a new language.

On our website, you can find out more about language learning.