The DOI matches its Crossref record; 65 of the 65 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Dreaming and Offline Memory Consolidation
Open accessAbstract
Converging evidence suggests that dreaming is influenced by the consolidation of memory during sleep. Following encoding, recently formed memory traces are gradually stabilized and reorganized into a more permanent form of long-term storage. Sleep provides an optimal neurophysiological state to facilitate this process, allowing memory networks to be repeatedly reactivated in the absence of new sensory input. The process of memory reactivation and consolidation in the sleeping brain appears to influence conscious experience during sleep, contributing to dream content recalled on awakening. This article outlines several lines of evidence in support of this hypothesis, and responds to some common objections.
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“Despite their realism, dreams, especially from rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, often feature bizarre and creative elements, mostly because they do not simply replay previous experiences [5-7].”
From How Adversarial REM Dreams May Facilitate Creativity, and Why We Become Aware of Them (2024) · cites this paper as [7]
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“Indeed, it is openly admitted that the consolidation hypothesis still views dreams themselves as epiphenomena.54”
From The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization (2021) · cites this paper as [54]
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“Perhaps the leading contemporary theory is that dreams somehow involve memory consolidation and storage,53 often via a proposed form of memory replay.54”
From The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization (2021) · cites this paper as [54]
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“According to this hypothesis, dreams are not epiphenomena, either in the sense of neutral evolution but also in the sense of not being an expression of some other background process, such as patterns of activity and associated experiences merely brought about by some other processing integrating new memories.54 Rather, the point of dreams is the dreams themselves, because they provide departures a”
From The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization (2021) · cites this paper as [54]
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Items 101–111 of 111
Thagard, P. R. (2025) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780198962373.002.0007
Rungs on the Ladder to Consciousness
Thagard, P. R. (2025) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780198962373.003.0001
Thagard, P. R. (2025) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780198962373.002.0002
Vitali, H., Campus, C., Giorgetti, L., Famà, F., Mattioli, P., Arnaldi, D., & Gori, M. (2025) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0327521 · Cited by 1
The borderland between wakefulness and sleep, a doorway into creativity
Lacaux, C. (2021) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/a9f3460dz3d02z42aczad97zf8c513812801 · Cited by 1
Williams, J. M., Bourgin, J., Varennes, J., Pedreni, M., Bulinski, M., Blagrove, M., & Eichenlaub, J. (2026) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-026-48302-y
PreDA: Prefix-Based Dream Reports Annotation with Generative Language Models
Bertolini, L., Comte, V., Ceresa, M., & Consoli, S. (2026) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-21477-5_13
Bridging dream and wake states: a new tool for consciousness research
Temel, Z., Uzer, G., Senturk, H., Ay, E., Yayla, T. İ., Dikmen, M., Velioğlu, H. A., Yıldırım, E., & Hanoğlu, L. (2026) · Neuroscience of Consciousness · doi:10.1093/nc/niag038
Insights into the sleeping mind: Neural correlates of dreaming
Camaioni, M., Gennaro, L. D., & Scarpelli, S. (2026) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-443-29258-3.00035-5
Metadata
- Authors
- Wamsley, E. J.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wamsley, Erin J.
- ORCID
- Wamsley, Erin J.
- Venue
- Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports
- Published
- 2014-01-30
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 433-433
- ISSN
- 1528-4042 (ISSN-L)
- 1534-6293
- PMC
- PMC4704085
- OpenAlex
- W2088544817
- Cited by
- 111
- References
- 65
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 7
- FWCI
- 0.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (KL2TR000168)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (T32HL07901-10, T32HL007901)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH048832, R21MH098171)
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- dreams, memory consolidation, sleep, memory reactivation, long-term memory storage, dream recall, memory stabilization
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Brain, Consciousness, Dreams, Eye Movements, Humans, Memory, Sleep
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