Study objectives: Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and sleep spindles are all implicated in the consolidation of procedural memories. The relative contributions of sleep stages and sleep spindles was previously shown to depend on individual differences in task processing. Experience with Vipassana meditation is one such individual difference that has not been investigated in relation to sleep. Vipassana meditation is a form of mental training that enhances proprioceptive and somatic awareness and alters attentional style. The goal was thus to examine a potential moderating role for Vipassana meditation experience on sleep-dependent procedural memory consolidation.Methods: Groups of Vipassana meditation practitioners (N=20) and matched meditation-naïve controls (N=20) slept for a single daytime nap in the laboratory. Before and after the nap they completed a procedural task on the Wii Fit balance platform.Results: Meditators performed slightly bett...

Vipassana meditation is characterized by observing bodily sensations, developing emotional and attentional stability and promoting pro-social qualities. Whether these qualities are also reflected in dream content is not currently known. Evidence relating dream content with sleep-depending learning is mixed: some studies suggest that dreaming of a task is beneficial for improvement, while others find no such effect. This study aimed at investigating whether meditators have qualitatively different dreams than controls; whether meditators incorporate a procedural learning task more often than controls; and whether dreaming about the task is related to better post-sleep performance on the task.20 meditators and 20 controls slept for a daytime nap at the laboratory. Prior to sleep and upon awakening they completed a procedural learning task. Dream reports were collected at sleep onset and upon awakening (REM/N2 sleep). Dreams were then scored for qualities associated with meditation prac...

Vipassana meditation is characterized by observing bodily sensations, developing emotional and attentional stability and promoting pro-social qualities. Whether these qualities are also reflected in dream content is not currently known. Evidence relating dream content with sleep-depending learning is mixed: some studies suggest that dreaming of a task is beneficial for improvement, while others find no such effect. This study aimed at investigating whether meditators have qualitatively different dreams than controls; whether meditators incorporate a procedural learning task more often than controls; and whether dreaming about the task is related to better post-sleep performance on the task. 20 meditators and 20 controls slept for a daytime nap at the laboratory. Prior to sleep and upon awakening they completed a procedural learning task. Dream reports were collected at sleep onset and upon awakening (REM/N2 sleep). Dreams were then scored for qualities associated with meditation practice and for incorporations of the procedural task and of the laboratory. Meditators had longer dreams, slightly more references to the body and friendlier and more compassionate interactions with dream characters. Dreams of meditation practitioners were not more lucid than those of controls. Meditators did not incorporate the learning task or laboratory into dream content more often than controls, and no relationship was found between dream content and performance on a procedural task. In control participants, in contrast, incorporating task or laboratory in REM/N2 dreams was associated with improvement on the task, but incorporations at sleep onset were associated with slightly worse performance on the task.

Master's thesisNumerous studies have reported that, compared to an equivalent period of wakefulness,post-training sleep (overnight or daytime naps) benefits memory consolidation (Diekelmann & Born, 2010; Mednick, Nakayama, & Stickgold, 2003; Plihal & Born, 1999; Walker et al.,2003). However, most investigations have employed various forms of “active wakefulness” (e.g., sensorimotor and cognitive tasks) as a comparison condition for sleep, while few studies have examined the role of “quiet wakefulness” in memory consolidation, even though some of the EEG oscillations during quiet waking resemble those present in sleep (e.g., increased activity in the theta-alpha range) (Brokaw et al., 2016). This study aimed to examine the consolidation of declarative (word-pair associates) andnon-declarative (marble maze visuo-motor task) learning over a 60-minutes time interval (with continuous EEG monitoring) filled with either (A) napping; (B) active-waking (watchinga video); or (C) quiet-wak...

We have recently shown higher parietal-occipital EEG gamma activity during sleep in long-term meditators compared to meditation-naive individuals. This gamma increase was specific for NREM sleep, was present throughout the entire night and correlated with meditation expertise, thus suggesting underlying long-lasting neuroplastic changes induced through prolonged training. The aim of this study was to explore the neuroplastic changes acutely induced by 2 intensive days of different meditation practices in the same group of practitioners. We also repeated baseline recordings in a meditation-naive cohort to account for time effects on sleep EEG activity. High-density EEG recordings of human brain activity were acquired over the course of whole sleep nights following intervention. Sound-attenuated sleep research room. Twenty-four long-term meditators and twenty-four meditation-naïve controls. Two 8-h sessions of either a mindfulness-based meditation or a form of meditation designed to c...

Over the past several years meditation practice has gained increasing attention as a non-pharmacological intervention to provide health related benefits, from promoting general wellness to alleviating the symptoms of a variety of medical conditions. However, the effects of meditation training on brain activity still need to be fully characterized. Sleep provides a unique approach to explore the meditation-related plastic changes in brain function. In this study we performed sleep high-density electroencephalographic (hdEEG) recordings in long-term meditators (LTM) of Buddhist meditation practices (approximately 8700 mean hours of life practice) and meditation naive individuals. We found that LTM had increased parietal-occipital EEG gamma power during NREM sleep. This increase was specific for the gamma range (25-40 Hz), was not related to the level of spontaneous arousal during NREM and was positively correlated with the length of lifetime daily meditation practice. Altogether, thes...

Introduction: Several studies have consistently shown that pre-sleep learning produces changes in sleep structure. Whereas the majority of these studies has mainly focused on post-training changes in sleep states (namely REM and NREM sleep amount) and, more recently, in specific electrophysiological features (e.g., sleep spindles, slow wave activity), very little attention has been paid to the hypothesis that pre-sleep learning might improve sleep quality, as expressed by sleep continuity, stability and cyclic organization measures. Furthermore, studies addressing the relationship between sleep and learning usually employ purely declarative or procedural tasks, neglecting that everyday life learning processes depend on the simultaneous activation of different memory systems. Recently, we have reported that a complex ecological learning task (requiring the simultaneous activation of several cognitive functions), intensively administered at bedtime, improves daytime sleep continuity a...