If you want to learn, sleep on it（313 words）

By Denis Schluppeck

If you want to learn a language, try sleeping on it. This is the advice from researchers at Swansea University who are studying the interaction between sleep patterns, dreaming and memory consolidation — the process for laying down more securely memories in the brain.

In a forthcoming study in the Journal of Sleep Research, the scientists looked at how sleep and the value attached to pieces of information affect their memorability. Participants in the study slept in a specially designed lab, while their brain activity was being monitored.

Native English speakers who had recently arrived in Wales had to memorise Welsh words and were tested on them 12 hours later. One group had to remember the information during the daytime, while the other slept on it in the lab.

The sleepers performed significantly better in a test of their newly acquired vocabulary — and caring about the Welsh language further improved performance.

Related work in the sleep lab, presented at the British Science Festival, aims to understand whether dreams have a physiological role or whether they are a byproduct of other events occurring during sleep. To understand the timing and content of dreams, the team analysed the dreams participants reported in their own words, immediately on being woken.

This research found that the likelihood of experiencing a dream is particularly high — about 80 per cent — during REM sleep. This part of the sleep cycle, characterised by rapid eye movements, is thought to play an important role in memory consolidation.

Electrical activity in the brain varies significantly at different stages of sleep. This helped researchers to monitor sleep duration and quality, and to wake participants at particular points in the sleep cycle.

The research found daytime events were more likely to be incorporated into dreams with a one-day delay and to recur after another five to seven nights. This phenomenon has been termed the dream-lag effect.

請根據你所讀到的文章內容，完成以下自測題目：

1．Which is not right about the study of researchers at Swansea University?

A．speaking

B．sleep patterns

C．dreaming

D．memory consolidation

答案

2．Which is not right about the study in the Journal of Sleep Research?

A．how sleep and value attached affect memorability

B．monitored body movement

C．participants slept in the designed lab

D．monitored brain activity

答案

3．Which is not right about the related work in the sleep lab?

A．whether dreams have a physiological role

B．whether dreams are the conditioned reflex

C．whether dreams are a byproduct

D．timing and content of dreams

答案

4．What is the percentage of the likelihood of experiencing a dream?

A．50 per cent

B．60 per cent

C．80 per cent

D．85 per cent

答案