It's late in the evening: time to close the book and tum off the computer You're done for the day. What you may not realize, however, is that the learning process actually continues-in your dreams. It might sound like science fiction, but researchers are increasingly focusing on'the relationship between the knowledge and skills our brains absorb during the day and the fragmented, often bizarre imaginings they generate at night. Scientists have found that dreaming about a task we've learned is associated with improved performance in thatactivity (suggesting that there's some truth to the popular notion that we're “getting" a foreign language once we begin dreaming in it). what's more, researchers are coming to recognize that dreaming is an essential part of understanding, organizing and retaining what we learn.

While we sleep, research indicates, the brain replays the patterns of activity it experienced during waking hours, allowing us to enter what one psychologist calls a neural(神经的)virtual reality. A vivid example of such replay can be seen in a video researchers made recently about sleep disorders. They taught a series of dance moves to a group of patients with conditions like sleepwalking, in which the sleeper engages in the kind of physical movement that does not normally occur during sleep. They then videotaped the subjects as they slept. Lying in bed, eyes closed, one female patient on the tape performs the dance moves she learned earlier.

This shows that while our bodies are at rest, our brains are drawing what's important from the information and events we've recently encountered, then integrating that datainto the vast store of what we already know. In a2010 study, researchers at Harvard Medical School reported that college students who dreamed about a computer maze (迷宫)task they had learned showed a 10-fold improvement in their ability to find their way through the maze compared with participants who did not dream about the task.

Robert Stickgold, one of the Harvard researchers, suggests that studying right before bedtime or taking a nap following a study session in the afternoon might increase the odds of dreaming about the material. Think about that as your head hits the pillow tonight.