TEMPORAL DELAYS IN INCORPORATION OF EVENTS INTO DREAMS

20 subjects viewed an emotionally arousing video and then recorded the ir dreams at home for seven nights. Dreams were subsequently rated for the likelihood that some aspect of the video had been incorporated. F or subjects who showed strong evidence of incorporation, mean likeliho od of incorporation ratings followed a U-shaped pattern, with signific antly higher scores on Nights 1, 6, and 7 than on Night 4. The similar ity of this temporal pattern with REM sleep patterns observed in rats exposed to various learning experiences is noted, and the role of the hippocampus as a possible neural mechanism for delayed incorporations is discussed.