Before moving on to the essence of the article, it would be useful to recall the good old film "Big Break", filmed at the dawn of the seventies of the last century (in 1971-72). One of the most curious and completely uncharacteristic for Soviet realistic cinema was the shot when the hero of E. Leonova, trying to learn material on history in 5 minutes in a dream, falls asleep while reading a paragraph from a textbook and broadcasting news.
What he gave out the next day at the lesson, the whole country knew. The method was presented by the director as an absurd comic situation, but, nevertheless, this form of training is practiced, and scientists from the most prestigious and world-famous universities are still studying its effectiveness.
The subconscious mind can remember
What's the year 1971! The fact that a sleeping person absorbs and remembers information better was noticed in ancient times. Not very capable students in ancient Greece were taught in a special way. No, they didn’t keep them over the abyss until they learned their lessons by heart, they were simply offered to lie downto rest, and during sleep the teachers tried to “put” into their heads the maximum of the necessary educational material, which the ancient Greek losers could not remember during classes.
To learn in 5 minutes in a dream, of course, it was possible to catch up a little, but in an hour - another half-asleep unlearned material could be made up for.
At different times in different countries there were sensational reports of phenomenal memorization during sleep. The fact of memory activation was associated with the fact that a person in the stage of deep calm works not with the mind, not with consciousness, but with the subconscious - a deep tool provided to each of us by nature.
First phase: the effect is obvious
However, there is also a drawback in this form of learning: the “memory” remains active only during the first phase of sleep (we call it drowsiness, a drowsy state), but the subconscious mind becomes absolutely indifferent to everything that we want to whisper to it after the transition into the deep phase - the perception of new information ends at this moment.
That's why there is a need to invest in a short period of time and learn everything you need in 5 minutes. Sleep learning a priori cannot be a long process.
The superficial (first) stage of sleep is also the notorious alpha rhythm (up to 13 Hz), in which "everything impossible becomes possible." It is often used during meditation to bring into life the desired object or event. In the case of sleep learning, this is also an improvement.memorization process.
What can be studied in a dream
There are no restrictions on the subjects you would like to learn in your sleep. Everyone is given something better, something worse. If you have complete order with mathematics, then it makes no sense to duplicate the study of this subject also in a dream.
Usually, "sleep pedagogy" (the scientific name is hypnopedia) is used not only for the study of those subjects that are hard to come by, but also for a quick learning course.
Mastering foreign languages, acquiring useful skills (including swimming, learning IT technologies, and learning the basics of playing musical instruments) are in the first row among the subjects that can be studied in a dream.
It is quite possible to use hypnopedia for emergency memorization. For example, during the day it completely slipped out of your head that tomorrow morning you need to recite poems at the birthday of the boss. And the time is already late, there is no time to teach, and the head “does not cook” … What to do? How to learn a verse in 5 minutes? In a dream!
Lie down, relax, ask someone at home to read you a poem several times. But at the same time, try not to fall asleep at all - otherwise the result will be the opposite. A few minutes will be enough to study. In the morning it remains only to repeat.
Researchers and skeptics
They believe in the phenomenon and tirelessly study it by neurophysiologists from Northwestern University (Chicago, USA). They publish a report on the results of each of their experiments in authoritativescientific publications.
The fact that anyone can learn any subject in 5 minutes in a dream, they proved by playing two simple piano melodies, twelve notes of which the study participants learned in their sleep not even in five, but in four minutes.
But there is a group of skeptics in scientific circles who prove the opposite. This group argues that there is no memorization in a dream, there is only an opportunity to consolidate previously learned material.
Hypnopedia and the state of the nervous system
Representatives of the scientific world from the second group warn that such a teaching method is unsafe: it negatively affects the nervous system, keeps the whole body in tension, not allowing it to fully rest, and is especially undesirable for a growing body.
This conclusion made parents and school teachers think, so the experimental lessons for six-year-olds, when they were taught math and their native language during daytime sleep, had to be urgently canceled.
But reading fairy tales to children at bedtime is a good tradition. And quite safe.
As far as hypnopedia is concerned, reviews of its effectiveness are 50/50. Some are afraid of its widespread use, since the effect can also be reversed: instead of learning something useful in 5 minutes in a dream, you can earn chronic insomnia and irritability.
