People can learn a new language in their sleep, a new study suggests.

A groundbreaking experiment established it was possible to learn new words and their semantic associations from scratch while in the depths of sleep.

Scientists already know that the fragile neurological connections that form the basis of memory are strengthened during deep sleep, and previous studies have shown that words learned during consciousness can be consolidated by being repeated to a person during sleep.

However, the new research, published in the journal Current Biology, has shown for the first time that a sleeping person can be introduced to word associations for the first time and can go o to recall them while awake.

An experiment conducted by the University of Bern introduced sleeping participants to new words in a made-up language, along with a correspondent word in their native German.

The German for “key” was linked to the made-up “tofer”, while the German for “elephant” was introduced alongside “guga”.

Once they woke, the participants were asked which of the made-up words represented something large and which small.

They got the right answer at a rate which convinced the research team it was not down to fluke.