French Research Video Shows Woman Replaying Learned Task in Bed

This is pretty cool. New research suggests that we humans are able to repeat learned patterns of behavior while sleeping. At France's Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris researchers devised a simple test to explore the brain's potential while the body is at rest. 

Traditionally it has been thought the brain was a blank canvas for neurological activity while sleeping. To learn more, the research team worked with subjects who have sleep behavior disorders in which they move their bodies in tandem with dreams, such as sleep walking. The subjects were taught a motor task, then asked to repeat the movements while awake but lying in a bed, and then videotaped while sleeping.

In many instances subjects mimicked the learned movements during sleep. One woman featured in an online video performed the motor task accurately. Researchers believe that brain activity during sleep is similar to its activity while learning and that these findings represent the first direct demonstration of overt behavioral replay of a recently learned skill during sleep.

Is there something to this? Have you ever told yourself something just before bed, something you wanted to remember? Did you remember it in the morning?
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