Medicine: You Will Remember Forever

For years sleep researchers have suspected—in the face of considerable doubt—that learning during slumber is a possibility. Now scientists have come up with what they believe to be the first clear-cut evidence that such effortless learning can take place.

Experimenting with 20 high school and college students who had never studied Russian, Psychologists C. Michael Levy and Wilse B. Webb of the University of Florida undertook to teach them six Russian nouns and their English meanings. For two nights, just before the students dropped off to sleep, they heard a "conditioning tape" that assured them they would learn while they slept if...