What Is Sleep Learning? (Part 3)

It is now known that during World War II, members of the armed forces of the United States were taught the Morse Code and foreign languages, in a necessarily brief period, with the aid of sleep-learning. The renowned Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) taught its agents not only languages but also accents, slang and custom of the countries to be infiltrated. They learned quickly and thoroughly.

An oil company in Arabia employs sleep-learning for teaching English to its native employees and Arabic to its American staff.

In 1955, Canada's Department of National Defense used sleep-learning in the training of Royal Canadian Air Force personnel. These men scored consistently higher than a control group of non-users.

Business has been quick to recognize how sleep-learning can help build up sales. The Wall Street Journal of March 14, 1958, reported on a group of corporations using sleep-learning self-confidence-development sales courses to bolster the effectiveness of their salesmen.

This approach has also proved invaluable to many who must remember special technical facts or figures. A railroad dispatcher memorized the entire passenger train schedule of the Union Pacific Railroad in 10 days. A post office employee memorized the postal zones of 16,000 streets. A television announcer memorized commercials accurately and quickly and remembered them at will while on the air. A production executive in a large advertising firm memorized nearly 600 telephone numbers of frequent usage.

Unusual and successful experiments in sleep-teaching are reported by a professor who taught Greek to his five-year-old child by whispering in his ear as he slept; by a pastor whose eleven-year-old son memorized four pages of poetry overnight (while the rest of his class learned two pages in a week); by a man who taught his parakeet 1,300 words; by a 63-year-old grandmother who is memorizing the New Testament; by a writer who is memorizing die dictionary at the rate of three pages a night.

Psychotherapists submit favorable reports on the use of sleep-teaching techniques for implanting therapeutic suggestions in the subconscious mind to supplement treatment during waking hours.

"There appears to be enough evidence to indicate that treatment during sleep is not only possible in theory but also effective in practice," writes Dr. Ernst Schmid-hofer, chief of the Neuropsychiatric Service of the Memphis Veteran's Administration Hospital.

Psychologists have also reported success in breaking bad habits ranging from over-eating to speech defects. Mothers, following their suggestions, have been able to train their children out of thumb sucking, bed wetting and nail biting through the use of sleep recordings.

Since certain diseases and mental disorders are the psychosomatic symptoms of a subconscious block, it is felt that the inner conflict must be recognized and faced consciously by the patient in order to overcome the problem. Since suggestion is the tool of psychotherapy, it must be concluded that pre-recorded therapeutic messages (sleep tapes) can take their rightful place beside drugs and hypnosis as an effective device for reaching the subconscious.