The Logic of Sleep Learning

Why is the conscious mind unable to absorb facts as quickly as the subconscious? How can we explain the case related by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, of the twenty-five-year-old woman who could not read or write but who, during a seizure of what was then known as brain fever, spoke Latin, Greek and Hebrew incessantly and in very pompous tones—even knowing she had been a servant to a Protestant pastor for many years?

She had subconsciously absorbed the passages he read aloud to himself as he walked up and down a hallway adjoining the kitchen. Notes taken during her delirium coincided with passages in books which the pastor owned.

Authorities on hypnotism have pointed out that most of our thinking is done subconsciously. Our conscious minds are aware only of the results of this thinking. This is what happens when we give up trying to remember a particular thing and then find the answer the next day.

Repetition of acts, which are learned consciously and, with difficulty, are executed very slowly at first (walking for instance), makes these acts easier to perform, until finally the effort involved becomes less than the minimum necessary for consciousness. The rapidity and dexterity with which we perform many actions, make us unconscious of these actions. This same ease and speed, the sleep-learning people feel, is attainable in many areas of mental training.

Much of our knowledge lies beneath the surface of our consciousness, ready to be recalled when the need arises. It would be impossible for us to function if everything in the mind were always present in our awareness. Selectivity and concentration would be seriously hampered by the distraction of too many ideas, for our brains record every impression, every thought we ever had, every action we have performed.

This record is permanent, and affects us all our lives. It remains in the subconscious, ready to be associated with a conscious idea, in a process of which we are completely unaware. Consciously we may forget a great deal, but all the memories, all the ideational and imaginative capacities, are there in our subconscious. They flash into our conscious minds suddenly and without effort or we are able to remember them consciously by association.

This subconscious selectivity of material for our conscious minds is the key to concentration of attention, during which we absorb consciously that which we have focused on, but exclude all other impressions of our senses. We exclude them, that is, from our consciousness, but the subconscious will notice and absorb them. The subconscious is able to supply the information when it is needed, if the necessary conditions of relaxation and receptivity are present.

Relaxation and receptivity to suggestion are the principles behind sleep-learning. They make it possible for subjects to perform feats impossible for them during conditions of consciousness. The retentive power of the subconscious accounts for people carrying out post-hypnotic suggestions. It is these same principles of relaxation and receptivity to suggestion (suggestion concentrates the attention of the subconscious), on which sleep-learning is based.

The reticular theory of consciousness, a new explanation of how the brain works, puts forth the hypothesis that the nerve cells performing the highest level of integration are deep within the brain, not in the outer layer, or cortex. This inner system is known as the reticular system, and the theory is that the cortex gives meaning to the incoming stimuli and stores these meanings for future reference. The cortex also condenses, edits and transmits the sense stimuli to the reticular system for final integration into meaning. Then the reticular system sends out impulses to sensori-motor regions of the cortex which will induce a muscular response.