J. De Koninck

Intensive language learning and increases in rapid eye movement sleep: evidence of a performance factor

Ten anglophone students taking a 6-week French immersion course were recorded in the sleep laboratory during 4 consecutive nights before the course, during the course and after the course. There was a positive and significant (P less than 0.05) correlation between language learning efficiency and increases in the percentage of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep from pre-course to course periods. This observation suggests that learning performance may be an important factor in the relationship between information processing and REM sleep.

A refined switch-activated time monitor for the measurement of sleep-onset latency.

Abstract An improved sleep-onset latency (SOL) monitor was developed to overcome the limitations of Franklins clock device. It was validated against electrophysiological measures of SOL with 4 female students (3 normals and 1 insomniac) who slept in the laboratory for several consecutive nights. Data analysis revealed that the clock-monitored SOL was significantly correlated with latency to Stage 2, that there was no significant difference in mean measures of SOL obtained with the clock monitor and Stage 2 SOL. It is concluded that this simple clock device can constitute a useful tool to obtain reliable measures of SOL in the home environment and is specially well-suited to monitor progress in therapy with sleep-onset insomniacs.

Mental activities during sleep

Dreams have played as important a role in the civilisations from which our modern society originates as in primitive societies, not only in political terms but also in daily life [9], The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans were among those who erected incubation temples where people would spend the night in order to have their dreams interpreted the following morning - dreams which were considered as divine messages [59]. Some have seen dreams as a more natural phenomenon. Hippocrates examined dreams for their expression of certain illnesses. Aristotle searched their origins in the activities of the previous day and insisted that they could influence conscious life. Subsequently, he was probably the first to describe the phenomenon of lucid dreams.