Can the Brain Take In New Information when Asleep?

mikesmith1287

Hello everyone. I have become very interested in how the brain works recently. I know that in sleep, your brain is basically going through all of the information that it has obtained, and sorts through it (decides what is/is not important, and strengthens/weakens those connections).

But,

Can you take in new information when asleep, or is your brain just sorting through what it already knows?

DaveC426913

It most certainly can. Have you never had sights, sounds, smells or vibrations from reality intrude on your dreams?

DavidSnider

Yes, but it's almost like it goes right through you.

If you fall asleep listening to a book on tape you will not remember any of it when you wake up. You might however have a weird dream related to something in the book.

Borek

If you fall asleep listening to a book on tape your ears will hurt when you wake up.

I remember reading about psychological experiments done about learning while sleeping. They have not produced new teaching methods, so obviously our brains are not wired to learn when asleep, although I recall some information about data being sorted and stored during night. But that was data acquired during a day.

mikesmith1287

Cool. Thanks for the reply guys!

David, but if you might have a weird dream about the book you were listening to, then doesn't that mean that you are sort of learning something new?

I see that we are not wired for learning when we are sleeping, but maybe we can still learn, but just very inefficiently?