It’s late in the evening: time to close the book and turn off the computer. You’re done for the day. What you may not realize, however, is that the learning process actually continues—in your dreams.

    It might sound like science fiction, but researchers are increasingly focusing on the relationship between the knowledge and skills our brains absorb during the day and the fragmented, often bizarre imaginings they generate at night. Scientists have found that dreaming about a task we’ve learned is associated with improved performance in that activity (suggesting that there’s some truth to the popular notion that we’re “getting” a foreign language once we begin dreaming in it). What’s more, researchers are coming to recognize that dreaming is an essential part of understanding, organizing and retaining what we learn.

    While we sleep, research indicates, the brain replays the patterns of activity it experienced during waking hours, allowing us to enter what one psychologist calls a neural (神经的) virtual reality. A vivid example of such replay can be seen in a video researchers made recently about sleep disorders. They taught a series of dance moves to a group of patients with conditions like sleepwalking, in which the sleeper engages in the kind of physical movement that does not normally occur during sleep. They then videotaped the subjects as they slept. Lying in bed, eyes closed, one female patient on the tape performs the dance moves she learned earlier.

    This shows that while our bodies are at rest, our brains are drawing what’s important from the information and events we’ve recently encountered, then integrating that data into the vast store of what we already know. In a 2010 study, researchers at Harvard Medical School reported that college students who dreamed about a computer maze (迷宫) task they had learned showed a 10-fold improvement in their ability to find their way through the maze compared with participants who did not dream about the task.

    Robert Stickgold, one of the Harvard researchers, suggests that studying right before bedtime or taking a nap following a study session in the afternoon might increase the odds of dreaming about the material. Think about that as your head hits the pillow tonight.

解析：A。根据题目中的Robert Stickgold可定位到原文最后一段。该段第一句提到，罗伯特·斯蒂克戈德建议（suggests that），在入睡前学习，或是在下午学习完之后小睡一会儿，可能会增加梦到这些内容的几率。而文章在此之前说过，梦到所学内容会对提升学习效果有帮助。由此可知，要想提升学习效果，罗伯特建议人们在入睡前学习，或在学习完之后小睡一会儿。A项与此内容相符，其中Having a little sleep对应最后一段第一句中的taking a nap，after studying in the day对应该句中的following a study session in the afternoon，故A项为正确答案。

错项排除：在原文最后一段第一句中出现了before bedtime（睡觉之前），B项利用这一信息点设置干扰，但Staying up late这一信息在原文中没有提及，故B项排除。文中提到，梦到所学内容有利于提升学习效果，并不是梦到什么都可以，故排除C项。D项用原文提到的odds设置干扰，但原文是说学习完小睡一会儿有可能增加梦到所学内容的几率，而且最后一句说让读者们在睡觉时考虑一下罗伯特的建议，并不是想想自己梦到所学内容的几率，故排除D项。