Can you learn a language while you sleep?

Apparently that's a thing. I decided to do some research to see how true this was. Is it really possible for you to learn a foreign language while you are asleep? A study was conducted by Swiss psychologists and based on the results, they believe that it's possible for a person to go to sleep and wake up with memory of what they had learned while sleeping. There's a catch, though...in order for you to actually learn the foreign language, you should have previously learned the new vocabulary before you fall asleep. So, when you're listening to the information while you're sleeping, it's basically repeating what you had learned while awake. Thus, solidifying the memory of the words.

The psychologists had 60 German speaking students to be the test subjects. They were asked to learn some new words in Dutch late at night. Half of the students were allowed to sleep with the words played back to them while they slept, while the other half stayed awake to listen to the words. A few hours later, the sleeping students were woken up and all 60 students were tested on the words they had learned. The psychologists found the students that listened to the foreign language while sleeping recalled the words much better than the students that had been awake. They also took into account that perhaps the students that were awake didn't do well because they were sleep deprived.

In conclusion, the psychologists found that our brains respond to stimulus while sleeping and helps us to retain the information, and later recall that information when we're awake. So, if you're trying to memorize some words before a test, this might be a great idea to try, however expecting to wake up fluent in a new foreign language is a bit far fetched.