Can You Learn in Your Sleep?

Check out this answer from Consensus:

Research indicates that while explicit, conscious learning during sleep remains largely unsupported, the brain can indeed form implicit memories and associations during sleep. These sleep-formed memories can influence behavior without conscious awareness. Deep sleep plays a critical role in maintaining learning efficiency, but the acquisition of complex new information during sleep is still a dream rather than a reality.

The concept of learning during sleep has intrigued scientists and the general public alike. Recent research has explored whether the brain can acquire new information or strengthen existing memories during sleep, leading to a variety of findings.

Key Insights

• Implicit Learning During Sleep:
  • Learning during sleep can influence awake behavior implicitly, but the memory traces formed are not consciously accessible when awake1 2 6.
  • Humans can form new associations between stimuli (e.g., tones and odors) during sleep, which can affect behavior both during sleep and after waking, without conscious awareness of the learning process2 6.
• Vocabulary and Associative Learning:
  • Implicit vocabulary learning can occur during deep sleep, particularly when word pairs are presented at peaks of slow-wave sleep, leading to unconscious relational word encoding supported by the hippocampus3 7 10.
  • Sleep-formed associations can translate into awake behavior, guiding implicit memory tests and showing brain activation patterns similar to those seen during awake learning7 10.
• Role of Deep Sleep in Learning Efficiency:
  • Deep sleep is crucial for maintaining the brain’s capacity to learn efficiently, particularly in regions heavily activated during the day. Perturbing deep sleep can attenuate this restorative process4.
• Challenges and Limitations:
  • While sleep can stabilize and strengthen recent memories, the ability to learn complex new information (e.g., languages, facts) during sleep remains unsupported by conclusive evidence5 8 9.
  • The effectiveness of sleep learning is heavily dependent on the timing and nature of the stimuli presented during sleep3 9.

Can you learn in your sleep?

Itamar Lerner has answered Likely

An expert from University of Texas at San Antonio in Neuroscience, Sleep Research

Probably yes. While past aspirations for finding ways to learn complex new information (e.g., learning a new language) during sleep have turned out to be naive or unrealistic, simple strengthening and reorganization of previously learned materials may be possible.

A new technique developed over the last decade, Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR), involves having subjects learn new materials to memorize, or perform a certain task, while at the same time being exposed to some unrelated external stimulation (auditory tones, odors, or even small electric currents induced to the scalp). This concurrent presentation supposedly creates associations between the task being learned and the unrelated stimulations. During a following sleep period, the same external stimulations are applied again, at specific times during the sleep cycle.

Evidence from animal research suggests that these repeated presentations reactivate memories related to the learned task, leading to their strengthening. The following morning, subjects who receive such targeted stimulations show improved memory for the learned materials, or better performance in the learned task, compared to subjects that receive sham stimulations (For a recent review, see Cellini & Capuozzo, 2018)

Can you learn in your sleep?

Laura Ward has answered Unlikely

An expert from University of Glasgow in Psychology, Public Health

No, our bodies need sleep to rest, recover/ regenerate and for children, to grow. Our brains are busy all of the time, with many structures within our brain never ‘asleep’ per se. However, for us to learn we need consciousness and a clear focused effort. Our circadian rhythm can dictate our brain activity and although we may always have a ‘resting state’ connectivity between neural networks ‘talking’ to one another, it is unrealistic to expect a formal qualification of learning whilst unconscious and resting.

Can you learn in your sleep?

Dan Isbell has answered Unlikely

An expert from University of Hawaii at Manoa in Linguistics

As far as I am aware, you cannot learn in your sleep. However, sleep may facilitate learning – it is thought that sleep aids the consolidation of recent experiences/recently acquired knowledge in long-term memory.

Can you learn in your sleep?

Edith Kaan has answered Likely

An expert from University of Florida in Language Studies

This question has two aspects: (1) can sleep help learning? And (2) can materials (e.g. words) presented during sleep be learned?  As for (1): sleep is essential for learning! Many studies have shown better memory and generalization of learned materials after a period of sleep. This has been explained by sleep enhancing the consolidation of the materials in memory. Learning of materials can in some cases be improved if you present people in their sleep with sounds or smells that were also presented while they were learning the materials earlier while awake (Targeted Memory Reactivation). The explanation is that the associated sounds or smells presented during sleep help reactivate and further consolidate the material.  As for (2): A few studies have indeed found that people can learn new materials that were presented to them while they were asleep. As of now, it has only been shown that very basic associations (e.g. a particular tone paired with a particular odor) can be learned in this way, and that learning depends on how you synchronize the presentation of the materials with the timing of certain brain waves (e.g. Züst et al. Current Biology, 2019). It is still unclear whether e.g. a large vocabulary can be learned in this way, or whether this is even practical! 

Can you learn in your sleep?

Ayşenur Sağdıç  has answered Uncertain

An expert from Georgetown University in Linguistics

Learning is operationalized in various ways across studies that examine the role of sleep in learning, so it is important to define what “learning” refers to in order to be able to answer the question scientifically. There are indeed studies suggesting that sleep can help humans consolidate memory, information or improve performance of a task or a particular skill (Schreiner & Rasch, 2017; Walker et al., 2002). However, sleep alone is unlikely to directly lead to learning. Additionally, there are different types of sleep (e.g., REM sleep) that will ultimately moderate the learning outcomes being investigated.

Can you learn in your sleep?

Michael Thomas has answered Likely

An expert from Birkbeck, University of London in Psychology, Cognitive Science, Intelligence

Sleep is one component of learning. The educational notion of ‘learning’ encompases multiple different systems in the brain responsible for changing future behaviour as a consequence of experience. There are, perhaps, 8 different systems for learning in the brain (http://howthebrainworks.science/how_the_brain_works_/learning_remembering_forgetting/). Sleep has a dual role: restorative (refreshing the brain, clearing away waste products of the day’s neural activity, as well as repairing the body) and consolidation of the day’s learning. Consolidation involves strengthening the brain connections in the cortex of knowledge or skills learning in the day, and also transferring information from a structure called the hippocampus, which stores episodic or autobiographical ‘snapshot’ memories during the day, to the cortex, which stores conceptual knowledge. However, this ‘consolidation’ process generally involves taking the brain off-line (it’s active, but not controlling the body), so you couldn’t view the brain as an effective ‘classroom learner’ while it’s asleep. There’s no point running podcasts in the background while you get your 8 hours! (some more on sleep: http://howthebrainworks.science/how_the_brain_works_/sleepy_yet/)

Can you learn in your sleep?

Yousef Khalifa Aleghfeli has answered Likely

An expert from Oxford University in Education

Yes. There are extensive studies that show that sleep is crucial for learning and cognitive development. For example, sleep is very positive for memory retention. That is why a good night’s sleep is often recommended prior to performing an examination. Dreams also play an important role in human consciousness, with various philosophical texts expounding on the role of dreams in inspiring a broader understanding of personal experience and personal consciousness.