What a surprise! I wrote a short story last year about the exact same phenomenon: http://daariga.wordpress.com/2013/03/24/the-dream-worker/
Quite a shock to see it being found to be true as a research finding. Many of the details in the story matched so closely to the research methodology that I still cannot believe this is happening :-)
I remember when I first moved to Germany from the UK. I was immersed in a foreign language and my brain was constantly telling me I needed to go to sleep, especially after social occasions where the language input was extreme.
I pictured my brain sorting out words and linkages as I slept. Makes sense for the brain to require partial downtime for a index reorganisation.
As somebody with a sleep disorder, I've suspected this for some time.
I think you keep on thinking while sleeping (at the higher levels), it's just a bit dissociative and you don't remember any of it. In fact, that's probably where you can do a lot of your best creative work.
Many times I'll "solve" a problem while deep in sleep, think to myself "Hey! I just solved this! I need to remember." then forget completely the next day -- only to come around to the solution again later on, seemingly on my own.
Sleep is a very strange process.
Seems like a "filler" piece, not much info there. Sleep isn't "on/off", but normally goes through levels of consciousness from wakefulness to unaware. Not surprisingly we might be able to handle a simple task.
I remember a time when I was "on call". The phone rang at 04:00. It wound up being a long discussion, necessary to manage a complex problem. Strangely, when I got to work I had no recollection at all of what happened overnight, and stunned when I found out what I'd done (correctly too).
Handling a few words wouldn't be such a big deal.
Shouldn't they be studying how we can get more restful sleep rather than fantasizing about extracting more work out of us? I don't consider it 'productive' (much less healthy) when I spend the night grinding on some technical problem. The Mendeleev anecdote and 'solving problems in your sleep' are about something entirely different, to me.
> Once asleep, a new list of words was tested on participants to ensure that the brain had to work out the meaning of the words before classifying them using the buttons. Their brain activity showed they continued to respond accurately, the researchers said, although it happened more slowly.
EEG-based interrogation of sleeping people?!
Journal paper, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982214...
"This study uncovers a promising avenue to study nonconscious processes ... although sleeping participants may continue to process information in a goal-oriented manner, this task set is presumably maintained without the participant being conscious of it ... studying sleep in this context allows pushing further the limits and extents of nonconscious processes and establishing the properties of a broader and more natural type of cognitive unconscious."
Another article, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140911125806.ht...
"The study also extends earlier work on subliminal processing by showing that speech processing and other complex tasks "can be done not only without being aware of what you perceive, but [also] without being aware at all." Kouider suspects that such unconscious processing isn't limited by the complexity of the task, but by whether it can be made automatic or not."
I've "solved problems" (more like getting a breakthrough idea) during my sleep so yes I'm sure your brain can do a lot during sleep
Seems pretty obvious considering words spoken to a sleeping person can be incorporated into their dream - and the only way to do that is through classification
How about a "Classifying@Home" (similar to Folding@Home) - you wear an EEG helmet while you sleep to offload "unused" brain cycles to classify words for science! :)
Any task that could become automated could be maintained during sleep, he said.
So someone who is highly trained could continue to work while they are asleep. ie, an expert stock broker could classify market data (as interpreted by EEG readings) throughout the night. Interesting, and a bit worrisome to think that some corporations could use this technology to get 16 hour days out of employees.
I am interested in the idea of continuing to "work" while sleeping. I've read anecdotes about people who solve technical problems in their dreams and the concept of getting a few more mental hours out of the day is very appealing. Time is arguably the most valuable resource and anything that can create more of it has potential to have a big impact. Hopefully this early result will turn into something bigger, ideally some kind of technology that allows people to communicate with themselves while sleeping. For that, I would pay a lot.
edit: Also, does this method have any value as a lie detector? Someone could ask a target true or false questions and record their EEG readings, and then ask a different set of questions while the target is asleep. Even the most skilled liar might not be able to deceive while unconscious.