Dreaming without rem sleep
Open accessAbstract
To test whether mental activities collected from non-REM sleep are influenced by REM sleep, we suppressed REM sleep using clomipramine 50mg (an antidepressant) or placebo in the evening, in a double blind cross-over design, in 11 healthy young men. Subjects were awakened every hour and asked about their mental activity. The marked (81%, range 39-98%) REM-sleep suppression induced by clomipramine did not substantially affect any aspects of dream recall (report length, complexity, bizarreness, pleasantness and self-perception of dream or thought-like mentation). Since long, complex and bizarre dreams persist even after suppressing REM sleep either partially or totally, it suggests that the generation of mental activity during sleep is independent of sleep stage.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Dreaming occurs regularly throughout the night across different sleep stages, although it is rarest in NREM stage 3.
“Yet there is evidence that dreaming occurs regularly throughout the night, across different sleep stages,18 although it is rarest in the “deepest” stage of NREM, stage 3, wherein surface EEG reflects low-frequency cortical slow waves.”
From The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization (2021) · cites this paper as [18]
Cites
(1970) · Cited by 24,983 · see citing works
A new depression scale designed to be sensitive to change
Montgomery, S. A., & Åsberg, M. (1979) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.134.4.382 · Cited by 13,962 · see citing works
Rechtschaffen, A. (1968) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 11,772 · see citing works
(2007) · Cited by 6,530 · see citing works
Hobson, J. A. (1969) · Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology · doi:10.1016/0013-4694(69)90021-2 · Cited by 5,215 · see citing works
Regularly Occurring Periods of Eye Motility, and Concomitant Phenomena, During Sleep
Aserinsky, E., & Kleitman, N. (1953) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.118.3062.273 · Cited by 2,488 · see citing works
Sleep-dependent memory consolidation
Stickgold, R. (2005) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature04286 · Cited by 1,857 · see citing works
Functional neuroanatomy of human rapid-eye-movement sleep and dreaming
Maquet, P., Péters, J.-M., Aerts, J., Delfiore, G., Degueldre, C., Luxen, A., & Franck, G. (1996) · Nature · doi:10.1038/383163a0 · Cited by 1,168 · see citing works
Functions of Varied Experience
Berlyne, D. E., Fiske, D. W., & Maddi, S. R. (1963) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.2307/1419183 · Cited by 1,114 · see citing works
Dreaming and the brain: toward a cognitive neuroscience of conscious states
Hobson, J. A., Pace-Schott, E. F., & Stickgold, R. (2000) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x00003976 · Cited by 985 · cited 3× · see citing works
“Moreover, this finding seems incompatible with the two-generator model (Hobson et al., 2000), which assumes a tight coupling between REM sleep and complex, bizarre, hallucinatory experiences in sleep.”
BackgroundResultDement, W., & Kleitman, N. (1957) · Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0048189 · Cited by 971 · see citing works
The brain as a dream state generator: an activation-synthesis hypothesis of the dream process
Hobson, J. A., & McCarley, R. W. (1977) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/ajp.134.12.1335 · Cited by 946 · see citing works
Experience-dependent changes in cerebral activation during human REM sleep
Maquet, P., Laureys, S., Peigneux, P., Fuchs, S., Petiau, C., Phillips, C., Aerts, J., Del Fiore, G., Degueldre, C., Meulemans, T., et al. (2000) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/77744 · Cited by 747 · see citing works
Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms
Solms, M. (2000) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x00003988 · Cited by 595 · see citing works
Dream reports from different stages of sleep
Foulkes, W. D. (1962) · The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0040431 · Cited by 563 · see citing works
Nielsen, T. A. (2000) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x0000399x · Cited by 521 · see citing works
Braun, A. R., Balkin, T. J., Wesensten, N. J., Gwadry, F., Carson, R. E., Varga, M., Baldwin, P., Belenky, G., & Herscovitch, P. (1998) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.279.5347.91 · Cited by 474 · see citing works
(1985) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 369 · see citing works
Mental activity at sleep onset.
Foulkes, D., & VOGEL, G. (1965) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0022217 · Cited by 313 · see citing works
Pharmacological REM sleep suppression paradoxically improves rather than impairs skill memory
Rasch, B., Pommer, J., Diekelmann, S., & Born, J. (2009) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn.2206 · Cited by 259 · see citing works
Thalamic deactivation at sleep onset precedes that of the cerebral cortex in humans
Magnin, M., Rey, M., Bastuji, H., Guillemant, P., Mauguière, F., & Garcia-Larrea, L. (2010) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0909710107 · Cited by 230 · see citing works
Sleep imaging and the neuro-psychological assessment of dreams
Schwartz, S., & Maquet, P. (2002) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(00)01818-0 · Cited by 218 · see citing works
Self-citationREM and NREM sleep reports: comparison of word frequencies by cognitive classes
Antrobus, J. (1983) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1983.tb03015.x · Cited by 215 · cited 7× · see citing works
“…model has been called into question by those suggesting that dream generation involves the same underlying mechanisms regardless of the sleep stage in which it occurs (Antrobus, 1983; Feinberg & March, 1995; Foulkes, 1985) so that dreaming is largely independent of REM sleep physiology.”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialEmotion profiles in the dreams of men and women
Merritt, J. M., Stickgold, R., Pace-Schott, E., Williams, J., & Hobson, J. A. (1994) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1006/ccog.1994.1004 · Cited by 179 · see citing works
Temporal sequence and unit composition in dream reports from different stages of sleep
Foulkes, D., & Schmidt, M. (1983) · Sleep · doi:10.1093/sleep/6.3.265 · Cited by 179 · see citing works
Cavallero, C., Cicogna, P., Natale, V., Occhionero, M., & Zito, A. (1992) · Sleep · doi:10.1093/sleep/15.6.562 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
A content analysis of bizarre elements in dreams.
Revonsuo, A., & Salmivalli, C. (1995) · Dreaming · doi:10.1037/h0094433 · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Snyder, F. R. (1970) · Cited by 148 · see citing works
The Psychodynamic Implications of the Physiological Studies on Dreams
Epstein, A. W. (1971) · The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/00005053-197106000-00010 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
V. Reports of Mental Activity during Sleep
Rechtschaffen, A., Verdone, P., & Wheaton, J. (1963) · Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal · doi:10.1177/070674376300800612 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
Thinking and hallucinating: Reciprocal changes in sleep
Fosse, R., Stickgold, R., & Hobson, J. A. (2003) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2003.00146.x · Cited by 105 · see citing works
Sleep, Depression and Antidepressants
Chen, C.-N. (1979) · The British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.135.5.385 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Regional cerebral blood flow during light sleep – a H 2 15 O‐PET study
Kjær, T. W., Law, I. G., Wiltschiøtz, G., Paulson, O. B., & Madsen, P. L. (2002) · Journal of Sleep Research · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2869.2002.00303.x · Cited by 93 · see citing works
NREM mentation: relation to personality, orientation time, and time of night
Pivik, T., & Foulkes, D. (1968) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0025489 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Ego Functions and Dreaming During Sleep Onset
VOGEL, G. (1966) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1966.01730090014003 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
Pace-Schott, E. F., Gersh, T., Silvestri, R., Stickgold, R., Salzman, C., & Hobson, J. A. (2001) · Journal of Sleep Research · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2869.2001.00249.x · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Prevalence of auditory, olfactory, and gustatory experiences in home dreams.
Zadra, A. L., Nielsen, T. A., & Donderi, D. C. (1998) · Perceptual and Motor Skills · doi:10.2466/pms.1998.87.3.819 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Cortical activation patterns herald successful dream recall after NREM and REM sleep
Chellappa, S. L., Frey, S., Knoblauch, V., & Cajochen, C. (2011) · Biological Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.03.004 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Dreaming during non-rapid eye movement sleep in the absence of prior rapid eye movement sleep
Suzuki, H., Uchiyama, M., Tagaya, H., Ozaki, A., Kuriyama, K., Aritake, S., Shibui, K., Tan, X., Kamei, Y., & Kuga, R. (2004) · Sleep · doi:10.1093/sleep/27.8.1486 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Behavioral, subjective and physiological aspects of drowsiness and sleep
Kamiya, J. (1961) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 73 · see citing works
Home and Laboratory Dreams: Four Empirical Studies and a Conceptual Reevaluation
(1979) · Sleep · doi:10.1093/sleep/2.2.233 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Bizarreness in dreams and fantasies: Implications for the activation-synthesis hypothesis
Williams, J. G. M., Merritt, J. M., Rittenhouse, C., & Hobson, J. A. (1992) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1016/1053-8100(92)90059-j · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Dreaming as Delirium: A Mental Status Analysis of our Nightly Madness
Hobson, J. A. (1997) · Seminars in Neurology · doi:10.1055/s-2008-1040921 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Dreaming: a neurocognitive approach.
Hobson, J. A., & Stickgold, R. (1994) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1006/ccog.1994.1001 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Cognitive Aspects of Mental Activity during Sleep
Cicogna, P., Cavallero, C., & Bosinelli, M. (1991) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.2307/1423247 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Evidence for the Re-Enactment of a Recently Learned Behavior during Sleepwalking
Oudiette, D., Constantinescu, I., Leclair‐Visonneau, L., Vidailhet, M., Schwartz, S., & Arnulf, I. (2011) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018056 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Self-citationVariations in Sleep Mentation as a Function of Time of Night
Casagrande, M., Violani, C., Lucidi, F., Buttinelli, E., & Bertini, M. (1996) · International Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.3109/00207459608986348 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Feinberg, I., & March, J. D. (1995) · Behavioural Brain Research · doi:10.1016/0166-4328(95)00010-q · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Factors associated with complex visual hallucinations during antidepressant treatment
Cancelli, I., Marcon, G., & Balestrieri, M. (2004) · Human Psychopharmacology Clinical and Experimental · doi:10.1002/hup.640 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Nielsen, T., Stenstrom, P., Takeuchi, T., Saucier, S., Lara-Carrasco, J., Solomonova, E., & Martel, E. (2005) · SLEEP · doi:10.1093/sleep/28.9.1083 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Human parahippocampal activity: non-REM and REM elements in wake–sleep transition
Bódizs, R., Sverteczki, M., Lázár, A. S., & Halász, P. (2005) · Brain Research Bulletin · doi:10.1016/j.brainresbull.2005.01.002 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Methodological issues affecting the collection of dreams
Waterman, D., ELTON, M., & Kenemans, J. L. (1993) · Journal of Sleep Research · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2869.1993.tb00053.x · Cited by 36 · see citing works
II. Muscle atonia in non-REM sleep
Werth, E., Achermann, P., & Borbély, A. A. (2002) · American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology · doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00466.2001 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Sleep Mentation in the Elderly
Fein, G., Feinberg, I., Insel, T. R., Antrobus, J. S., Price, L. J., Floyd, T. C., & Nelson, M. A. (1985) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1985.tb01590.x · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Slow wave and REM sleep mentation.
Cicogna, P., Natale, V., Occhionero, M., & Bosinelli, M. (2000) · PubMed · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Theories of dream formation and recent studies of sleep consciousness.
Foulkes, D. (1964) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/h0042134 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Mentation during Sleep: REM and Nrem Recall Reports
Kales, A., Hoedemaker, F. S., Jacobson, A. L., Kales, J. D., Paulson, M. J., & Wilson, T. E. (1967) · Perceptual and Motor Skills · doi:10.2466/pms.1967.24.2.555 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
The effect of trimipramine on dream recall and dream emotions in depressive outpatients
Schredl, M., Berger, T., & Riemann, D. W. (2009) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2008.03.002 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Absence of dream recall in lobotomised patients
Jus, A., Jus, K., Villeneuve, A., & Pires, A. (1972) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(72)91516-4 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Differences between SO, Stage 2 and REM reports assessed by a psycholinguistic scale.
CASAGRANDE, M., VIOLANI, C., LUCIDI, F., et al. (1990) · IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Neural decoding of visual imagery during sleep
Horikawa, T., Tamaki, M., Miyawaki, Y., & Kamitani, Y. (2013) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1234330 · Cited by 498 · see citing works
Dreaming as mind wandering: evidence from functional neuroimaging and first-person content reports
Fox, K. C. R., Nijeboer, S., Solomonova, E., Domhoff, G. W., & Christoff, K. (2013) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00412 · Cited by 289 · see citing works
The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes
Scarpelli, S., Bartolacci, C., D'Atri, A., Gorgoni, M., & De Gennaro, L. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00459 · Cited by 190 · see citing works
Dreaming in NREM Sleep: A High-Density EEG Study of Slow Waves and Spindles
Siclari, F., Bernardi, G., Cataldi, J., & Tononi, G. (2018) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0855-18.2018 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Dreams and nightmares in healthy adults and in patients with sleep and neurological disorders
Siclari, F., Valli, K., & Arnulf, I. (2020) · The Lancet Neurology · doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(20)30275-1 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Self-citationApical drive-A cellular mechanism of dreaming?
Aru, J., Siclari, F., Phillips, W. A., & Storm, J. F. (2020) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.09.018 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization
Hoel, E. (2021) · Patterns · doi:10.1016/j.patter.2021.100244 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
“Yet there is evidence that dreaming occurs regularly throughout the night, across different sleep stages (Oudiette et al., 2012), although it is rarest in the "deepest" stage of NREM, stage 3, wherein surface EEG reflects low-frequency cortical slow-waves.”
BackgroundCipolli, C., Ferrara, M., De Gennaro, L., & Plazzi, G. (2017) · Sleep Medicine Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2016.07.005 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Dreaming with hippocampal damage
Spanò, G., Pizzamiglio, G., McCormick, C., Clark, I. A., De Felice, S., Miller, T. D., Edgin, J. O., Rosenthal, C. R., & Maguire, E. A. (2020) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.56211 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Will students pass a competitive exam that they failed in their dreams?
Arnulf, I., Grosliere, L., Le Corvec, T., Golmard, J.-L., Lascols, O., & Duguet, A. (2014) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.concog.2014.06.010 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Self-citationStucky, B. (2025) · Nature and Science of Sleep · doi:10.2147/nss.s506461 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Structural differences between REM and non-REM dream reports assessed by graph analysis
Martin, J. M., Wainstein, D., Mota, N. B., Mota-Rolim, S. A., Araújo, J. F., Solms, M., & Ribeiro, S. (2020) · doi:10.1101/2020.01.28.922740 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
“[11] REM - 40, N2 - 13; [12] REM - 148, N2 - 21).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialHow Adversarial REM Dreams May Facilitate Creativity, and Why We Become Aware of Them
Deperrois, N., Petrovici, M., Jordan, J., Huber, L., & Senn, W. (2024) · Clinical and Translational Neuroscience · doi:10.3390/ctn8020021 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“Nonetheless, there have been some attempts to investigate the effect of dreaming, notably through the use of pharmacological interventions to suppress REM sleep in participants (see, e.g. [26]).”
Background
- Authors
- Oudiette, D., Dealberto, M.-J., Uguccioni, G., Golmard, J.-L., Merino-Andreu, M., Tafti, M., Garma, L., Schwartz, S., & Arnulf, I.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital (FR)
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CH)
- University of Geneva (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Arnulf, Isabelle
- Venue
- Consciousness and Cognition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-09
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 1129-1140
- ISSN
- 1053-8100 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2006803145
- Cited by
- 91
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 2.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Consciousness and Cognition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- IRIS (submittedVersion)
- SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Keywords
- REM sleep, NREM sleep, dream recall, clomipramine, REM sleep suppression, dream content, dream bizarreness
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic, Clomipramine, Double-Blind Method, Dreams, Humans, Male, Mental Recall, Sleep Stages, Sleep, REM, Polysomnography, Cross-Over Studies, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
