Can the brain solve problems during sleep?

Surely every person at least once in a lifetimeI heard that listening to an audiobook in a dream, you can remember the information contained in it. Especially the idea of ​​"learning in a dream" is liked by schoolchildren who hope to learn a complex poem while lying on the couch. But in fact, such a method of remembering information is effective only in the case of Indian yogis and Buddhist monks, but most people in a dream are capable of maximum solutions to the problems that confront them. American scientists have proven that this is indeed possible, but only under one important condition.

The human brain processes information even during sleep

The essence of the condition is that to solveany task a person must know the information to solve it. For example, to solve a mathematical problem, you need to keep in your mind all the numerical expressions. So those people who want to make a discovery at the level of the periodic table or to unravel the secret of the emergence of the Universe during a night's rest should not rejoice. But if you already have the initial data in the head of a person, you can try to go to bed and let the brain put together pieces of this information. Perhaps after waking up, finding an answer to a long tormented question will be much easier.

Another benefit of sleep

The most interesting thing is that the brain's ability to solvesleep problems can be improved. So, in any case, scientists from Northwestern University, located in the suburbs of the American city of Chicago, believe. They took into account the fact that during sleep, the human brain scrolls the memories collected during the day and analyzes them anew, viewing from a different angle. Then they decided to try to associate a specific task with sound and see if the brain could find an answer if sound associated with the task was played during sleep.

By the way, it’s better not to particularly stress the brain - its increased activity leads to early death

Finding a way to improve brain function duringscientists engaged in sleep along with 57 volunteers. In the afternoon, each of the participants in the experiment tried to solve six puzzles, and when working on each task, a different sound was played. The puzzles were so complex that the volunteers had to go home, relax and try to find the answer in the morning.

A person spends a huge part of his life in a dream - how many tasks can be solved!

At the same time, each of them took the device with him,which played the sounds of three of the six tasks during the slow sleep phase. To the surprise of the researchers and the volunteers themselves, the next morning the puzzles were solved 55% better than the previous day. Moreover, the improvements were especially noticeable precisely in those tasks whose sounds sounded during the participants' sleep.

It is probably this effect that arises in thosetimes when a person gets out of bed and understands how simple was the key to solving his problem. Has this happened to you? Share your stories in our Telegram chat.

In general, now American scientists are even moresure that the human brain can really solve problems in a dream. However, they should conduct an additional experiment with a large number of participants and take into account other test conditions. After all, think for yourself - perhaps on the day of the study, the volunteers could be quite tired, and in the morning they completed the tasks easier because they rested.