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Abstract
There is now a substantial body of data to suggest a relationship between sleep states,
particularly paradoxical sleep (PS) or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and learning.
In animal studies, PS increases have been observed following acquisition in formal
tasks and following exposure to enriched environments (EE). Further, PS deprivation
at certain post-training times is known to impair memory for recently acquired tasks.
PS deprivation following EE exposure has been reported to impair the neural changes
normally observed. It is argued that the prolonged PS increases observed following
either formal training or EE exposure reflect the same kinds of neural change. It
is proposed that accelerated neural plasticity takes place during elevated post-training
PS and is especially vulnerable to disruption at specific post-training time periods
called PS windows. Further, it is proposed that similar processes take place in the
post-training sleep of humans.