Sleep Learning: Difference between revisions

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== [[Anime]] ==

* ''[[~~Sumomo~~ ~~Mo Momo Mo~~]]'' has Koushi listening to a sleep tape to help him study for his law class. Momoko uses this opportunity to try to suggest romantic things for him to say instead. Koushi wakes up and catches her. The love learning does stick, though, as he ends up repeating them later on...when Iroha sneaks into his bed.

* ''[[Sumomomo Momomo]]'' has Koushi listening to a sleep tape to help him study for his law class. Momoko uses this opportunity to try to suggest romantic things for him to say instead. Koushi wakes up and catches her. The love learning does stick, though, as he ends up repeating them later on...when Iroha sneaks into his bed.

* Played with in [[Yu Yu Hakusho]] when Yusuke, as a ghost, is able to appear in Kuwabara's dream strictly to help him study for the upcoming test. It's bizarre, but it works! As a note, the idea that dreams help you learn information you remember is considered quite probable in psychology so this is stretching the truth at worst.

* In [[Kyou Kara Maou]] Conrad is able to learn Japanese via sleep learning.

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== [[Literature]] ==

* Quite possibly twisted before it ever got off the ground, in Aldous Huxley's novel ''[[Brave New World (~~Literature~~)|Brave New World]]'', where people are made to listen to tapes while sleeping during childhood. Huxley has his fictional conditioning experts explain that hypnopaedia is ''useless'' for teaching (one shows a boy who memorized a long lecture on the Nile River without actually ''learning'' anything from it, he could repeat the entire passage, but when asked for a specific piece of information from it, he broke down crying); the tapes, therefore, are used only for behavior modification -- they contain platitudes intended to subtly reinforce the values of World State society.

* Quite possibly twisted before it ever got off the ground, in Aldous Huxley's novel ''[[Brave New World (novel)|Brave New World]]'', where people are made to listen to tapes while sleeping during childhood. Huxley has his fictional conditioning experts explain that hypnopaedia is ''useless'' for teaching (one shows a boy who memorized a long lecture on the Nile River without actually ''learning'' anything from it, he could repeat the entire passage, but when asked for a specific piece of information from it, he broke down crying); the tapes, therefore, are used only for behavior modification -- they contain platitudes intended to subtly reinforce the values of World State society.

* Tape in [[CJ Cherryh]]'s Union/Alliance books is [[Sleep Learning]] with hypnotic drugs and computer feedback. Citizens use it to learn skills; it is used on azi for almost the entire programming of their minds.

* Tape in [[C. J. Cherryh]]'s Union/Alliance books is [[Sleep Learning]] with hypnotic drugs and computer feedback. Citizens use it to learn skills; it is used on azi for almost the entire programming of their minds.

* A king in the ''[[Discworld]]'' tried to do this by having slaves whisper in his ear. Unfortunately the third one stuck a dagger in it but, "the theory was sound".

** To elaborate, the King asked a philosopher if he could find an easy way for the King to learn things. The philosopher replies there is no easy way to knowledge, to which the King says he bloody well better find a way or else. Cue the slaves.

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* [[Robert Heinlein]] was a believer in sleep teaching: he used it in several of his novels.

** In ''Glory Road'', a (straight) man is taught a foreign language with the aid of an hypnotic trance and a beautiful, nude, woman.

** Heinlein also used the trope (again for real, not for laughs) in his earlier novel ''[[Space Cadet (~~Literature~~)|Space Cadet]]'' -- one of the cadets is given tapes to learn Venusian in his sleep. When he wakes up, he's disappointed that it apparently didn't take--until one of his fellow cadets (a colonist from Venus) cusses in Venusian and the protagonist replies in the same language without even thinking about it.

** Heinlein also used the trope (again for real, not for laughs) in his earlier novel ''[[Space Cadet (novel)|Space Cadet]]'' -- one of the cadets is given tapes to learn Venusian in his sleep. When he wakes up, he's disappointed that it apparently didn't take--until one of his fellow cadets (a colonist from Venus) cusses in Venusian and the protagonist replies in the same language without even thinking about it.

** In ''Citizen of the Galaxy'', Thorby is programmed with a message by means of hypnosis and a "sleep instructor".

* The ''[[Wayside School]]'' books has one student, a [[Heavy Sleeper]], never being disturbed by the others on Ms. Jewell's insistence that she's sleep-learning. At least one tie-in book hints this may be right.

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* ''Feral TV'' (technically a puppet show, but its predecessor, ''[[The Ferals]]'', had live actors as well as puppets) features Darren [[The Ditz|the dog]] teaching himself to be more assertive by this method. After seeing it work, his "friends" immediately begin sticking in ''Teach Yourself Karate'', ''Teach Yourself French'', and ''1001 Uses For A Dead Cane Toad'' (their boss being a cane toad). [[Hilarity Ensues|Hilarity ensues, but only a little bit since it's a 5-minute program]].

* In an episode of ''[[Radio Active]]'', George is caught sleeping in class, and explains that he is actually studying his book via osmosis. While it does work, it turns out he was sleeping on the wrong book.

* Referenced in an episode of ''[[Star Trek Voyager]]'' called "The Voyager Conspiracy." Seven of Nine modified a device called a cortical subunit allowing her to download ship's status reports while she was regenerating. When she mentioned this to Captain Janeway, Tom Paris commented "Learn while you sleep? I tried that once, gave me a headache." The ultimate effect of Seven of Nine's experiment was that the new information wasn't absorbed properly and she became paranoid, convinced that both Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay were plotting against ''Voyager''.

* Referenced in an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' called "The Voyager Conspiracy." Seven of Nine modified a device called a cortical subunit allowing her to download ship's status reports while she was regenerating. When she mentioned this to Captain Janeway, Tom Paris commented "Learn while you sleep? I tried that once, gave me a headache." The ultimate effect of Seven of Nine's experiment was that the new information wasn't absorbed properly and she became paranoid, convinced that both Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay were plotting against ''Voyager''.

* Randy Disher did this in the ending of the Monk episode "Mr. Monk Visits A Farm" regarding a case file of a crime he reviewed. Justified, as he initially thought it was the result of his sleeping that he solved the cause of the murder of his uncle (Monk, while Disher was asleep, fed the answer through his ear without his knowledge).

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== [[Web Animation]] ==

* The ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' cartoon "A Jorb Well Done" slightly subverts this. When Coach Z's inability to pronounce the word "job" becomes a major sticking point, the other characters try everything from elementary school to [[A Clockwork Orange (~~Literature~~)|Ludovico's Technique]] to get him to say "job" without adding a few extra consonants and vowels (and sometimes entire syllables). Finally, Strong Sad suggests a [[Sleep Learning]] technique consisting of a tape he made of himself reciting the word "job" over and over from when he was "practicing the dictionary". Coach Z listens to the tape while he sleeps, and the next morning Homestar is pleasantly surprised to find that Coach Z can say "job" with no problem - but ''now'' [[Here We Go Again|he can't remember how to pronounce "Homestar"!]] ("You did a great... job, Hamstray. No, wait, I mean Hamster! I mean Strumstar. I mean Stairmaster. Homegrown! Ramrod? Humphel?!")

* The ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' cartoon "A Jorb Well Done" slightly subverts this. When Coach Z's inability to pronounce the word "job" becomes a major sticking point, the other characters try everything from elementary school to [[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|Ludovico's Technique]] to get him to say "job" without adding a few extra consonants and vowels (and sometimes entire syllables). Finally, Strong Sad suggests a [[Sleep Learning]] technique consisting of a tape he made of himself reciting the word "job" over and over from when he was "practicing the dictionary". Coach Z listens to the tape while he sleeps, and the next morning Homestar is pleasantly surprised to find that Coach Z can say "job" with no problem - but ''now'' [[Here We Go Again|he can't remember how to pronounce "Homestar"!]] ("You did a great... job, Hamstray. No, wait, I mean Hamster! I mean Strumstar. I mean Stairmaster. Homegrown! Ramrod? Humphel?!")

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' show 58 has Jon Arbuckle preparing for a pitch to a publisher (his little-seen job is as a cartoonist). The publisher doesn't like Jon's nail-biting habit, so Jon tries using a sleep-learning record to cure himself. Garfield and Odie destroy the record by accident and replace it with cartoon sound effects, a Spanish-language tutoring record, and a "Hits of the 1950s" collection. At the meeting, all Jon can produce is "Hola, Paco, ¿Qué tal?", doo-wop music, and machine-gun noises. As it turns out, the publisher is a Mexican immigrant, named Paco, who likes doo-wop, and the sound effects match Jon's submission very well. Unfortunately, he still hasn't cured his nail-biting habit, and Jon doesn't get published.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'': Homer orders a "weight loss" tape to help curb his overeating, but since they're all out, they send him a "vocabulary builder" tape. He spends much of the episode consuming vast amounts of food while talking about it in [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness|very long words]].

* ''[[~~Dexters~~ Laboratory]]'', "The Big Cheese": Dexter tries to cram for a French test at school, but his recording skips, and when he wakes up in the morning all he is able to say is "omelette du fromage". The only question on the test, luckily, is to translate the phrase "cheese omelette". In fact, "omelette du fromage" is the phrase needed for every situation Dex faces for the rest of the cartoon, including solving the Mid-East crisis. His only obstacle? The password needed to enter the lab is "[[Star Wars]]", so the lab's voice-activated vault door bars his re-entry.

* ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'', "The Big Cheese": Dexter tries to cram for a French test at school, but his recording skips, and when he wakes up in the morning all he is able to say is "omelette du fromage". The only question on the test, luckily, is to translate the phrase "cheese omelette". In fact, "omelette du fromage" is the phrase needed for every situation Dex faces for the rest of the cartoon, including solving the Mid-East crisis. His only obstacle? The password needed to enter the lab is "[[Star Wars]]", so the lab's voice-activated vault door bars his re-entry.

** Ironically, the correct way of referring to a cheese omelette in French would probably be omelette ''au'' fromage. "Omelette du fromage" would translate to "cheese's omelette"

* Hank and Dean from ''[[The Venture Bros]]''. are educated this way in lieu of school. Apparently it works. In fact it also {{spoiler|copies their memories to be implanted into spare clones of them for their frequent deaths.}}

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== [[Real Life]] ==

* When [[CJ Cherryh]] was in college, she once had exams on US history and Machiavelli on the same day. So they day before, she crammed history, then dictated her notes on Machiavelli into a tape recorder and slept while it played in a loop. The next morning, her history exam had an essay: you're Abraham Lincoln, it's a week before Fort Sumter, what do you do? She wrote down a detailed plan of arrests and assassinations, and turned it in before she realized what she'd done. She got an A.

* When [[C. J. Cherryh]] was in college, she once had exams on US history and Machiavelli on the same day. So they day before, she crammed history, then dictated her notes on Machiavelli into a tape recorder and slept while it played in a loop. The next morning, her history exam had an essay: you're Abraham Lincoln, it's a week before Fort Sumter, what do you do? She wrote down a detailed plan of arrests and assassinations, and turned it in before she realized what she'd done. She got an A.

* One British ASW Captain had a habit of going to sleep during maneuvers with a pair of headphones connected to the sonar. At one time he woke up and said, "That's a submarine". And indeed it was. When asked how he knew he said it had a "metallic sound" or something of the kind.

* It's easier to retain knowledge if you read/listen to it just ''before'' you go to sleep, due to the shift from normal brain-waves to alpha brain-waves. As an added bonus, you'll be able to ''comprehend'' it and not just be a living tape recorder. However, it still takes at least a few days, so cramming the night before a test isn't recommended.