Gender and racial bias can be 'unlearnt' during sleep, new study suggests

Playing auditory cues during sleep partially undid biases, raising possibility of using the technique to make permanent behavioural changes

In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the overlords use "sleep teaching" to condition children to submit to their sinister moral values. Now scientists have found a more noble purpose for the technique in a study that suggests deep-rooted biases about race and gender could be "unlearnt" during a short nap.

The findings appear to confirm the idea that sleeping provides a unique window for accessing and altering fundamental beliefs - even prejudices that we don't know we have.