The Importance Of Sleep When Learning A Language

When we are trying to learn a language we get obsessed about using the right techniques and having the perfect plan …but we totally forget about the basics things that fall just outside the realm of studying, which can actually be equally as important.

Sleep is probably the biggest factor outside of our direct study that can determine our overall results.

Sleep is hugely important when it comes to learning a language so let’s go through some reasons why this is and why you really need to make sure you don’t ignore this area of your life.  

Studying When You Are Tired Is Hard

Regardless of what you believe about sleeping and studying …you can’t deny that it is just harder to sit down and focus when you are tried.

We have all been exhausted from work or life in general and then sat down in front of our notes and just though …I can’t be bothered.

I have to do a lot of my studying in the morning for this exact reason, the days where I leave it until the evening, it becomes a real effort to even get started and the whole thing is just so much harder  and that all comes down to being tired.

The fresher I feel, the easier it to concentrate and focus on what I am are studying. This alone is why sleeping is so key to your success, a good night’s rest gives you the power to actually do the study you need to do!

Sleep Makes You More Alert

A good night’s sleep also makes you more alert and this will help you to study more efficiently.

Studying when you are more alert is just going to be more productive, you are going to be able to grasp concepts much faster and just generally find things easier. This will be both on a conscious level and at the subconscious level. Your brain is just going to be noticing more and able to link it to what it already knows much more easily when you are actually alert.

I am sure you have experienced waking up and feeling very groggy and like your brain is still half asleep, this is of course the opposite of being alert and it’s difficult to function like this. You cannot study in this state, it pretty much impossible and the fact that you end up putting the milk back in the cupboard and the cereal in the fridge just shows how foggy your mind is.

You are much more likely to be in this state when you cut your sleep short, and while this fogginess usually lifts after a while (usually thanks to caffeine), it does affect you for the rest of the day

As I already mentioned I like to study in the morning and it is for this exact reason. Once I wake up, I am nice and alert and ready to go, the longer the day goes on, the more tired I feel and this alertness fades.

You Will Have Better Memory Ability

Memory recall and language learning go hand in hand, you could almost call it the same thing as it seems like we are forever trying to memorise new words or recall ones he have already learned.

However, our ability to do this is massively influenced by how much sleep we have had.

If we are tired we will struggle to recall things and this can even be words that we usually know really well, it’s like the tiredness blocks our access to our active vocabulary.

Sleep deprivation also hinders our ability to form new memories, so if we are tried and try to learn some new words it becomes a struggle. I find this becomes extremely noticeable. I just can’t get the words to stick and even if I eventually do, they don’t stick for long and I usually find that when I review them a day later they have totally gone from my memory and it is like I have to learn them from scratch again.

This all means being tired makes it difficult to both practice your existing skills and also learn new things, so it really is not ideal.

Sleep Gives You Energy

I have talked a lot about how a lack of sleep negatively impacts your studies so far, so let’s look at the opposite.

When you sleep properly, you will have enough energy to actually study. Of course some of this comes down to your diet as well, but in general terms, a good night sleep is going to charge you up and allow you to actually put some effort into your language.

I don’t think anyone has tested this, but I would love to see some sort of study around mental endurance and sleep quality. I would strongly believe that the better you sleep, the longer you are going to be able to study for …before you get that fatigued feeling that language learning can cause.

It is usually when I reach this point that I stop studying and I have personally found that the days I have more energy (from sleeping properly) it usually takes me longer to feel fatigued and while I can’t prove that, I am sure many of you would agree. 

Sleep Will Consolidate Your Learning

Having a good night’s sleep isn’t just about giving you the energy you need for tomorrow, it is also massively important for the work you did today.

Sleep is extremely important for the brain as it allow your subconscious to consolidate all the information you have processed during the day …which also means all the information you have taken in during your study session.

Sleep actually processes all the new language information you have learned and files it away as such, and this does help to cement this information in your mind.

You will often find things can things seem a bit hazy or muddled and you might be making lots of little mistakes, only to have a good night’s sleep and find your ability in the language has increased. Really all that has happened is your brain and processed everything that was confusing you and now you can see it a bit more clearly, as such.    

This reason alone is why sleep is so important, you really need this subconscious processing to happen so that you can keep moving forward with your language development.

How Much Sleep Do You Need For Language Learning?

I am sure you are all now asking how much sleep is enough. Well, this is a language, site, I’m not a sleep expert but really you need to give yourself “enough” which may well be 8 hours a night. For some people it will be less and for others, it will be more.

In a perfect world you want to go to bed at roughly the same time every night and then allow yourself to wake up at around the same time every morning …without an alarm clock.

I know you can’t all do that, but the more effort you put into getting good sleep, the better you will feel overall and the easier your studying will get.

Just aim to get as much as you can and if you are struggling with this, is plenty of information available from actual sleep experts on the internet who can point you in the right direction for how to get enough quality sleep. 

Can You Learn A Language In Your Sleep?

I know the other big question is going to be around the ability to learn a language while you sleep.

The honest truth is that it is not going to be possible.

I have actually covered this in a lot more detail in this article – Can You Learn A Language In Your Sleep?

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can see the importance of sleep. A good night’s rest is going to both help you process what you learned today and also set you up nicely for tomorrows session. 

You really cannot avoid sleeping, it is so important for many things in your life, and this includes language learning. If you want to actually make good progress with your new language you need to invest in your sleep, it will make a noticeable difference.