= Slow-wave sleep
<Slow-wave sleep> is a deep stage of <non-rapid eye movement sleep> characterized by prominent slow, high-amplitude activity in an <electroencephalography> recording. It is a physiological classification based on measured <brain> activity and other <sleep> criteria, rather than simply an unusually motionless posture. In current human staging it broadly corresponds to N3. <What happens during sleep? by NICHD>[Non-REM sleep, stage 3: deepest sleep and slow heartbeat and breathing]{ref}
Sleep-stage identification can guide interventions. In a human experiment, an odour associated with earlier learning was presented again during <slow-wave sleep>; subsequent declarative-memory performance was compared with control conditions. <Odor cues during slow-wave sleep prompt declarative memory consolidation by Björn Rasch and others>[2007, abstract: odour re-exposure during sleep and later retention]{ref} This links a defined physiological state to an experimentally timed cue; it does not establish that every kind of memory depends exclusively on that one stage.
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