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Brain 'can classify words during sleep'

bbc.com

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Re: Brain 'can classify words during sleep'

#41

Post by growlix »

Evgeny wrote: post #18
hooande wrote: post #11

Any task that could become automated could be maintained during sleep, he said. So someone who is highly trained could continue to work while they are asleep. ie, an expert stock broker could classify market data (as interpreted by EEG readings) throughout the night. Interesting, and a bit worrisome to think that some corporations could use this technology to get 16 hour days out of employees. I am interested in the…

I've read anecdotes about people who solve technical problems in their dreams and the concept of getting a few more mental hours out of the day is very appealing. This is one that every russian kid knows from school days: "I saw in a dream a table where all elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper, only in one place did a correction later seem necessary." —Mende…

I would consider your Mendeleev quotation as an example of a different, though also quite fascinating phenomenon. What is being discussed in the above article relates to processing sensory input during sleep. The Mendeleeev anecdote is related to memory consolidation/restructuring that occurs during sleep and can cause insight (ie "a mental restructuring that leads to a sudden gain of explicit knowledge allowing qualitatively changed behaviour"[0]), independent of sensory input during sleep. Your Mendeleev reference reminds of a fascinating study[0] that examines the capability of sleep to yield insight because they also reference the Mendeleev anecdote in their introduction. I highly recommend reading the article. It's short, easy to understand, and demonstrates the importance of sleep for problem solving.

[0] Original paywalled source: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6972/full/nature0...; free-to-access copy: https://www.msu.edu/course/psy/401/Readings/WK9.PresentA.Wag...

Re: Brain 'can classify words during sleep'

#42

Post by georgemcbay »

lazyant wrote: post #33

I've "solved problems" (more like getting a breakthrough idea) during my sleep so yes I'm sure your brain can do a lot during sleep

Yep, same with me.

My subconscious brain is way better than my waking brain when it comes to untangling problems where there are more than about 4 or 5 levels of abstraction/indirection.

It is pretty common for me to be dealing with some hairy issue that spans multiple levels and then go to sleep and wake up with the seemingly obvious answer. Even without sleep I can often get similar results by just going for a long walk while listening to music and specifically not "thinking" (consciously) about the problem that is vexing me.

When there are lots of layers to a problem (and I basically understand all the layers but have trouble following all of the indirections), the less I "think" about the problem (consciously), the easier the solution comes.

Re: Brain 'can classify words during sleep'

#43

Post by toomuchtodo »

ToastyMallows wrote: post #40
totalrobe wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you kidding? It would be expected...they wouldn't pay you more.

Not more; I said half my pay that I'm earning now. Actually, not even half. Any amount of money that I can earn while sleeping is fine by me.

Unless that process disrupts your brain's cleanup process, which might just kill you faster.

There is no free lunch in biology.

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