Abstract
The question of a possible link between dream content and memory consolidation remains open. After a comprehensive review of the literature, we present novel findings from an experiment testing whether the incorporation of recently learned stimuli into dream reports is associated with improved post-sleep memory performance. Thirty-two high dream recallers freely explored new visuo-olfactory episodes for 3 consecutive days. During the nights following each non-explicit encoding, participants wore a wrist actimeter, and woke up at 5am and their usual waking time to record their dreams (intensity of all oneiric sensory perception was assessed using scales). A total of 120 dreams were reported and elements related to the encoding phase were identified in 37 of them, either learning-related (mainly visual- and rarely olfactory-related elements), or experiment-related (lab- or experimenters-related elements). On the 4th day, we found that participants with learning-related (n = 16) and participants with learning-related and/or experiment-related dreams (n = 21) had similar odor recognition and odor-evoked episodic memory with the other participants. However, they had significantly better visuo-spatial memory of the episodes in comparison to the other participants. Our results support the hypothesis that the learning phase is loosely incorporated into dreams and that this incorporation is associated with sleep related memory consolidation.
Highlights
The question of a possible link between dream content and memory consolidation remains open
Participants were selected based on their self-assessed dream recall frequency (DRF; the threshold for selection was at least 4 mornings per week with a dream in mind39) which resulted in an average DRF of 4.89 ± 1.21 dream reports per week in the final sample
It increases the chances of obtaining numerous dream reports (2 awakenings per night during 3 nights in high dream recallers using a voice recorder), and the chances to get learning-related dream reports, while keeping sleep disruption to a minimum
Summary
The question of a possible link between dream content and memory consolidation remains open. After a comprehensive review of the literature, we present novel findings from an experiment testing whether the incorporation of recently learned stimuli into dream reports is associated with improved post-sleep memory performance. Because the cognitive experience of dreaming during sleep[7,8] regularly incorporates waking life elements[9,10,11] (and for a review12), the idea of a possible link between dream content and memory consolidation has rapidly emerged. A current hypothesis postulates that dream content reflects memory consolidation and predicts better post-sleep performance when a recent learning experience is incorporated into dreams[13,14,15,16,17]. A few studies have experimentally addressed this issue and tested whether memory performance improved when participants reported learning-related dreams. External-scoring by 2 blind raters of congruent vs incongruent inc External-scoring by blind raters of direct explicit inc* of the maze
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