Colloquia - “Memory Modification During Sleep Benefits Learning, Creativity, and Well-Being”

Whereas memory research has mostly focused on input and output, intervening processing during the time between acquisition and retrieval is also relevant. A growing body of evidence implicates sleep in changing memory storage. In particular, subtle auditory stimulation has been used to selectively encourage memory reactivation during sleep, which thereby improves learning. With a variant on these procedures, we have also demonstrated the feasibility of two-way dialogue during dreaming. Research on memory processing during sleep is providing novel ways to enhance the various benefits of sleep in a variety of circumstances.