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Doctoral thesis

The influence of pre-sleep cognitions on sleep and dreams : empirical evidence for dynamic cognitive-emotional reactivation

PSPE

  • Fribourg (Switzerland), [2026]

1 ressource en ligne (XII, 253 pages) ; 1 fichier pdf

PhD: Université de Fribourg (Suisse), 27.05.2026

Sommeil
Psychologie cognitive
English Pre-sleep cognitive activity is a well-known factor affecting sleep; however, the mechanisms underlying these effects remain unclear. The “Memories-of-Sleep” (MemoSleep) hypothesis proposes that pre-sleep wake- and sleep-related memories are reactivated during sleep, triggering associated neural and physiological responses and shaping sleep physiology and architecture. Dreams may be particularly informative in this context, having the potential to reflect ongoing reactivation processes during sleep. This dissertation aimed to provide empirical support for this reactivation mechanism, thereby advancing the understanding of the relationship between sleep and cognition. Four controlled laboratory studies were conducted, each investigating distinct cognitive influences on sleep and testing predictions derived from the MemoSleep framework. Together, the findings provide converging evidence for the proposed reactivation mechanism, while highlighting important temporal dynamics and motivating several extensions of the framework. Across studies, pre-sleep cognitive-emotional states were differentially reactivated during sleep, as reflected in dream characteristics and selective modulations of sleep physiology. Building on these results, an extended MemoSleep framework is outlined to advance the understanding of how cognitive-emotional material shapes reactivation processes and their consequences for sleep and dreams. By conceptualising cognitive activity during sleep as a multidimensional continuum, this extended framework enables the consideration of individual differences and informs the development of cognitive interventions to improve sleep quality. Overall, this dissertation provides a conceptual framework that enables future research on sleep-promoting cognitions and their interaction with physiological and subjective dimensions of sleep, while also situating dreams as a window into cognitive-emotional processes during sleep.
Faculty
Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
Department
Département de Psychologie
Language
  • English
Classification
Psychology
Notes
  • Bibliographie
License
CC BY
Open access status
diamond
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/336227
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