Researchers from the University of Tübingen have discovered that sound stimulation during sleep can enhance memory. Could this discovery be used to help students retain education material for tests? Perhaps the finding could even help someone trying to learn a foreign language.

According to a news release from Cell Press, slow oscillations in brain activity are important for retaining memories. Researchers have discovered that playing sounds timed to the rhythm of the slow brain oscillations of people who are sleeping can improve these oscillations and memory. This finding suggests that there is a noninvasive way to boost memory and enhance sleep.

According to coauthor Jan Born, of the University of Tübingen, the finding offers an excellent tool for clinical settings to improve sleep rhythms because it allows researchers to introduce auditory stimulation at low intensities.

Born and his team tried their tests on 11 individuals on different nights. During the tests, the individuals experienced sound stimulations or sham stimulations. After being exposed to stimulating sounds in sync with slow brain oscillations, the individuals were better able to recall word associations that they had completed the evening before. However, stimulation out of phase with slow brain oscillations did not have the same impact.

According to Born, the sound stimulation works only when the sounds take place in synchrony with the slow brain oscillations. Born and his colleagues offered the acoustic stimuli whenever a slow oscillation “up state” was happening soon

According to Born, this method could be used to improve other brain rhythms like those involved in the regulation of attention.

What else can enhance memory? According to a group of researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, peppermint can be a memory booster.

The Telegraph reports that researchers from Glyndwr University convinced administrators at All Saints Roman Catholic Primary in Liverpool to pump in the smell of peppermint , as well as the sound of rustling leaves to help improve students’ test results.

The study’s findings are described in detail in the journal Neuron.

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Science Recorder | James Fluere