Infrequent dream recall associated with low performance but high overnight improvement on mirror-tracing.
Gaëlle Dumel, Michelle Carr, Louis-Philippe Marquis, Cloé Blanchette-Carrière, Tyna Paquette, Tore Nielsen
Journal of Sleep Research August 1, 2015 DOI: 10.1111/jsr.12286 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 35 |
| Population | Habitually low and high dream recallers |
| Duration | One night in the laboratory |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Keywords | Negative dream emotion Sleep-stage-dependent learning Visuomotor learning |
| Key findings | Low dream recallers had worse baseline performance but greater overnight improvement on a visuomotor task than high recallers, with improvement linked to Stage 2 sleep. |
Abstract
Although sleep facilitates learning and memory, the roles of dreaming and habitual levels of recalling dreams remain unknown. This study examined if performance and overnight improvement on a rapid eye movement sleep-sensitive visuomotor task is associated differentially with habitually high or low dream recall frequency. As a relation between dream production and visuospatial skills has been demonstrated previously, one possibility is that frequency of dream recall will be linked to performance on visuomotor tasks such as the Mirror Tracing Task. We expected that habitually low dream recallers would perform more poorly on the Mirror Tracing Task than would high recallers and would show less task improvement following a night of sleep. Fifteen low and 20 high dream recallers slept one night each in the laboratory and performed the Mirror Tracing Task before and after sleep. Low recallers had overall worse baseline performance but a greater evening-to-morning improvement than did high recallers. Greater improvements in completion time in low recallers were associated with Stage 2 rather than rapid eye movement sleep. Findings support the separate notions that dreaming is related to visuomotor processes and that different levels of visuomotor skill engage different sleep- and dream-related consolidation mechanisms.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Dreaming: a State of Consciousness with Features of Both Waking and Non-Lucid Dreaming Student volunteers trained to become lucid and signal lucidity with horizontal eye... | 2009 | Observational study | n = 6 |
| Nightmare Prevalence, Nightmare Distress, and Self-Reported Psychological Disturbance Young adults with a mean age of 20 years | 2002 | Prospective observational study | n = 116 |
| Long-term effects of extreme situational stress on sleep and dreaming Survivors of traumatic events who complained of sleep disturbances, compared with... | 1987 | Case-control study | n = 11 |
| The relationship of nightmare frequency and nightmare distress to well‐being Adults who reported dreams | 2004 | Observational cohort | n = 147 |
| Dreaming in NREM Sleep: A High-Density EEG Study of Slow Waves and Spindles Healthy human subjects | 2018 | Observational cohort | n = 14 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 12
- Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams Nature and Science of Sleep 2018
- Enhancing and advancing the understanding and study of dreaming and memory consolidation: Reflections, challenges, theoretical clarity, and methodological considerations Consciousness and Cognition June 27, 2024
- Local Neuronal Synchronization in Frequent Nightmare Recallers and Healthy Controls: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study Frontiers in Neuroscience March 18, 2021
- Nightly dynamics of emotional content in dreams bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) June 28, 2025
- The vision of dreams: from ontogeny to dream engineering in blindness. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine August 1, 2022
and 7 more in the library
Cites 8
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- Overnight improvements in two REM sleep-sensitive tasks are associated with both REM and NREM sleep changes, sleep spindle features, and awakenings for dream recall. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory July 1, 2015
- Resting brain activity varies with dream recall frequency between subjects. Neuropsychopharmacology June 1, 2014
and 3 more in the library