Hypnotic Suggestions for Learning during Stage I REM Sleep

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Abstract
Eleven highly hypnotically susceptible Ss participated in a sleep-learning experiment which involved sleeping in the laboratory on two successive nights. The first night served as an adaptation period, and the second, an experimental period. Ten simple Russian-English word pairs were learned in the waking state upon awakening from the adaption night. Prior to going to sleep on the experimental night, the Ss were hypnotized, and given suggestions to perceive and remember the words to be presented. A second list of ten Russian-English word pairs were presented during emergent Stage I REM sleep monitored electroencephalographically and electromyographically. It was found that the Ss learned an average of 90% of the material presented under the waking condition, but only an average of 30% under the Stage I REM sleep. It was concluded that learning during sleep as here defined was possible but not practical.

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