The nature of delayed dream incorporation (‘dream‐lag effect’): Personally significant events persist, but not major daily activities or concerns
Journal of Sleep Research April 22, 2018 Jean-Baptiste Eichenlaub, Elaine Van Rijn, Mairéad Phelan et al. 17 citations
Details from personally significant waking-life events are most likely to appear in REM-sleep dreams on the first two nights after the event and again five to seven nights later, a pattern known as the day-residue and dream-lag effects. In a 14-day diary study with 38 participants, only personally significant events showed this pattern, and only among the 19 participants who had fewer total correspondences between daily events and dreams. Major daily activities and major concerns did not show the effect. The U-shaped timeline may reflect REM-sleep-dependent memory consolidation, possibly linked to emotional memory processing. This study analyzed more dreams than any previous dream-lag study with trained participants.