Can you learn in your sleep?

Amazing things happen to your brain when you sleep - no special products needed. Just sit back, relax, and learn how sleep helps you learn.

00:00 Introduction
00:27 Sleep and learning contexts
2:27 Sleep and long-term learning
3:03 Sleep and procedural learning
3:23 Sleep hacking is possible
4:10 Getting more sleep is really good

Footage sources:

The "sleep stages" animation is based on an image found here: Diekelmann, S., & Born, J. (2010). The memory function of sleep. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 114-126.

References

As you might expect, I have simplified and ignored a fair amount of the research on sleeping and learning (there's a lot of it!). For a great overview of some of the complexities, see:

Among the complexities: declarative and non-declarative memories rely on somewhat different systems that can interact while we sleep. REM sleep also contributes to memory consolidation and learning, but seems to be more strongly associated with procedural memory and "initial" memory consolidation.

The study finding an association between slow-wave sleep and long-term learning is here:

The "sleep extracting the gist" study with the word triplets is here:

The study on video game problem solving is here:

On finger tapping, this contains a good discussion in the intro on the basic findings:

The "sleep hacking with smells" idea comes from this study:

And lots of other studies support the basic idea. With tones:

And with words:

The basketball study is here:

[KathySierraVideo]

Another awesome video 👏👏👏🤗. My first thought on the importance of sleep was, “but how do you get yourself to sleep longer?”
I do the sleep hygiene stuff I can, but for me the two things that moved the needle are
1. careful control of lighting (trying to match the brightness/color temp of the natural light… e.g. only low and warm light as the sun goes down; bright and cool light in the morning, etc.)
2. The obvious one, but it still surprises me: exercise.
—
I’ve been wearing a Whoop strap 24/7 for 3+ years, so I can rely on data rather than what I *think* about how I’m sleeping.
It’s been a slow process to improve my sleep, but so worth it. I work mostly with *physical* rehab and performance, and just as strong (and now thanks to you another new favorite word: “abstractified” 😁) memory consolidation requires good sleep, so does the *exercise physiology* equivalent: tissue adaptation/remodeling.
Basically, without sleep the things we work on don’t *change* us 🤷🏼‍♀️.
I wish I’d known that 20 years’ ago…
—
These days my clients are *horses*, and though their sleep patterns are different from humans (multiple shorter sleep sessions spread over 24 hours, with non-REM sleep standing up and REM sleep only possible lying down), paying attention to their sleep quality can make a huge difference.
(Turns out the biggest factor by far for them is that there is at least one other horse nearby that can act as a “guard” while others sleep. Perceived need to stay on guard keeps a prey animal from good and especially REM sleep…)
Sorry for these long horse-related comments I’m sure you have no interest in 😅. I’m just inspired by your videos, thank-you 💁‍♀️🙏

[G-OVL]

Smells.. Interesting. A clinical psychologist friend of mine said they use smells to tricker memories and act as a stimulus to aid recovery of many types of trauma. Also, I watched an interview with a British actress, she was playing a few different parts in various TV dramas and movies at the same time... She used a collection of smells to kick her into a particular character at any given time.

[DarrenMcStravick]

You mentioned napping for 15 minutes being less effective in the long-term compared to 1-hour napping for memory recall, but what are your thoughts on the effectiveness of things like 20-minute non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) cycles compared to napping generally speaking, or activity-shifting between bouts of learning (e.g., doing guided meditations between)? -- Would these be too disruptive to memory consolidation, insufficient for high-quality consolidation, etc.?

I don't want to ask too many questions, but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts Andrew Huberman's suggestions for learning (e.g., doing study bouts in ultradian rhythmic cycles of 90-120 mins).

[stageconvention]

Your Chanel is absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much for your work. Thanks to you I discovered free recall and elaboration among other notions. My grades improved significantly and I enjoy studying.

Greetings from France.

[skeptic]

Love this channel! Keep up the good work!

[zznabil]

I have a topic suggestion:
What is intuition?
Does it have anything to do with talent,
being a genius, achieving more success and etc?

Thank you.

[BrodieMitch]

3:07 LOL I am here as an attempt to be better at geometry dash (a game where the only goal is to learn finger tapping patterns and only has one button)

[senjutsu]

On the smells, I would assume it's better to limit exposure to the time when I am learning something important instead of having it on constantly?

[senjutsu]

I wonder if there is any truth to those "bedtime calculators" that say you should avoid waking up during deep sleep. For example, one says I should go to bed around 8:45, 10:15 or 11:45 if my goal is to wake up at 6am.
I am starting to explore it since I wake up really tired at times, and I couldn't find a pattern.

[nasjes]

Can you tell more about solving problems while you are sleeping? Is it good or bad? Sometimes i feel extremely exhausted after those dreams with problem solving but also i can get solutions

[AFGautonompunk]

salut Benjamin, how about polyphasic sleep patterns, i did, in more calm years of my sleep circumstances, commit to a tri or biphasic sleep schedule, with both more wake time as relaxed and yet powerful perceived states of mind resulting.
i did this for several months at a time and was surprised at the perspective of this (for my then capable circumstances) easy gain.
so in the tri phasic pattern for example i would stay awake for 6 1/2 h, sleep 1 1/2 for three times a day and found myself enjoying to address different tasks to these slots. my productivity was unrivalled high and i also noticed that the sleeping would be a continuation of this productivity, all felt so natural.

i only don't do it anymore because either my schedule is not as flexible, or my current living situation doesn't allow for me to get the sleep when i need it.

my questions, after this long preamble, now are how slow rate phases scale in time (e.g. if i sleep 90 mins, for a presumed full rem cycle)
i'm also reading sara c. mednick's 'take a nap' on power naps, as matthew walker's 'why we sleep', with inconclusive, or rather contradictory views. now knowing these books are from 2006 and 2017 respectively, i wonder if you're aware of updated research : results ?

and lastly, i wondered about lucid dreaming. since i have both made experiences myself of revelations and had peers involved in comparable findings, i have heard of the strain or stress this induces on your recovery and reproduction cycle. are you aware of the latter, or would perhaps even advocate against the extending of said skill ?

[GustavoSilva-nyjc]

One thing that sucks it's that when you're in the grind energized by 10 coffees a day you can think "this is fine" and dont realize at all you lack rest. If you're not you when hungry you're EVEN LESS you when sleep deprived. I turn into a psychotic paranoid depressed entitled destructive shell of a man when sleepy, it's crazy how the situation IS NOT THAT BAD it's just me acting like a crazy person. The glass is not just empty, it's broken, cut your hand, ruined your clothes and carpet and made a mess.



Responder

[pat-enz]

haha, just commented another vid of yours talking about scent🙂

[GustavoSilva-nyjc]

4:48 Oh wow, that sounds miserable. When i workout (workedout?) i needed at least 9h to recover and constantly slept 930 or even 10h, it took a while to reduce that to 7 one i stopped training. I think 7 would make me feel awful and dont allow to grow, in all senses of the word, but for a non lifter is enough.

[orio]

What do You think about N-Back training?

[panchofenix]

thoughts on some of the videos of sleeping by what i've learned?

[ziquaftynny]

I thought this video was going to be about practicing skills in dreams/lucid dreams.

[trancesex]

Benjamin, is there any research/evidence that suggests listening to Foreign language speech recordings in your sleep helps you learn language faster? or at least could help with the acquisition/comprehension of specific tones/or pitch accents in the foreign language one is learning?
Thank you :)

[Moneymagi]

What about a subliminal overnight or a whole book or class and then its All there when we read next day or ask for answer.

[JohnMiller-wods]

so would marijuana affect that learning while you sleep