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：C。原文第三、四段都是在说人们在睡觉时大脑的活动。根据题干中的brain、sleeping及选项中的关键词data及information可定位至第四段。该段第一句提到，当我们的身体处于休息状态时，大脑会从我们最近接触到的信息和事件中提取出重要的信息，然后将这些数据整合到我们已知的海量信息中。C项与此内容相符，其中processes对应定位句中的drawing what’s important（提取重要信息），absorbs对应定位句中的integrating，newly acquired data对应the information...we’ve recently encountered，故C项为正确答案。

错项排除：原文中只提到，人在睡觉时，大脑会处理最新接触到的信息并加以整合，而不是处理所有的数据，A项中的all过于绝对，故A项排除。原文中只提到大脑会将新的数据整合到已知信息中，并而不是用新数据代替旧数据，故B项排除。原文中未提及classifies information（信息分类）和different files（不同文件）等信息，故D项排除。