The trick to learning vocabulary would be to make these words meaningful and not arbitrary, for example by learning words related to an activity or a theme (whi

The trick to learning vocabulary would be to make these words meaningful and not arbitrary, for example by learning words related to an activity or a theme (which happens naturally when you spend time in a foreign country). Meaningless words are more reliably remembered by making up a story about them, even though that technically adds to the quantity of information to remember; if the subjects had been encouraged to use those strategies the gains might drown the before-sleep effect.