SLEEPING AND LEARNING NEW VOCABULARY

New research claims that we are capable of learning new vocabulary when we are asleep, which is good news for people trying to learn a new language. It is also useful information for those who are trying to expand their vocabulary in their own language. Scientists from the University of Malmo in Finland have found out that we can learn new information while sleeping deeply, and then remember this information when we need it after we wake up. The scientists ran tests on whether or not a person could remember new words and their translations while they were asleep. They said our sleeping brain was a lot more aware of the outside world than we thought.

Scientist Harry Muss said, "language areas of the brain and the brain's memory centre were activated" after a person woke up. He said these areas of the brain help us to learn vocabulary during deep sleep. The researchers said that while sleeping deep, our brain cells were active for a short period of time, about a second. The cells then get into a period of inactivity again, about a second. The active period is called "up-state" and the inactive period is called "down-state." The "up-state" period is when the brain could learn new vocabulary. The scientists say a lot more research is necessary to be done to be sure that we can learn vocabulary while asleep.