Auditory Awakening Thresholds and Dream Recall in NREM Sleep
Perceptual and Motor Skills October 1, 1969 Robert Watson, Allan Rechtschaffen
Earlier research had shown that people with lower auditory awakening thresholds (AATs) reported more dreams when awakened from non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. In this study of four participants over several nights, no relationship was found between Stage 2 NREM dreaming and within-subject, within-night variations in AAT. Subjectively 'deep' Stage 2 sleep was associated with high AATs and with reports of Stage 2 dreaming. AATs declined over successive nights of laboratory sleep. Earlier findings of similar AATs for REM and Stage 2 sleep, a decrease in AAT with time of night, and no relationship between AAT and time since last awakening were confirmed. Stage 2 awakenings close together in time yielded more reports with similar manifest content.