The Telegraph – Josie Gurney-Read
“A good night’s sleep may not be high on the agenda for students across the country but, according to new research, it could be key to successful learning. Academics from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway University found that learners were able to remember and consolidate material more effectively having slept on the new information. The research also suggested that learning material in stages and getting enough sleep inbetween sessions, meant students were better able to make connections and remember information, putting paid to the belief that ‘cramming’ before an exam is an effective means of revision. It comes as research published by the Sleep Council last month, found that more than half of teenagers confessed to regularly cramming all their revision for an exam into one night. During this study, researchers taught a group of people new words from a fictional language, characterised by a rule relating the new words to one another. They found that, although learners became aware of the rule within the new language shortly after being taught it, they were unable to apply it to new words until after a period of rest.”(more)