How to Learn English in Your Sleep

Have you ever dreamed of learning English in your sleep?

You heard that right. Learn English in your sleep.

Guess what? It’s possible!

Learning English, let alone learning anything, in your sleep may seem like an impossible feat¹, but if you follow a few simple steps, you will be able to create an evening routine that will help you retain² all the new vocabulary, grammar, and speaking skills that you picked up from your long, adventurous day living your English.

If you are a true RealLife hero, you started the day by activating your mind in English and fueling your brain with a breakfast of champions. Though you may not have used English at your job, you took advantage³ of your commute⁴ to and from work as a way to practice more. You accepted the challenge to not just learn English, but to live it!

Nighttime has arrived and it’s time to unwind⁵ and get ready for bed. Now is the perfect time to reflect on all the lessons that were presented to you while on your journey to conquer English throughout the day, and prepare yourself for your next adventure.

If you follow these three essential steps and create a consistent evening routine in English, you will prime⁶ your subconscious mind to continue learning while you are dreaming.

1. Meditate Before Bed

“The beginning of a great day begins a night before.” ~Sukant Ratnakar

Meditation is a simple technique that can be used to transform your life. One of the many benefits of meditation is its ability to help you declutter⁷ your mind and concentrate. Before you get ready to download information into your brain, it’s a good idea to clear space for all the things that you want your mind to focus on.

If you want to learn English while you sleep, you must first prepare the mind. A great meditation session leaves you feeling in a relaxed, yet focused state. You are in the perfect condition to learn something new or recall the important things you may have learned earlier in the day. Meditating gets your mind ready for the next step in the process of learning English in your sleep.

Are you interested in learning how to transform your evening routine with meditation, but don’t know where to start?

You can use the free app Insight Timer to start learning how to meditate right now. For those that are ambitious⁸, there’s even a RealLife Meditators group on the app they you can join to meditate with us.

2. Prime Your Mind For Greatness⁹

“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish¹⁰ with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.”  ~Earl Nightingale

Once you finish meditating, your mind is decluttered¹¹ and ready to be primed¹² to achieve better results learning English. Whatever your mind consumes in the moments before you go to bed, will be imprinted¹³ on your subconscious. Therefore if you desire to be a successful English speaker, it is important to fill your mind before you go to sleep with positive thoughts of hope, purpose, vision, and courage to help you along your journey.

One way to do this is by reading inspirational books in English. Find books that will make you think and dream big about your personal aspirations¹⁴. Read books like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, the 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, or Mindset by Carol Dweck. These books will change the way you think and how you approach the day.

During the process of reading, you can highlight powerful quotes from the text and use them at a different time to motivate you when you face a challenge during the day or reach a plateau¹⁵ studying English. You can also write down new vocabulary and create flashcards on Anki for memorization practice.

Are you trying to improve your pronunciation?

Why not read out loud?

It is the perfect opportunity to read out loud and record yourself speaking. Pick a few paragraphs to read out loud and analyze your pronunciation by using apps such as Audacity.

By harnessing¹⁶ the power of your subconscious mind through reading before bed, you set the foundation for a mindset¹⁷ that will enable you to achieve every goal that you desire.

3.Listen While You Sleep

The final step to finish off your evening routine is to listen to English as you begin to doze off¹⁸. Ideally, after  you have meditated and read a few pages of a book in English, you are feeling a bit sleepy and ready for bed. If you are planning to wake up early and conquer your day in English, then it’s best to go to bed by 10 pm so that you can wake up around 6 am, refreshed and ready to take on another day.

As you finally end your day, it’s time for you to get comfortable under the blankets in your favorite pajamas¹⁹, put your earphones on, and start listening to English. The secret to this part is exposure. The more that you expose your mind to English (even while asleep), the easier it will be for you to recognize the pronunciation of different words and retain new vocabulary when you wake up.

Evidence from a Swiss scientific study shows that a group of students that listened to new vocabulary words as they went to sleep outperformed²⁰ another group that tried to stay awake and listen to the same words.

You can listen to your favorite relaxing songs that will help you get to sleep, or you could even listen to a sleep learning video designed specifically for learning English while you are asleep. They use calm sounds in the background as different words or conversations in English are played to help you fall asleep quickly.

Now you know how simple it is to learn English while you sleep. Though this 3-step process isn’t scientifically proven, there is evidence that tiny habits such as meditating, reading a book, and listening to English make the biggest difference in the growth that you experience, and make you feel a little bit better about the progress you are making in your English learning journey.

Do you believe in the power of meditation, the subconscious mind, and sleep learning?

Or is it just a myth?

If you never try it out, you will never know.

If you enjoyed this article, and are looking for more ways to make your English a life-changing global adventure, download a free copy of the RealLife English Manifesto: A Master Guide to RealLife Fluency and start living your English today!

Vocabulary from this article

1. feat: challenge
2. retain: to remember
3. took advantage: made the most out of the opportunity
4. commute: the travel time to and from work
5. unwind: to relax
6. prime: to prepare
7. declutter: to organize and clear space
8. ambitious: to be really motivated to achieve a goal
9. greatness: the quality of being great as a result of striving to be your best self
10. nourish: to feed
11. decluttered: to be disorganized
12. primed: to be prepared
13. imprinted: to be placed firmly
14. aspirations: dreams or goals
15. plateau: used to describe when you stop advancing in your progress toward your goals
16. harnessing: using
17. mindset: the way you see life and its challenges
18. doze off: to go to sleep
19. pajamas: clothes that you wear to bed
20. outperformed: to do better