Sleep anciently attributed a variety of properties: from quite ordinary functions to a magical holiday and even describe the fact that during sleep the soul leaves the body. But one of the most common modern belief is, perhaps, that in the dream, you can learn vast amounts of information. And here, according to the journal Nature Communications, a group of French scientists managed to obtain evidence of the veracity of this theory.
Physiologists distinguish two phases of sleep: REM sleep and slow. Almost immediately after falling asleep, there comes a phase of slow sleep, during which the body gradually “turned off” and regain strength. Then comes the phase of REM sleep, when the brain aktiviziruyutsya, and the muscular system, in contrast, becomes active. In this moment there is a chaotic movement of the eyes and active brain.
Many neuroscientists think that the perception of signals from the outside world would interfere with memory consolidation, so the brain will actively suppress them, making “internal” memories (i.e., dreams) are more striking and to ignore information from external sources.
A group of scientists from France decided to see whether the brain perceives information during sleep. In the experiment, some volunteers spent the night in the lab. Participants experience during sleep include special audio, which is a white noise with the “hidden” sequence of sounds. People had to memorize these sounds and name them after waking up. In the waking state this job for almost anyone, however, most successful solution requires a few listenings sounds.
The researchers decided to test whether people recognize this combination sounds faster, if it is played in a dream. The volunteers were divided into several groups, and they were connected to electroencephalographs.
In the end, the people listening to these sounds during slow-wave sleep several times quickly determined the sequence of sounds than they have ever done it to those who did not listen in dreams. But playing a recording during REM sleep impairs the memory process. These results suggest that the individual is not “disabled” from the external world during sleep and continues to perceive and remember information. As one of the study’s authors, Thomas Andrillon from the University of Pierre and Marie Curie,
“The question whether a sleeping person to remember new information excites the minds of scientists for decades. We were able to show that unconscious, hidden memories can be formed during sleep, but only during REM sleep and the transition between fast and slow sleep. The same stimulation in a phase of slow sleep, on the contrary, leads to the opposite effects.”
Based on materials of RIA “news”
People can learn new information during sleep
Vladimir Kuznetsov