Good Sleep Boosts Language Learning

Sleep isn’t just crucial for our overall well-being; it turns out it plays a key role in learning languages too! Recent research from a team of international scientists, including those from the University of South Australia (UniSA), highlights how getting a good night’s sleep can really boost our ability to remember new words and complex grammar.

In a fascinating study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers looked at 35 native English speakers as they learned a miniature language called Mini Pinyin—a fun twist on Mandarin that shares some grammatical similarities with English.

Here’s how it worked: Half of the participants learned Mini Pinyin in the morning and then came back later that day for a memory test. The other half learned the language in the evening and then enjoyed a night’s sleep in the lab while researchers observed their brain activity. When they were tested the next morning, the sleep group showed significantly better recall than those who stayed awake!

So, if you’re diving into language learning, take note: a solid eight hours of sleep could be your best study buddy!

If you’re ready to learn how to speak English or enhance your English speaking skills, Inglés con Joe has the perfect class for you! Take your first step towards fluency by taking our placement exam.


Reference: “Slow oscillation-spindle coupling predicts sequence-based language learning” by Zachariah R. Cross, Randolph F. Helfrich, Andrew W. Corcoran, Adam J. O. Dede, Mark J. Kohler, Scott W. Coussens, Lena Zou-Williams, Matthias Schlesewsky, M. Gareth Gaskell, Robert T. Knight and Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, 20 November 2024, Journal of Neuroscience.
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2193-23.2024

The study was funded by the Australian Research Council.