边睡觉边背单词不是难事It’s Not Difficult to Memorize Words When You Sleep

It is one thing to learn a new piece of information， such as a new phone number or a new word， but quite another to get your brain to file it away so it is available when you need it.

学习新知识——比如记住一个电话号码或者一个新单词——是一回事，而将它们存进大脑并能在需要时使用就完全是另外一回事了。

A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience by researchers at the University of York and Harvard Medical School suggests that sleep may help to do both. The scientists found that sleep helps people to remember a newly learned word and incorporate new vocabulary into their “mental lexicon”.

英国约克大学和美国哈佛医学院联合在《神经科学杂志》发的研究论文称，睡眠能够同时帮助学习和记忆。科学家们发现，睡眠可以帮助人们记住新学的单词，并将其纳入“心理词汇”。

During the study， researchers taught volunteers new words in the evening， followed by an immediate test. The volunteers slept overnight in the laboratory while their brain activity was recorded by researchers using an electroencephalogram. A test the following morning revealed that they could remember more words than they did immediately after learning them， and they could recognize them faster demonstrating that sleep had strengthened the new memories.

在研究中，研究人员在晚上教会志愿者新单词，随后立即对志愿者进行测试。然后志愿者整晚都在实验室睡觉，研究人员同时监测他们的脑电波以观察他们的大脑活跃度。次日早晨的测试结果证明，志愿者睡后记住的单词比刚学完记住的单词还要多，并且能很快回想起新学的单词，这表明睡眠有助于加强新记忆。

This did not occur in a control group of volunteers who were trained in the morning and re-tested in the evening， with no sleep in between. An examination of the sleep volunteers brainwaves showed that deep sleep （slow-wave sleep） rather than light sleep helped in strengthening the new memories.

而另一组受控志愿者在早上学习，晚上测试，中间不睡觉，研究人员发现这种学习效果并没有前文所说的好成效。而通过对睡眠人員的脑电波进行监测后发现，相较于睡眠浅的志愿者，睡眠较深的志愿者的新增记忆得到了更有效的巩固。

These results highlight the importance of sleep and they underlie brain processes for expanding vocabulary. The researcher， said， “New memories are only really useful if you can connect them to information you already know.” he said their study identifies the brain activity during sleep that organizes new memories and makes those vital connections with existing knowledge.

这些研究结果突出了睡眠的重要性，并解释了扩充词汇量的脑部机制。研究人员称：“如果你能将新增记忆和自己已有的知识储备联系起来，新增记忆才算真正有用。”他还说他们的研究证实了人们在睡觉时大脑会组织新记忆并将其与已有知识联系起来。

Word Study

incorporate /?n'k??rp?re?t/ v. 包含;吸收;使并入

The new car design incorporates all the latest safety features.

reveal /r?'vi?l/ v. 揭示;显示;透露

It was revealed that important evidence had been suppressed.

highlight /'ha?la?t/ v. 强调;突出;使醒目

vital /'va?tl/ adj. 必要的;至关重要的;充满活力的