Memory Sources of REM and NREM Dreams
Corrado Cavallero, David Foulkes, Michael Hollifield, Rebecca Terry
Sleep September 1, 1990 DOI: 10.1093/sleep/13.5.449 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational sleep-laboratory study with counterbalanced awakenings Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 16 |
| Population | Male volunteers sleeping in a sleep laboratory |
| Duration | 4 nonconsecutive nights per subject |
| Citations | 71 |
| Key findings | Semantic knowledge was cited more often as a dream source for REM than NREM reports, replicating earlier work, but this difference disappeared after controlling for report length. Time of night affected source class only in REM sleep: more semantic sources were cited for late than early REM dreams, both with and without length controls. |
Abstract
Sixteen male volunteers slept 4 nonconsecutive nights each in a sleep laboratory. They were awakened for one dream report per night. Awakenings were made, in counterbalanced order, from early-night and late-night rapid-eye movement (REM) and non-REM (NREM) sleep. Following dream reporting, subjects were asked to identify memory sources of their dream imagery. Two independent judges reliably rated mentation reports for temporal units and categorized memory sources as autobiographical episodes, abstract self-references, or semantic knowledge. We replicated earlier findings that semantic knowledge is more frequently mentioned as a dream source for REM than for NREM reports. However, with controls for length of reports, the REM-NREM difference disappeared, indicating that the stage difference in memory sources was not independent of stage difference in report lengths. There was a significant effect of time of night on source class, but only in REM sleep: Both without and with controls for report length, more semantic sources were cited for late than for early REM dreams.
Citations in the library
Cited by 27
- Slow Wave Sleep Dreaming Sleep November 1, 1992
- Dream content and psychological well-being: A longitudinal study of the continuity hypothesis Journal of Clinical Psychology 2005
- Dreaming During Non-rapid Eye Movement Sleep in the Absence of Prior Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Sleep December 1, 2004
- Dreaming during the Covid-19 pandemic: Computational assessment of dream reports reveals mental suffering related to fear of contagion PLoS One November 30, 2020
- Corollary Discharge, Hallucinations, and Dreaming Schizophrenia Bulletin October 7, 2010
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