To sleep, perchance to dream
Learning & Memory November 1, 2004 Jonathan Winson 2 citations preprint
Understanding dreams requires both neurobiological and psychological explanations. Sleep enhances memory consolidation, with slow-wave sleep aiding declarative memory and REM sleep processing procedural skills. Following training on the Tower of Hanoi or mirror tracing, the number of rapid eye movements during REM sleep increases without changing total REM time. In a cognitive task, a hidden rule is discovered twice as fast after sleep than after wakefulness. Historical anecdotes like Kekule's benzene dream may reflect memory processing during sleep. Questions remain about systems that alter memory and produce dreams, the significance of increased eye movement density after learning, and how dreams might inform understanding of consciousness and self.