THE old adage “sleep on it” has been proved right yet again. The best way to memorise an intellectual skill such as a foreign language is to get a decent night’s sleep after every lesson.
Psychologists have known for years that sleep plays a critical role in processing new memories. Although the findings remain controversial, all kinds of basic skills, from rote learning of facts to riding a bike, get better after a night’s sleep (Â鶹´«Ã½, 25 September 1999, p 26). But improvements have yet to be seen with higher-level intellectual tasks that require you to generalise.
Now…
