Learning vocabulary while you sleep?

You certainly know that: If you've had a night with little sleep, you're useless the next day and can barely concentrate. Good sleep is important for physical health and mental performance. Auch When learning vocabulary Sleep plays an important role.

A better memory with deep sleep

Sleep is a fundamental part of life and helps Relaxation and regeneration of the body. While we sleep, we go through various phases, each of which has different functions. In particular, deep sleep phases and so-called REM sleep are important for processing information.

When you sleep, you remember vocabulary better

Many studies show that sleep makes positive influence on vocabulary learning has. Researchers had participants in a study learn a list of words and then tested them on how well they had memorized them. Half of the participants were allowed to sleep between the two learning phases, but the other half was not. When tested again the next day, those who had slept fared significantly better than those who had stayed awake.

💡 One possible explanation for this effect is that during sleep, the brain processes and consolidates new information from short-term memory. During deep sleep, neural connections in the brain are strengthened and new information in long-term memory transferred.

Can you learn vocabulary while you sleep?

Record a vocabulary list and Play while you sleep - and the next morning, all the words are in my head. Sounds too good to be true!

There are studies that show that when learning vocabulary, it is actually possible positive effects from this learning method to draw. In one, for example, the test subjects were played with pairs of words from a fantasy language during the deep sleep phase. After waking up, the knowledge was tested. Although the participants were able to Don't actively remember the words, but were able to determine for the most part whether the words referred to, such as “cork” or “house”, were larger or smaller than a shoe box. The acquired knowledge was therefore partly in the subconscious saved.

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Unfortunately, this has hardly any advantages for you when it comes to learning vocabulary. In laboratory conditions, the research team knew exactly when the deep sleep phases took place. Effectiveness also depends heavily on the type of learning content and individual sleep quality.

💡 It is certainly possible that playing vocabulary while sleeping can help them to better in memory fix. However, this method is no substitute for active learning. It's still the most effective vocabulary to learn consciously and to practice actively.

The good news: With a restful night's sleep, you can still make a difference!

Tips for a good night's sleep

In order to benefit from the positive effects, you should of course start enough sleep Get and get a regular sleep routine establish. Here are a few tips that can help you do just that:

1. A comfortable place to sleep

Create a relaxing sleeping environment: Make sure your bedroom is quiet, dark, and cool to encourage a good night's sleep. Are you comfortable in your bed? Perhaps you can also design it in such a way that it is even more comfortable: How about fairy lights and cloths that are stretched over it?

A rather cool temperature can help you fall asleep as our body has a lower temperature needed to initiate and maintain sleep. A room temperature of between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius is recommended.

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2. Displays off!

Avoid electronic devices before bed: The light from cell phones, tablets and TVs makes it difficult to fall asleep and disrupts the sleep cycle as they emit blue light with short, high-energy wavelengths. As a result, the production of the sleep hormone melatonin is inhibited, which causes difficulty falling asleep and leads to reduced sleep quality leads.

3. Find your personal sleep routine

One regular sleep routine contributes to the body focusing on Sleep prepared and get used to a natural sleep pattern. Set a time to start your routine. You could dim the lights, turn on a string of lights, pursue a relaxing hobby such as reading or drawing, and listen to relaxing music. If you do this every day, your body remembers that you're getting ready for bed. This will make it easier for you to fall asleep afterwards.

4. Shorten your bedtime

Don't worry, that doesn't mean that you should sleep less from now on. Rather, this is an important trick so that your body from now on bed with sleeping connects. Because we often do a lot of other things in bed: playing on the mobile phone, reading, brooding,... Get used to the bed Just for sleeping to use and move everything else somewhere else.

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5. Plan your study times

Plan your study time so that you enough time for adequate sleep You have. Especially if you're studying for a test, you should keep this in mind. Overstudying late into the night can lead to a lack of sleep and impair your ability to learn. Because unfortunately, it doesn't make much sense if you learn a lot and sleep little afterwards, because then less learning content is transferred to your long-term memory.

6. Bad sleep all the time? Please help!

If you constantly suffer from poor sleep and wake up exhausted all the time There could also be more behind it. In this case, it is good if you Seek help and you discuss the topic with someone you know, whether it's your parents, the psychological specialist at your school, or your circle of friends.