It is widely accepted that hippocampal replay occurs during sleep and is an important part of memory consolidation. It is not widely accepted that this activat

It is widely accepted that hippocampal replay occurs during sleep and is an important part of memory consolidation. It is not widely accepted that this activation is, or even leads to, the subjective experience that we call dreaming. The article gets it right in the second paragraph, but most of the rest of the paper makes incorrect reference to dreams. Don't expect to program your dreams any time soon. The actual result here is very interesting in its own right; it suggests that the consolidation process can be directed, and if the replay system plays the role in learning that many people suspect it does, then we might be able to focus our learning on particular experiences. The idea of learning something while you sleep by playing a tape might not be as ridiculous as I always thought it was.