Investigating dreams by strategically presenting sounds during REM sleep to reactivate waking experiences.
Neuropsychologia October 10, 2025 Karen R Konkoly, Daniel J Morris, Matthew Cho et al.
Dreams may help reorganize memories overnight, improving what we learn each day, but solid evidence linking dreaming to adaptive memory reorganization has been lacking. Using Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR), where sensory stimulation during sleep influences previously acquired memories, researchers cued specific tasks during REM sleep. Participants performed two tasks associated with distinct sounds before sleep; one sound was played during REM. Dream reports showed more incorporation of elements from the cued task than the uncued task, though both were frequently incorporated. Dreaming of a task was linked with decreased negative valence and increased creativity. This approach offers a promising way to investigate dreaming's influence on memory and cognition.