Immersive NREM2 dreaming preserves subjective sleep depth against declining sleep pressure.
Paper
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The authors' code
Text · 65 lines · 3.1 KB · CC-BY-4.0
- This repository contains the data and MATLAB code required to replicate the findings of “Immersive NREM2 dreaming preserves subjective sleep depth against declining sleep pressure” by Michalak, Marzoli, Pietrogiacomi, et al.
- If you use this code or data, please cite the associated article and the Zenodo record.
- The code was tested using MATLAB 2024b and EEGLAB 2024.2. Other versions may require minor adjustments.
- The 'code/' folder contains:
- ----------------------------------
- MATLAB scripts used to generate the figures reported in the paper.
- Main Figures:
- - Fig1_reports_distribution: generates the images shown in Figure 1
- - Fig2_brainactivity_topoplot: generates the topographic maps and plots shown in Figure 2
- - Fig3_effect_of_experience: generates the plots shown in Figure 3
- - Fig4_principal_components: generates the plots shown in Figure 4
- - Fig5_effect_of_time: generates the plots shown in Figure 5
- Supplementary Figures:
- - SM_Fig1_exp_reports_dist: generates the plot shown in Supplementary Figure S1
- - SM_Fig2_topoplots_dist: generates the topographic plots shown in Supplementary Figure S2
- Topographic analyses:
- - topo_maineffect: reproduces the voxelwise GLME main-effect analyses
- - topo_interaction: reproduces the voxelwise GLME interaction analyses
- Additional folders:
- - 'functions/': custom MATLAB functions required by the main scripts
- - 'external/': third-party MATLAB variables, functions, and toolboxes required by the scripts
- External dependencies:
- ----------------------------------
- The code relies on several external MATLAB resources.
- Included (BSD 2-Clause license):
- - fdr_bh, source: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/27418-fdr_bh
- - Hatchfill2, source: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/53593-hatchfill2
- Not included (must be downloaded separately):
- - EEGLAB, https://sccn.ucsd.edu/eeglab/download.php
- - sigstar, link: https://github.com/raacampbell/sigstar
- - cbrewer2, link: https://github.com/scottclowe/cbrewer2
- - DataViz, link: https://github.com/povilaskarvelis/DataViz
- - swa_matlab (function 'swa_channelNeighbours'), link: https://github.com/Mensen/swa-matlab
- - Surfing (function 'surfing_clusterize'), link: https://github.com/nno/surfing
- The 'derivatives/' folder contains:
- ----------------------------------
- Precomputed analysis outputs used to generate the figures.
- - fulldatatable_10-Nov-2025_w90.mat, Main table containing channel-wise signal power in delta and gamma frequency ranges for each awakening.
- - Delta_*_stats_5000_depth.mat, Cluster-corrected topographic analyses with delta power predicting sleep depth.
- - Delta_*_stats_5000_sleep.mat, Cluster-corrected topographic analyses with delta power predicting sleepiness.
- - Gamma_*_stats_5000_depth.mat, Cluster-corrected topographic analyses with gamma power predicting sleep depth.
- - Gamma_*_stats_5000_sleep.mat, Cluster-corrected topographic analyses with gamma power predicting sleepiness.
- - Ratio_*_stats_5000_depth.mat, Cluster-corrected topographic analyses with gamma/delta ratio predicting sleep depth.
- - Ratio_*_stats_5000_sleep.mat, Cluster-corrected topographic analyses with gamma/delta ratio predicting sleepiness.
README.txt, under CC-BY-4.0 · at the source
Overview
- MoMiLab Research Unit, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, Italy
- Department of Biomedical, Metabolic, and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio-Emilia, Modena, Italy
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
- Cardiovascular Medicine Department, Fondazione Toscana Gabriele Monasterio, Pisa, Italy
- Health Science Interdisciplinary Center, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy
Abstract
Perceived sleep depth is a key determinant of subjective sleep quality, traditionally thought to reflect unconsciousness and reduced cortical activation. Here, we combined high-density EEG with a serial awakening paradigm during NREM2 (N2) sleep in healthy human participants to examine its neural and experiential correlates. As expected, deeper sleep was associated with reduced cortical activation, reflected in a lower high-to-low frequency power ratio. Yet, this relationship weakened in the presence of dreaming, indicating that immersive conscious experiences may counteract the impact of cortical activation on perceived depth. Indeed, perceived sleep depth was lowest during minimal forms of awareness characterized by a mere sense of presence, and highest during immersive dreaming or deep unconsciousness. Across the night, physiological sleep pressure and subjective sleepiness declined, but perceived sleep depth rose alongside increasing dream immersiveness. These findings challenge the view that the feeling of deep sleep arises solely from reduced brain activity and suggest instead that immersive dreaming may help sustain the subjective experience of deep sleep as homeostatic pressure wanes.
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Repository
Its files are read in the Code ↔ Paper reader above.
Zenodo 15372992
Availability: 1 check, the latest on 30 September 2026: the link answers (HTTP 200)
- 30 September 2026: the link answers (HTTP 200)
1 file
- README.txt, Text, 65 lines
The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.
Tracing map
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Data
No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.
Data Availability
The deidentified data generated in this study and the custom-made MATLAB codes used for data analysis and to reproduce main and supplementary figures and tables presented in this work have been deposited in the Zenodo database (DOI: https://
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Versions
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Version 1, 30 September 2026: the first record
Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 12 authors, 11 MeSH terms, 3 funders, 57 references.
Cite
This paper
Michalak, A., Marzoli, D., Pietrogiacomi, F., Bergamo, D., Elce, V., Pedreschi, B., Mosca, G., Navari, A., Emdin, M., Ricciardi, E., Handjaras, G., & Bernardi, G. (2026). Immersive NREM2 dreaming preserves subjective sleep depth against declining sleep pressure. PLoS biology, 24(3), e3003683. https://
BibTeX
@article{michalak2026imm
author = {Michalak, Adriana and Marzoli, Davide and Pietrogiacomi, Francesco and Bergamo, Damiana and Elce, Valentina and Pedreschi, Bianca and Mosca, Giorgia and Navari, Alessandro and Emdin, Michele and Ricciardi, Emiliano and Handjaras, Giacomo and Bernardi, Giulio},
title = {{Immersive NREM2 dreaming preserves subjective sleep depth against declining sleep pressure}},
journal = {PLoS biology},
year = {2026},
month = mar,
volume = {24},
number = {3},
pages = {e3003683},
publisher = {PLOS},
issn = {1544-9173},
doi = {10.1371/
url = {https://
pmid = {41875080},
pmcid = {PMC13012497}
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
AU - Michalak, Adriana
AU - Marzoli, Davide
AU - Pietrogiacomi, Francesco
AU - Bergamo, Damiana
AU - Elce, Valentina
AU - Pedreschi, Bianca
AU - Mosca, Giorgia
AU - Navari, Alessandro
AU - Emdin, Michele
AU - Ricciardi, Emiliano
AU - Handjaras, Giacomo
AU - Bernardi, Giulio
TI - Immersive NREM2 dreaming preserves subjective sleep depth against declining sleep pressure
T2 - PLoS biology
J2 - PLoS Biol
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/
VL - 24
IS - 3
SP - e3003683
SN - 1544-9173
PB - PLOS
DO - 10.1371/
UR - https://
LA - en
ER -
CSL-JSON
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