Sleep learning or “hypnopaedia” (from the Greek hypnos (sleep) and paideia (learning)) came to us from Ancient India, where it was practiced by yogis and Buddhist monks. The essence of the technique was to listen to a voice during sleep, which immersed a person in the light phase of natural sleep.

The effectiveness of hypnopedia directly depended on the individual, personal factors, age, intellectual development and level of preparedness. Talk about implementation this method to the masses - it’s difficult. It looks more like a dietary supplement than magic pill to study English language.

What do the authors base their hypotheses on?

It all started in the 19th-20th centuries with such famous personalities, as Svyadoshch A.M. and Bliznichenko K.V. It was their works that served as the foundation for modern authors. At the heart of most more or less well-developed techniques, sleep phases play a key role. We have two of them: phase REM sleep, where information is received or recalled (4-5 times per night) and the phase slow sleep where information is processed and assimilated. In these phases, declarative and semantic memory comes into play. The first stores data, and the second systematizes it.

Experiment results from Mosalingua

The Mosalingua experiment was conducted over 14 days among men and women of different age groups. Let me immediately note that these are the test results of their application for learning English in your sleep. So we will rely on their honesty and openness of data. I’ll just give an excerpt from the infographic.

I will also note a couple more interesting observations revealed during the experiment. Men were more susceptible to remembering information during sleep than women (75% versus 60%). The ratio of women and men was almost equal. The group aged 18-30 showed the greatest effectiveness (80% began to remember words and phrases better). The results themselves turned out to be quite predictable. I'll translate it literally:

Nothing will replace active learning during waking hours, because memorizing new words and phrases in a foreign language requires extreme attention and concentration. However, for many people, repeating a previously learned word or phrase in a dream helps them remember it more effectively.

What is usually suggested to be studied

Modern methods are offered for night study: words, phrases, cliches, small dialogues in different topics and even reading rules, which should be reproduced at a calm, moderate pace. The authors do not recommend giving a large amount of information due to the heavy load on the brain, due to which the student usually becomes overtired and lacks sleep.

Typical algorithms for memorizing in sleep

Most techniques include 4 basic steps that allow you to “effectively” learn English in your sleep. Usually the student needs:

1. Listen to an audio recording where words or expressions are pronounced with translation. Write them down on a piece of paper english words and expressions that sounded in the recording, but without translation.
2. Before you go to the side, you need to listen to the recording several times. The first few hours of our sleep are the times when we usually don't dream and the brain is at rest. He is not able to learn new things, only to react to what he has already heard or felt somewhere.
3. After listening to new material several times, the recording is turned off. The student then tries to relax and fall asleep. After which the recording starts again, but on constant repeat.
4. Having woken up, the student tries to remember and translate words and expressions on paper on his own.

Bliznichenko's technique

Now compare the typical approach described above with Bliznichenko’s technique. There is a difference, of course, but there is no talk of any pure study in a dream:

1. The required material is read, then listened to on the radio, and repeated loudly by the student after the announcer; All activities are accompanied by soothing music.
2. After a quarter of an hour, you should turn off the lights and go to bed. At this time, the announcer continues to read the text, repeating the spoken phrases three times; The voice gradually becomes quieter, becoming barely audible.
3. In the morning, the announcer reads the text again, but with increasing sound; music wakes up the sleeping, this is followed by control test to check the learned material.

How our brain works during the day

Having woken up in the morning and gained strength, we begin to receive new information, perceive it with interest, remember it, make our own conclusions and research. It is in the morning that our brain is most ready to work, learn new things, understand, perceive and react.

The afternoon is a time of rest when we should give ourselves a little break. After lunch, we return to our business, our brain gets back to work, but now it wants to change its type of activity and do things we already know, to process the information already received.

Evening is time that we can devote to ourselves, our hobbies, spiritual development, family, entertainment. From 22.00 to 02.00 our nervous system rests, the so-called “golden hours of sleep” come. From 02:00 we begin to dream, and our brain begins to work actively again. In a dream we can see our fears, experiences, dreams, events. It can come to us in a dream right decision, which did not cross our minds daytime.

Anyone can learn to train their brain, adjust it to their convenient schedule. Important condition- this is not only to load our brain, but also to allow it to rest. Some useful reading on this topic:

• “The work of the brain: strengthening and activation, or how to stay sane” - Gennady Kibardin.
• "Lectures on work cerebral hemispheres brain" - Pavlov I. P.
• “How the Brain Works” - Steven Pinker.

So is sleep learning even possible?

Yes and no. In a dream, you consolidate and assimilate previously received information. New information needs to be received while awake, because as the Mosalingua experiment showed, only 28% had positive results in learning new words in a dream. Do not be fooled by slogans that you can learn English in your sleep by devoting 5 minutes a day to it for a month. It doesn't work. Approach the learning process consciously and use sleep for its intended purpose.

S. A. Matveev, the author of revolutionary methods for mastering foreign languages, offers a new book on learning English in a dream.
New effective technique consists of studying information before bed that is subject to solid memorization.
It is recommended to read two pages of the tutorial every evening (spread) and then fall asleep. Information intended for memorization will be assimilated in various stages sleep.
The book is intended for everyone who is looking for new ways to learn English.

Pronunciation of the letter e.
open syllable
pronounced [I:]: he [HI:] - he is a closed syllable
pronounced [E]: net [NET] - net before r
pronounced [Yo:]: herd [HYO:D] - herd
in an unstressed position before r (often at the end of a word)
pronounced [E]: player [PLAYE] - player
combination ea
pronounced [I:]: sea [SI:] - sea combination of it
pronounced [I:]: see [SI:] - to see.

Free download e-book in a convenient format, watch and read:
Download the book Learning English in your sleep in 30 nights, Matveev S.A., 2016 - fileskachat.com, fast and free download.

• I will help you learn English, Self-instruction manual, Matveev S.A., 2016 - The purpose of the manual is to help everyone who wants to learn English on their own. The author’s effective methodology allows you to quickly master the structure of an English sentence... Books on English
• The newest self-instruction manual for the English language, Matveev S.A., 2015 - The newest self-instruction manual for the English language was written by the popular author S.A. Matveev, whose books are in demand among readers. This guide allows you to master English... Books on English
• English aphorisms, Matveev S.A., 2012 - This book contains the most successful and interesting from a linguistic point of view English aphorisms, who have absorbed experience, knowledge, wit and amazing... Books on English
• A new English course for those who value their time, Matveev S.A., 2014 - If you spend a lot of time on the road, this book is just for you. The author's unique method of learning English is... Books on English

The following textbooks and books:

• English without problems, Trofimenko T.G., 2016 - Have you ever thought that it would be nice to know English? Have you started several times but given up without achieving virtually any results? ... Books on English
• 5 steps to fluent English, Chernikhovskaya N.O., 2015 - Each section of the book is devoted to one of the ways to make the language richer and more imaginative. Here you will find detailed story about the features of use... Books on English
• English language, grade 10, Basic level, Workbook, Verbitskaya M.V., White L., Fricker R., 2015 - Workbook is part of the Forward educational and methodological set for grade 10 and complements the textbook with a system of tasks that provide integrated development skills... Books on English
• Russian Language in 25 lessons, Belyaev A., 2016 - The course of Russian language in 25 lessons is sustainable for anyone who wants to learn Russian language, who already … Books on English

You first read the article that I just discovered on the Internet, and at the end I will comment on the sleep training method itself.

***
For several decades now, science has been arguing about whether it is possible sleep training. The hero of Yevgeny Leonov from the popular Soviet comedy " Big change“It is in a dream that one learns history, although one only remembers the detective story broadcast on the radio.

The possibility of obtaining knowledge in a state of sleep by science has been either confirmed or refuted, and now scientists from the University of Cambridge in once again it was confirmed.

During experiments, they proved that the process of automatic sorting and processing of information by the brain continues during sleep. According to the researchers, this proves why people wake up to the sound of an alarm clock, but can continue to sleep when a thunderstorm is raging outside the window and thunder is rumbling. The brain remains in working order even in sleep; it receives signals from the outside world and processes them.

These signals can also be information necessary for a person for learning, that is, for example, reading any textbooks or studying foreign languages.

Opponents of this theory sleep learning believed that at night the brain falls into a special “relaxed” state, in which the process of obtaining information, and therefore learning, is impossible.

In the near future, the same group of scientists is going to develop the obtained data and find out the most effective way sleep learning. Then many millions of students around the world will have a great way to prepare for their sessions.

Now let's figure it out, slowly. I'm sure you noticed the phrase "British scientists". Yeah, I didn't like it either because it's a popular internet meme. Usually the so-called “British scientists” are cited when the article is fake.

However, I am inclined to believe, albeit with some reservations, and here’s why. A long time ago I tried to learn a language at night, using a tape recorder and a complex, homemade system for turning it on at night.

The result was disastrous. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, the engine began to run loudly, the tape recorder began to play, I instantly woke up and... nothing good came of it.

But now there are a lot of MP3 players that are silent when operating, with which you can simply fall asleep. There are even special speakers for pillows, you can try it too.

In addition, there is another interesting and similar option. Learn a language not IN YOUR SLEEP, but BEFORE BEDTIME. This system even works very well. That’s what I do, I tell you in detail.

There is such a simple one computer program Anki, I already talked about it here: . Only there I wrote that I didn’t particularly experience it. Already tried it.

In short, the program works, and is very good. Just be careful about the downloadable sets. I recommend the 4000 Essential English Words series. There are several volumes, start from the very first. Well, take a look, maybe there’s something else you’ll like.

I will also warn you that you should not set synchronization in the program. This is still hemorrhoids. After a couple of such synchronizations, I had to completely remove Anki and install it again.

So, I teach the first lesson in the morning, while my head is fresh. And before going to bed I turn it on repeat. And once again I study the words I have learned. And when I fall asleep, my head is full of English words.

In the old days, some English learners believed that by listening to a recording of a foreign language on repeat while they slept, they could wake up speaking it.

Of course, this theory has long been debunked, but the evidence that sleep is closely linked to learning is still strong. You won't be able to master it by playing English songs on your iPod all night long, but there are others great ways to enrich your language learning using good old fashioned sleep time!

HOW does sleep help?

Let's move on to real facts, exactly how sleep is beneficial for learning. Research shows sleep improves mental abilities, allowing you to save new information with much greater ease. Believe it or not, even a 90-minute nap can do wonders for your brain, allowing you to consolidate new vocabulary and grammar knowledge. The more you sleep, the more your mental power is recharged, allowing you to polish your language skills while you sleep soundly.

WHERE is the evidence?

Experts within many years are trying to unravel the mysteries of the brain, and they have succeeded in finding a connection between the types of training you use and your sleep. Research suggests that sleep will not have much effect on the strength of semantic learning. In other words, concepts that you have already mastered well will not be further reinforced through sleep. However, taking a short nap can do wonders for brand new data. So next time, after covering a massive list of new words and learning it, it would be a good idea to get some sleep.

WHEN is this beneficial?

Comprehensive research on sleep and language was done relatively recently when scientists looked at the benefits of learning just before bed. In the experiment, two groups of people were given a list of words to learn. After studying the list, one group was allowed to sleep while the second group stayed awake. The word list was played to both groups, and when they were later debriefed, the researchers found that the group that listened to the information while in deep sleep without dreams, remembers information significantly better than someone who was simply awake.

WHAT can you do?

Obviously, you're unlikely to find someone to play you a list of words every night while you sleep, but there are activities you can easily provide to make sure you get the most out of your learning. By reviewing flashcards or learning new words right before you turn out the lights, you'll literally teach yourself to learn in your sleep. You can also take the 45-minute ones to really strengthen your language skills before you start your sleepy fest.

While you are awake, you need to consolidate your experience - be sure to register for programs designed to suit your schedule and level. You no longer have to feel guilty about wasting time on sleep; Now you can shrug off this feeling, because sleep is an essential part of optimal English learning!

Anna, for me this question is completely “non-childish”, but on the contrary, it is one of the most interesting in my professional field. I will try to separate some mystical and esoteric husk from the experience that is available to me personally or to my clients and is quite explainable with scientific point vision. Of course, I would like to invite to the post those who deal with sleep professionally: neurophysiologists, psychiatrists, for example. It will be very interesting what they will say.

I personally don’t know of cases where a person learned a language solely by, for example, listening to speech while sleeping at night. Moreover: I would like to warn you against any lengthy experiments on yourself in this direction. The fact is that night sleep has a main function, and it is not at all to provide you with a period when you snore in headphones listening to the BBC or television series :-) By experimenting on yourself in this way, you risk depriving yourself of the effect that gives the person healthy sleep. At a minimum, you will get worse sleep and not feel rested in the morning.

But the interesting thing here is that sleep, as far as I know, is not just one state, but a combination different phenomena. First, there are different stages of sleep. A well-known stage of sleep is called REM (rapid eye movement). During this stage, which repeats every one and a half to two hours, our brain demonstrates elevated levels activity and you see dreams, which you can then remember or forget. Among other things, during these periods the processing and systematization of information that the brain previously received while awake occurs. And in a sense, if you study foreign languages ​​during the day, you _already_ inevitably study them at night. And you don’t need to do anything additional for this.

All my clients, who allowed themselves to immerse themselves in the language quite intensively and studied it for some time, sooner or later went through a situation when they began to have dreams in English. For me it's always indirect sign that we have achieved certain successes, that the client is on the verge of another large-scale leap in development, and that the client’s interlanguage (= the language that the client has in his head) is now actively transforming. According to my observations, around this time the grammatical structure of speech changes sharply, the intonation pattern approaches the speech of native speakers, pronunciation improves, and speech becomes more expressive.

This is about night sleep. But what about those states that are halfway between sleep and wakefulness? After all, each of us has experienced a state when attention wanders, when you listen to a lecture, and your hand automatically draws scribbles in the margins of a notebook, pre-sleep states or states immediately after waking up, trance of varying depths, states of meditative contemplation, etc.? It seems to me that this area has enormous potential for creating new, more effective forms and teaching techniques, including language teaching. I’m not the only one who thinks so, but so far the attempts have been quite primitive and, as they say, frontal. Everyone knows the 25th frame, many are familiar with Lozanov’s suggestopedia technique (). The thing is that these techniques work quite selectively and unstable. But this does not mean at all that you should stop trying! On the contrary, I am sure that already in this century we will see new techniques that will be much more advanced than the same Suggestopedia.

Some people listen before bed. Check what works for you, experiment with at different times days. Just don't leave your headphones on overnight.

And lastly, the most important.

The reason why many people ask the question about sleep learning is that until now, the ways in which people have tried to learn a language have been associated with a significant degree of discomfort. Hence the desire to make it “learn itself.” This is normal: if you always force, force, force yourself to study, most likely you will break sooner or later, i.e. nothing will come of it. And the task, of course, is that you don’t have to be forced. If you succeed, there will come a time when you will not have time to do other things, be late for meetings, etc., while studying the language spontaneously, in free time and without coercion. And for this it is absolutely not necessary to turn off consciousness and “pass out.” It is enough to organize the process competently :-)

Knowledge that has not been used for a long time is erased a little every night, and new ones move into long-term memory or are deleted, especially if they are in no way connected with what already exists. Therefore, in order to really learn a foreign language, you need to read or speak at least a little every day, otherwise new words will be thrown into the trash every night.

The value of knowledge for the brain also increases if it is repeated often: this serves as a signal that the information is important and not random. Finally, memorization is facilitated by... extraneous signals that accompanied the receipt of information. The brain, through associations and psychology, connects new data with emotions, sounds and even smells, and when the situation resembles what it was when this knowledge appeared, it easily pulls it out.

When the brain is preoccupied with creating memories, the mind becomes completely disconnected from reality. But the senses remain connected to the more ancient parts of the brain - they remain alert during sleep and allow us to wake up in response to external influences.

This is exactly what Susanne Diekelmann and her colleagues at the University of Tübingen in Germany tried to do in 2010. In the experiment, people were asked to remember the location of objects on a field, while some of the volunteers sat in a room where there was a light but noticeable artificial smell.

Having completed the task, the participants went to bed, and those who sat in the fragrant room were given the same smell. As a result, these subjects remembered 23 percent in the morning more items. Functional MRI showed that during sleep, their hippocampus, which is responsible for the formation of long-term memory, interacted more actively with the visual areas of the cortex.

This discovery points in the direction in which to train the brain to better remember what it has learned during the day. Of course, it is unlikely that you will be able to learn English from scratch this way, but it will certainly be great to speed up its acquisition without additional effort.