邊睡覺邊背單詞不是難事It’s Not Difficult to Memorize Words When You Sleep

It is one thing to learn a new piece of information， such as a new phone number or a new word， but quite another to get your brain to file it away so it is available when you need it.

學習新知識——比如記住一個電話號碼或者一個新單詞——是一回事，而將它們存進大腦并能在需要時使用就完全是另外一回事了。

A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience by researchers at the University of York and Harvard Medical School suggests that sleep may help to do both. The scientists found that sleep helps people to remember a newly learned word and incorporate new vocabulary into their “mental lexicon”.

英國約克大學和美國哈佛醫學院聯合在《神經科學雜志》發的研究論文稱，睡眠能夠同時幫助學習和記憶?？茖W家們發現，睡眠可以幫助人們記住新學的單詞，并將其納入“心理詞匯”。

During the study， researchers taught volunteers new words in the evening， followed by an immediate test. The volunteers slept overnight in the laboratory while their brain activity was recorded by researchers using an electroencephalogram. A test the following morning revealed that they could remember more words than they did immediately after learning them， and they could recognize them faster demonstrating that sleep had strengthened the new memories.

在研究中，研究人員在晚上教會志愿者新單詞，隨后立即對志愿者進行測試。然后志愿者整晚都在實驗室睡覺，研究人員同時監測他們的腦電波以觀察他們的大腦活躍度。次日早晨的測試結果證明，志愿者睡后記住的單詞比剛學完記住的單詞還要多，并且能很快回想起新學的單詞，這表明睡眠有助于加強新記憶。

This did not occur in a control group of volunteers who were trained in the morning and re-tested in the evening， with no sleep in between. An examination of the sleep volunteers brainwaves showed that deep sleep （slow-wave sleep） rather than light sleep helped in strengthening the new memories.

而另一組受控志愿者在早上學習，晚上測試，中間不睡覺，研究人員發現這種學習效果并沒有前文所說的好成效。而通過對睡眠人員的腦電波進行監測后發現，相較于睡眠淺的志愿者，睡眠較深的志愿者的新增記憶得到了更有效的鞏固。

These results highlight the importance of sleep and they underlie brain processes for expanding vocabulary. The researcher， said， “New memories are only really useful if you can connect them to information you already know.” he said their study identifies the brain activity during sleep that organizes new memories and makes those vital connections with existing knowledge.

這些研究結果突出了睡眠的重要性，并解釋了擴充詞匯量的腦部機制。研究人員稱：“如果你能將新增記憶和自己已有的知識儲備聯系起來，新增記憶才算真正有用?！彼€說他們的研究證實了人們在睡覺時大腦會組織新記憶并將其與已有知識聯系起來。

Word Study

incorporate /?n'k??rp?re?t/ v. 包含;吸收;使并入

The new car design incorporates all the latest safety features.

reveal /r?'vi?l/ v. 揭示;顯示;透露

It was revealed that important evidence had been suppressed.

highlight /'ha?la?t/ v. 強調;突出;使醒目

vital /'va?tl/ adj. 必要的;至關重要的;充滿活力的