Scientists like to tease us. You’ll see in the news one day that ‘Humans Can Learn In Their Sleeep’ so understandably you read the article, eager to discover how such an amazing thing is possible. It is only when you get to the end that your heart sinks as you realise that it, like many other similar announcements of discovery end with the sad line that much research is still needed to draw a conclusion or that such technology for humans are still twenty years away from being built.
Such a tease. Perhaps scientists are getting their revenge for having to sit through English classes analysing text that they did not want anything to do with except to use as fuel for their experiments with fire. If such a thing was possible though, it would be amazing. Studies have shown that things such as smelling in your sleep the same scent you smelt whilst learning things during the day can help embed that information into your brain.
However to me, learning in your sleep means being able to simply download information into your brain whilst asleep. Probably impossible but it would be awesome. What would be the first thing you download into your head?
Students would love for this to happen. Then again, the entire education system would break down. Great! Right?
People with photographic memory probably know how great it is to never forget anything but they still have to go through the process of reading that information and there are only so many books they can read in a day. So imagine being able to go to sleep at night barely knowing how to count to ten in Spanish and then waking up with a head full off Spanish vocabulary. Or waking up knowing every coding language or every great novel.
What do you think the main problem would be though? Would people go crazy? Would they start advertising for advert space in their brains like Google? So when people come and ask them a question, they’d also have to tell them that ToysRus are holding a sale next week.
Would be interesting to see, if the scientists every stopped teasing us that is.
Until Next Time
A Worried Student
A WORRIED STUDENT 
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I get the feel from the first few lines that when coming up with new discoveries, you would want a definite, immediate “solution” or “understanding?”
It reminded me of a conversation I had with a geography teacher, about how I’d wish to know everything. But she argued that then there’s no space for development. Things can be improved, but to which extent – you can only find out as you go along.
It’s kind of like with smartphones. Like that Samsung.
S1..S2..S3… Etc. It goes on and on and on..
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Yup! It’s a bit like when you do a test and the teacher says your results will be given next month and you think aaaah no I want it now! Yes sounds like I am impatient but if you are going to excite me with some news, at least let it be available in the next year, not twenty years 😦
Hmm true, it seems we have reached the limit on most things.
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Were always evolving and sometimes evolving too much for our own good in my opinion. But we won’t ever unlock our full potential. If we were to unlock every aspect of our brains it would be complete and utter chaos.
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That’s true. Whilst being to learn In your sleep may be exciting, I don’t think it’ll be good for us humans as it’ll make us even more lazy!
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Lol and cause more competition and dishonest people.
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Yup! Exams would become a thing of the past though.
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Definitely. It would be more like “here’s everything you need to know, sleep on it tonight and that’s all you need” lol
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Haha well at least university would be cheap!
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Or maybe there wouldn’t be any at all! You just go buy a kit and install it in your brain!
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Haha in our dreams!
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Very deep into our dreams! lol
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I’ve gone with the learning in your sleep technique a couple time when I really didn’t have time to study, and to my great sadness and complete un-surprise, by the next morning, I knew nothing and was totally prepared to fail. Chew on that scientists.
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Haha 😀 What exactly did you do? Did you use sound or smell?
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Sound. I put my earplugs on and put my lesson on a looped recording and hoped for the best, but I woke up the next morning with only a headache to show for it 😉
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Ahah that is the type of learning I wish we could have! Scientists have said that whilst learning something, we should play a sound or smell a certain thing and then while we are sleeping, smell the same thing or hear the same sound and hopefully that should (may!) help.
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I think the biggest problem with something like this, as useful as it would be, would perhaps be information overload. We can usually only handle so much information at once before it becomes too much. This makes me wonder if our brains could ever run out of space to keep information in.
Also, would something like this cause us to forget more things that happened in a day? If sleep is the time when our brains sort through information to decide what to keep and what to throw away, wouldn’t downloading some learning program hinder that? Just a thought.
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Hmm yup it would probably have more bad consequences than good.
I have no idea, I just love the idea of being able to instantly learn something! Then again as you say, it would mess with our brains although no one really knows the true capacity of our brains.
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I used to listen to positive thinking tapes as I went to sleep – they gave me the most bizarre nightmares!
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Haha that’s ironic!
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Speaking about learning. I heard that there was a drug that helps you focus but it could make you antisocial. http://bit.ly/1pP94CI
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That sounds interesting! Hmm the side effects can be quite bad though.
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Yep it can. And side effects can vary depending on the person though.
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The movie Limitless was fascinating though!
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Lol the ironic I still have yet to see the movie.
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