Even as science fiction, the idea that we can learn as we sleep has a controversial history. In Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel Brave New World, recorded voices whisper class prejudices into the ears of sleeping children, conditioning them for their future roles in society. Despite the evil ends that Huxley imagined, the appeal of getting something for nothing was irresistible to readers and, following the book's publication in 1932, there was a surge in interest in sleep learning. But was there any fact in the fiction? In 1951, two researchers at George Washington University in Washington DC decided to find out. They recruited 30 volunteers and set up tape recorders and speakers in their bedrooms. For half an hour one night, as the volunteers slept, the recorders played either music or Chinese words and their English equivalents. Next morning, those who had heard the vocabulary performed better on a Chinese language test. "Learning can occur during sleep," the scientists concluded, grandly. Others soon agreed. A second team claimed to have taught Morse code to a group of sleeping naval students. A third found that children stopped biting their nails simply by listening to the sentence, "My fingernails taste terribly bitter", six times a night for 54 nights.
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机译：即使是科幻小说，我们在睡眠时可以学习的想法也有争议的历史。在奥尔多斯·赫x黎（Aldous Huxley）的反乌托邦小说《勇敢的新世界》（Brave New World）中，将声音低语的偏见记录到了沉睡的孩子的耳朵中，使他们为将来在社会中的作用做好准备。尽管赫x黎（Huxley）想象到了邪恶的结局，但对于读者而言，获得无价之宝的吸引力还是无法抗拒的。自从1932年该书出版以来，人们对睡眠学习的兴趣激增。但是小说中有什么事实吗？ 1951年，华盛顿特区的乔治华盛顿大学的两名研究人员决定进行调查。他们招募了30名志愿者，并在他们的卧室里设置了录音机和扬声器。在志愿者睡觉的一个晚上，一个半小时，录音机播放音乐或中文单词以及它们的英语等效内容。第二天早上，听过这些词汇的人在汉语测试中表现更好。科学家总结道：“学习可以在睡眠中进行。”其他人很快同意了。第二支队伍声称曾向一群沉睡的海军学生教授摩尔斯电码。三分之一的人发现，仅通过听一遍“我的指甲尝起来很苦”的句子，孩子就停止了咬指甲的行为，这是每晚六次，共54个晚上。
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