Some Chopin can make you smarter – even in your sleep!

STUDENTS desperate to boost their grades should recruit the great composers.

Scientists have found that revising to the sound of classical music produces better test results.

But the benefit comes only if the learners also sleep with the same music playing.

Researchers recruited 50 people aged 18 to 33 to watch an online economics lecture. At the same time they were played Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Vivaldi’s Spring and a Chopin nocturne.

Half had the same music at night, while in deep sleep, while the rest were played white noise. Those who heard the music asleep scored higher in an economics test the next day.

Experts believe music, just like the smell of freshly mown grass or an expartner’s perfume, triggers memories. If this process happens at night – when the day’s memories are processed, the recall rate may be higher.

Study senior author, Dr Michael Scullin of Baylor University in Texas, said: ‘We ruled out jazz because it’s too sporadic and would probably cause people to wake. We ruled out popular music because lyrical music disrupts initial studying.

‘We also ruled out ocean waves and ambient music because it’s very easy to ignore.

‘That left us with classical music, which many students already listen to while studying.’

Published in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, the study asked people to listen to classical music during the half-hour lecture, then to sleep in a laboratory.

Half were played almost 15 minutes of the music again when they were in deepest sleep – slow-wave sleep – which is an important time for memories being stored in the brain.

Among this group, almost 58 per cent passed the economics test they were given the next day, compared with less than a quarter of those played white noise in the night.

Women appeared to see the biggest boost from classical music. However when researchers went back and tested the group nine months later, everyone did equally badly.