Slow-wave sleep 2026-11-05
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. [ref]
What happens during sleep? by NICHD. Non-REM sleep, stage 3: deepest sleep and slow heartbeat and breathing
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. [ref]
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
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.