Dream incorporation and subsequent memory change after learning and waking reactivation
Abstract
Dreams often incorporate recent waking experiences, but whether the relationship between dream content and subsequent memory depends on the state of the memory before sleep remains unclear. In this exploratory study, fifteen participants learned novel word-definition-image associations across a four-day home-based protocol. Dream reports were collected after serial awakenings following initial learning and again after an incomplete reminder designed to reactivate the memory. Dream incorporations were classified as explicit, comprising recognizable references to the learned material or experimental procedure, or semantic/thematic, reflecting conceptual associations with the learned material. Following initial learning, greater explicit task-related dream incorporation was associated with greater subsequent improvement in word recall. In contrast, following memory reactivation, greater explicit and total task-related incorporation was associated with lower subsequent memory change scores for both words and definitions. Phase-by-incorporation analyses confirmed that this relationship differed between phases for word recall, whereas the corresponding interactions for definition recall did not reach significance. These findings suggest that the relationship between dream incorporation and later memory may depend on the state of the memory before sleep, and that dream reports may provide a behavioral window into both post-learning and post-reactivation memory processing.
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BibTeX
@misc{gorosito2026dream,
title = {{Dream incorporation and subsequent memory change after learning and waking reactivation}},
author = {María Laura Gorosito and Matias Rodolfo Pretel and Nerea L. Herrero and Joaquín Fernández Sande and Rodrigo Ramele and Luis Brusco and Laura Kaczer and Cecilia Forcato},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/4jdqy_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/4jdqy_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Dream incorporation and subsequent memory change after learning and waking reactivation
AU - María Laura Gorosito
AU - Matias Rodolfo Pretel
AU - Nerea L. Herrero
AU - Joaquín Fernández Sande
AU - Rodrigo Ramele
AU - Luis Brusco
AU - Laura Kaczer
AU - Cecilia Forcato
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/20
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/4jdqy_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/4jdqy_v1/
AB - Dreams often incorporate recent waking experiences, but whether the relationship between dream content and subsequent memory depends on the state of the memory before sleep remains unclear. In this exploratory study, fifteen participants learned novel word-definition-image associations across a four-day home-based protocol. Dream reports were collected after serial awakenings following initial learning and again after an incomplete reminder designed to reactivate the memory. Dream incorporations were classified as explicit, comprising recognizable references to the learned material or experimental procedure, or semantic/thematic, reflecting conceptual associations with the learned material. Following initial learning, greater explicit task-related dream incorporation was associated with greater subsequent improvement in word recall. In contrast, following memory reactivation, greater explicit and total task-related incorporation was associated with lower subsequent memory change scores for both words and definitions. Phase-by-incorporation analyses confirmed that this relationship differed between phases for word recall, whereas the corresponding interactions for definition recall did not reach significance. These findings suggest that the relationship between dream incorporation and later memory may depend on the state of the memory before sleep, and that dream reports may provide a behavioral window into both post-learning and post-reactivation memory processing.
ER -