Sleep Science Podcast Episode 5: Anat Arzi & Thomas Andrillon - Learning in your sleep
Sep 21, 2020
Thomas Andrillon, a sleep researcher studying acoustic learning and sensory suppression in REM, and Anat Arzi, an olfaction specialist who showed humans can form associations and reduce smoking during sleep, discuss whether and how the brain picks up new information while asleep. They compare REM and non-REM windows, olfactory versus acoustic methods, timing and phase effects, and practical limits for clinical use.
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Sleeping Brain Still Processes External Stimuli
- The sleeping brain can both process external stimuli and sometimes learn from them rather than being uniformly unresponsive.
- Anat Arzi used olfaction and sniff responses to reveal associative learning during sleep, challenging older negative findings.
Tones Paired With Odors Changed Sniffing During Sleep
- Anat Arzi paired tones with pleasant versus rotten-egg odors during sleep and measured automatic sniffing to index learning.
- Tones alone later elicited differential sniff sizes both during sleep and ~30 minutes after waking, showing cross-state retrieval.
Sleeping Conditioning Reduced Smoking For A Week
- In smokers, Anat Arzi paired cigarette odor with a profoundly unpleasant odor during non-REM or REM sleep and tracked cigarette use for a week.
- Conditioning in non-REM yielded ~30% reduction in smoking for a week versus ~10% after REM; awake conditioning had no effect.