Learning language while you sleep

[waterdreamer]

Has anyone tried those learn languages while you sleep with you or your child? I'm interested if they really work, and if they would be a good why to expose my son to different languages.
We do Learn French in your car together right now, but I'm not in the car as often, so I'm looking for other ways.

[Niniedney]

I would also love to hear more about this!!

[NewWorld2011]

I´m not sure if it would be risked for babies, cause they need to sleep deeply and with nothing that disturb them. Has anybody read about this way of learning specifically for babies?

[waterdreamer]

I found this article http://www.sleeplearning.com/html/latest_research.htm
Students should be jealous - not only do babies get to doze their days away, but they have also mastered the art of learning in their sleep.

By the time babies are a year old they can recognise a lot of sounds and even simple words. Marie Cheour at the University of Turku in Finland suspected they might progress this fast because they learn language while they sleep as well as when they are awake.

To test the theory, Cheour and her colleagues studied 45 newborn babies in the first few days of their lives. They exposed all the infants to an hour of Finnish vowel sounds - one that sounds like "oo", another like "ee", and a third boundary vowel peculiar to Finnish and similar languages that sounds like something in between. EEG recordings of the infants brains before and after the session showed that the newborns could not distinguish between the sounds.

Fifteen of the babies then went back with their mothers, while the rest were split into two sleep-study groups. One group was exposed throughout their night-time sleeping hours to the same three vowels, while the others listened to other, easier-to-distinguish vowel sounds.

Brainwave

When tested in the morning, and again in the evening, the babies who had heard the tricky boundary vowel all night showed brainwave activity indicating that they could now recognise this new sound. They could identify the sound even when its pitch was changed, while none of the other babies could pick out the boundary vowel at all.

Cheour doesn't know how babies accomplish this night-time learning, but she suspects that the special ability might indicate that unlike adults, babies don't "turn off" their cerebral cortex while they sleep. The skill probably fades in the course of the first year of life, she adds - so forget the idea that you can pick up tricky French vowels as an adult just by slipping a language tape under your pillow.

But while it may not help grown-ups, Cheour is hoping to use the sleeping hours to give remedial help to babies who are genetically at risk of language disorders.

Journal reference: Nature (vol 415, p 599) Alison Motluk

[tatianna]

that's really cool karma to you for the post
i would love to learn more about this

[Niniedney]

Since we are on the subject of learning while you sleep. My husband and I were talkng the other day. I tried to do the doman math dots with my oldest daughter, but it was too late. She will be 3 in august. So I have been doing other simple math games and activities with her. And my husband remembers memorizing a times table chart when he was a kid. And he asked if it would be crazy to record myself listing the times tables and playing it while my daughter is asleep. Is this crazy? Would that be pushing too much? We are still only working on adding and subtracting. I've talked to her about multiplication, division, fractions and other things. But she is not ready yet to do the calculations. What do y'all think?

[Maquenzie]

Since we are on the subject of learning while you sleep. My husband and I were talkng the other day. I tried to do the doman math dots with my oldest daughter, but it was too late. She will be 3 in august. So I have been doing other simple math games and activities with her. And my husband remembers memorizing a times table chart when he was a kid. And he asked if it would be crazy to record myself listing the times tables and playing it while my daughter is asleep. Is this crazy? Would that be pushing too much? We are still only working on adding and subtracting. I've talked to her about multiplication, division, fractions and other things. But she is not ready yet to do the calculations. What do y'all think?

I read in another post about playing musical learning CDs while the child is going to sleep/in a light sleep. 

My oldest (4) is still pretty clingy at night and cuddles to sleep.  I decided to try an informal "study".  I counted to 200 (still learning to get over the 40, 50, 60, etc. humps....we did no infant education with our oldest either), and then I started to add and subtract.  My oldest is interested in these topics during the day.

Anyhow, the first thing my child said to me this morning was several math facts not previously memorized. 

I know I sometimes dream about what I last heard.  I don't plan to take it any further than that, I really want to ensure good rest.  But this was simple and free and I think I'll keep doing it.

[TmS]

There was a very interesting study done recently - Sorry to say that with everything I've been reading I can't remember where I came across it - the study involved memory.

Basically as we all know if a memory is reactivated it is stronger. It is also known that adding another sensory element to the memory strengthens said memory.

In this study an odour was added to the memory. Some of the subjects had the memory reactivated (through the odor) during sleep and others had it reactivated (also through the odor only) when awake and others did not have it reactivated.

Those who had the memory reactivated during sleep had stronger and more accurate recall than those who had it activated while awake possibly due to the fact that while awake when the memory was reactivated there was new stimulation creating a new memory instead of merely strengthening the first. Those who did not have it reactivated showed stronger recall than those who had it reactivated while awake but still less than those who had it reactivated while sleeping.

When you consider what is capable through  hypnosis (I was tour manager for Peter Powers the hypnotist a few years back and it truly amazing to watch) it's not surprising what can be achieved through REM

[momtobaby]

The science of 'sleep teaching' is called hypnopaedia. According to a book called '12 steps to a better memory'  " While it is popularly believed that a person can learn and remember while sleeping, in fact research has shown that learning does not take place while you are sound asleep...However, there is some evidence suggesting that you can learn while you are very drowsy, or even in a very light sleep. The material must be presented at just the right time; if you are not sleepy enough, the material will wake you up, and if you're too deeply asleep, the materials won't make an impression at all. In addition, complex material involving reasoning or understanding can't be learned while in a drowsy state."

[momtobaby]

There is an interesting article I came across on teaching languages while asleep :

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,855919,00.html

[KL]

Very interesting articles and info - thanks for posting!

The science of 'sleep teaching' is called hypnopaedia. According to a book called '12 steps to a better memory'  " While it is popularly believed that a person can learn and remember while sleeping, in fact research has shown that learning does not take place while you are sound asleep...However, there is some evidence suggesting that you can learn while you are very drowsy, or even in a very light sleep... "

Yep, but then that's where the other study by Cheour comes in:

Cheour doesn't know how babies accomplish this night-time learning, but she suspects that the special ability might indicate that unlike adults, babies don't "turn off" their cerebral cortex while they sleep. The skill probably fades in the course of the first year of life, she adds - so forget the idea that you can pick up tricky French vowels as an adult just by slipping a language tape under your pillow.

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