Reliable Information on
Alpha Waves, Sleep and Learning

August 30th, 2010

Did you know that you can learn while you sleep? It’s 100% true.

No it’s not. But when reading a line like that, for a brief, fleeting moment, there’s a twinge of excitement. “Is this a new development? Is this something I’ve been missing my whole life?” Nope. It’s just a line to get you hooked. In this case, it’s one I’ve seen time and time again.

I’m sorry. It’s impossible to learn while you’re sleeping. But that doesn’t stop some people from employing pseudoscientific and wholly inaccurate claims to sever suckers from their money.

There is, however, an important relationship between sleep and learning that can help us out in our quotidian lives. Today I’d like to clarify that link.

Many times over, I have seen claims to the importance of alpha waves in effective learning. Here’s an amalgamation of what they say:

The alpha wave argument: The human brain is most receptive to learning while its electrical activity resonates between 8 and 12 Hz. This measurement is referred to as an alpha wave, and is observed when brain activity is low, such as before sleep or while relaxing.

Naturally, this is intriguing. Does this mean we will learn most effectively just before bedtime?

The answer is a definitive maybe kinda.

First we should examine the validity of the claim.

Spending a bit of time on Google Scholar, it’s easy to find a plethora of related studies. Going through them all, it seems clear that there is no smoking gun. There has not been an observed link between a certain measurement of brain activity and enhanced learning.

This is not surprising. Measurement of electrical activity in the brain (electroencephalography) is an extremely imprecise science, having been first established nearly a century ago, and not having seen tremendous increases in accuracy since then. The brain is a constantly changing, incomprehensibly complex thing; measuring the composite neuron activity with archaic sensors affixed to the scalp simply can’t give much definite insight. The best we can hope for is faint correlation.

And here’s the faint correlation we get:

• Relaxation (as detected by alpha waves) seem to aid in “search and retrieve” memory functioning, which may enhance learning.

The findings of the studies show some pretty bland results that come with a lot of footnotes. They also do little to prove that the enhanced learning is the result of a certain brain wave state, and not due to simply having less distraction. Can anyone really learn with the TV on and the radio playing?

It seems that much of the hype can be traced back to Bulgarian psychiatrist George Lozanov, and stories of a 1979 experiment where he used his Suggestopedia teaching method to teach a class one gazillion foreign words in a single day. Sounds intriguing, but attempts to recreate even a fraction of the storied success have been completely unsuccessful. (I quote: “Although scrupulous care to preserve ‘Superlearning’ methodology was taken in this investigation, accelerated learning could not be substantiated.”) That doesn’t seem to stop people from selling products that claim to have it figured out.

Practical implementations of alpha wave data

So there’s no magic learning technique. Bummer. Here’s what can confidently take from the research.

In order to learn optimally:

• Eliminate distractions.
• Be in a relaxed state.
• Spend more time actually studying and less time looking for miracles.
• Have a clear head. Learning has always been a memory intensive function, since new memories are best formed when finding relations to old ones.
• Consider neurofeedback devices if you’re a huge nerd with lots of money. They’ll help you self-monitor relaxation level, but you could probably do the same just by asking yourself “am I relaxed?”
• Acknowledge the bait and switch of “superlearning”. People buy into superlearning scams because they trick folks into studying when they otherwise wouldn’t. You’re just studying more, not more effectively. The encouragement of some special, mystical, esoteric advantage spurs people to clock time learning where they might have otherwise just watched Spongebob.

In the end, the science supports some pretty old fashioned advice. Eliminate distraction and study more. Mom was right.

Oh, and can you learn while sleeping, maybe even just a teensy bit? Nope. Nothing useful at least. Although the oh-so-reputable-looking website pictured to the right is more than willing to sell you hypnosis CDs for $15.95 if you want to try.