Sleep improves language learning by synchronizing brainwave activity, and enhancing memory consolidation. Sleepers performed better in learning a new language than those who stayed awake. Findings could aid language impairment therapies and inform education and rehabilitation approaches. Sleep is critical for all sorts of reasons, but a team of international scientists has discovered a new incentive for getting eight hours of sleep every night: it helps the brain to store and learn a new language. The findings could also potentially inform treatments for individuals with language-related impairments, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and aphasia, who experience greater sleep disturbances than other adults. Understanding how the brain works during sleep has implications beyond language learning. It could revolutionize how we approach education, rehabilitation, and cognitive training. sleep-based improvements were linked to the coupling of slow oscillations and sleep spindles – brainwave patterns that synchronize during NREM sleep. In an experiment with 35 native English-speaking adults, researchers tracked participants’ brain activity learning a miniature language called Mini Pinyin based on Mandarin but with similar grammatical rules to English. Half of the participants learned Mini Pinyin in the morning and then returned in the evening to have their memory tested. The other half learned Mini Pinyin in the evening and then slept in the laboratory overnight while their brain activity was recorded. Researchers tested their progress in the morning.
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