http://www.sleeplearning.com/html/theory_and_practice_of_sleep_learning/what_is_sleep_learning.htm
WHAT IS SLEEP-LEARNING?Students have always pored over their books far into the night, hard-working and conscientious in their pursuit of learning.
Today it is possible to be equally conscientious without working nearly so hard. It is, in fact, possible to sleep on the subject-quite literally-and learn it faster and more thoroughly than the most determined application allowed in the past.
This new aid to education is called sleep-learning.
Sleep-learning, a very young science, is based on the receptivity of the subconscious to suggestion and instruction during the sleeping period.
Its principles were known to the ancients. In Egypt, priests recited the scriptures to sleeping novitiates in specially built slumber temples, believing that this method would hasten the learning process. In both Egypt and Greece, people brought their problems to such temples. There, priests whispered helpful suggestions in their ears while they slept. The nocturnal advice dealt with matters of health, general living and the encouragement of confidence.
In informal ways we have been applying the principle of sleep-learning all along. We often decide to "sleep on" a problem we have been unable to solve and awake with the answer.
While we are asleep, some watchful part of us prevents us from rolling out of bed, or pulls the covers up when they have slipped. Mothers who sleep through traffic noises, thunderstorms and husbands' snoring awake at the slightest sound from their babies. The subconscious functions while we sleep and it has been proven that it can be directed into channels of our choice.
In 1932, Aldous Huxley envisioned a new world in which hypnopaedia (sleep-teaching) would be used for purposes of conditioning future citizens along lines considered useful for the state, rather than for intellectual improvement. The methods Huxley described are almost identical with those now in use. He speaks of a continuous, repetitious whisper under the pillow. The degree of his prophetic talent is apparent to people familiar with sleep-learning equipment, in which a pillow-speaker is attached to a clock-controlled phonograph or tape-recorder. The speaker's volume is just loud enough to reach only the ear of the sleep-learner and the material is repeated several times during the night.
More than a quarter of a century later, in Brave New World Revisited, Huxley discussed the facts then known about hypnopaedia. He was concerned about the possibility of misuse but, at the same time, recognized that factual material was being taught successfully to sleeping people.
Responsible proponents of sleep-learning point out that the same possibility exists in many scientific fields, but that this risk should not keep us from making use of the beneficial aspects of this new technique.
The Sleep-Learning Research Association's statement of policy reads in part:
Because we have reported what some are doing in this field, in no way do we mean to imply that sleep-therapy (induced auto-suggestion by the sleep-learning method) is a substitute for medical or psychiatric treatment. Moreover, because some people are not susceptible to suggestion (science says 10% are not), we cannot specifically guarantee that your attempt in sleep-learning will be successful, should you try it. What nocturnal education will do in the future, when all its implications will be realized and exploited, we cannot yet say...
The Association further writes that it finds, despite "a certain amount of hocus pocus," it cannot scoff at the results of the do-it-yourself psychology known as sleep-therapy in view of the many letters attesting astonishing improvement.
Though there is comparatively little factual material available on the subject, research is being carried on to test the theory that one can learn while asleep. Notable among the studies whose findings have led to worldwide experimentation are the work at the University of North Carolina, the University of California, William and Mary, Parsons Training School, U.C.L.A., Georgetown University and the Institute of Logopedics.
There is considerable interest in some medical circles about the pain-reducing or pain-eliminating faculties of sleep-suggestion.
It is known that childbirth has been rendered painless this way. Indeed, in 1951, the Soviet Union passed a law making it compulsory for doctors to use this method on every mother-to-be. Although many doctors still question sleep-learning, there are a growing number who, after investigation, are beginning to apply its principles.
Psychiatrists have evinced particular interest in its potential value in therapy. A May, 1960, article in a leading New York newspaper reported on a paper presented to the Scientific Session of the American Psychiatric Association in Atlantic City by Dr. M. Ralph Kaufman, of the Mount Sinai Hospital, which stated:
"The situation at present is such that psychoanalysis that began as hypnotherapy . . . has now given us the kind of understanding of hypnotic suggestion which again makes it available as a therapeutic measure for psychotherapy."
Sleep-learning advocates claim that at least 8,000 college students supplement their daytime work with sleep-study. Testimonials from high school and college students indicate better results in examinations resulting from their use of sleep-learning techniques. Language instructors as well as their students report that this method of study speeds up the learning process considerably.
* A mid-Western lecturer states that his memorization rate increased by 75%.
* A blind student finds the technique uniquely helpful and practical.
* Parents write that young children, whose studies involve a considerable amount of rote-learning, benefit greatly.
The memory training qualities of this technique seem to be of particular value to people who must remember specialized data. Television presented to the American public a young man who learned conversational French while asleep, under controlled test conditions. After only one week of sleep-learning, he was examined by Dr. Adrian Miller, Professor of Romance Languages at U.C.L.A., on the television program, "You Asked For It." The professor's judgment was that the young man had absorbed the equivalent of a SEMESTER of classroom study.
Others report considerable help in the learning or appreciation of music. Television actors, among them Larry Blyden and Marilyn Erskine, have learned complete roles quickly with the aid of sleep-learning equipment. Chilean opera star Ramon Vinay not only quickly memorized a leading operatic role but also learned to sing it in perfect, accentless Italian. Equally successful results have been reported by people of various language backgrounds in learning English, again free from foreign accent.
At the Institute of Logopedics, in Wichita, Kansas, where experiments were conducted to find out whether nocturnal education could help cure speech defects, the results showed that students who heard a list of words while they were sleeping memorized and improved much faster than the control group which did not apply sleep-learning.
Numerous famous personalities have attested to the benefits of sleep-study. Alexander de Seversky eliminated his Russian accent. Rudy Vallee, Bing Crosby and Gloria Swanson have learned lines and lyrics in this way.
Perhaps the most impressive example of the retentive powers of the subconscious during sleep is that of Art Linkletter, radio and television star. Linkletter offered to test the theory by attempting to sleep-learn the most difficult language in the world-Mandarin Chinese. After sleep-studying for only ten nights, Linkletter invited the Vice Consul of China to his TV show, introduced him to the audience, and then proceeded to engage in a pleasant conversation with his guest in Mandarin Chinese. The Vice Consul's verdict was that Linkletter was indeed conversant in the language and would be able to travel throughout China and be understood perfectly by anyone who speaks the elegant Mandarin dialect.
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