The Ideal Time To Learn New Words: Before Sleep

According to a recent study; Sleeping after memorizing words can help children who have problems, especially in learning words. The home education process can show parents and carers how difficult it is to teach. We have a recommendation for parents who are looking for a way to make learning words easier for their child: sleep. According to a new study published in the Royal Society Open Science Journal; children who go to primary school and know little words; After memorizing words in the evening, close to the time of sleep, he can sleep and remember these words more easily.

Hesitation Can Be A Good Sign

Researchers; he understands that a word has been learned by looking at whether those words have been mixed with other similar sounds. Lisa Henderson, one of the psychologists and authors of research at the University of York, said in her e-mail: “When we read or hear the words, similar words appear in our memory at the same time. For example, when we hear the word “Brexit”, the word “breakfast” becomes active for a moment “. A person’s ability to distinguish words means that he has learned new words. Henderson notes that this dilemma did not happen until he had a good sleep.

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Henderson and his team wanted to find out how long after the memorization was necessary before sleep could work. Thus, the team used the potential-confusion test to see how well children between 8 and 12 years old remember new words. They gave the children fake words like “orange” to memorize. In this way, the participants learned words similar to real words that they had never heard of before but knew before, close to the fake word (in this case “orange”). Some children memorized words in the morning while others memorized them in the evening.

On the morning of the day after learning the words, the children came together for the memory test. One of the tests gave a few letters of the new words. Henderson and his team observed how quickly children could fill the gaps. It may sound strange that participants responding more slowly to learn words better. However, the extremely fast response of the children is an indication that the words are not well engraved.

The Importance of Getting Sleep Well

Sleeping after memorizing words can be an effective method of learning speed.

The positive effect of sleep was less observed in children who already had a large vocabulary. Participants who knew fewer words were more useful to memorize words in the evening. That’s why Henderson and his team aren’t quite sure about sleep, but they continue to work on it. One of the reasons they are not sure is that children who know few words already have a weaker memory from the beginning. Although this study is not enough for now, the results indicate that reading books before going to bed can be an efficient opportunity to teach new words. With the help of parents, the team is testing this now on children ages 5-7.

Henderson says that books with quality words can always be useful if there is no opportunity to read books. “Books containing rich words will undoubtedly be useful at any time of the day. In this way, children; they can improve their language and reading skills, adapt more easily to the comprehensive curriculum in school, be more successful in social relationships, and improve themselves on many more. ”

Source: Royal Society Open Science Journal-2020