New research suggests that people learn while they sleep.
Dreams are not, after all, depraved desires in disguise. Neuroscientists at several institutions in Belgium and Canada report that patterns of brain activity in people as they learn a task are replayed while they sleep. It's the first visual explanation for why both animals and people learn better if they sleep on it. The research, published in the August issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, appears to demonstrate the reason that people perform better on a test if they study the day before, instead of cramming at the last minute. Their brains are efficiently using sleep time to practice, practice, practice.