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Studies with EEG monitoring have observed implicit memory priming during light and deep anesthesia with and without surgical stimulation. An EEG controlled fMRI study could demonstrate information processing during deep slow wave sleep, however, no EEG-controlled study have observed implicit memory priming during sleep. It was hypothesized that memory priming occurs under different combinations of anesthesia and surgery and during deep slow wave sleep. Forty gynecological patients were included in an anesthesia study, ten volunteer subjects in a sleep study. Each participant was exposed to 60 of 120 nouns in a double-blind randomized design. In the anesthesia study, in each case 12 nouns were presented during (1)intubation, (2)skin incision, (3)deep anesthesia during surgery, (4)moderate anesthesia during surgery, and during (5)light anesthesia. In the sleep study, all 60 nouns were presented during deep slow wave sleep. The depth of anesthesia or sleep was defined by the EEG monitor Narcotrend. No explicit memories were observed. A word-stem completion test revealed significant implicit memory priming only for the condition of light anesthesia (P<0.01), however, not for the other four conditions or for slow wave sleep. Implicit memory priming has been shown to be a small but persistent phenomenon during anesthesia, however, not during sleep.