Slow wave sleep facilitates spontaneous retrieval in prospective memory

Previous studies have shown that sleep benefits prospective memory by facilitating spontaneous retrieval processes. Here, we investigated the sleep features supporting such a benefit. Forty-nine young adults (mean age ± SD: 22.06 ± 1.71 years; 18 males) encoded intentions comprising four related (ph...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sleep (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2019-04, Vol.42 (4), p.1
Main Authors: Leong, Ruth L F, Koh, Shirley Y J, Chee, Michael W L, Lo, June C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Cues
Female
Humans
Male
Memory
Memory Consolidation - physiology
Memory, Episodic
Mental Recall - physiology
Patient monitoring equipment
Retirement benefits
Semantics
Sleep
Sleep monitors
Sleep, Slow-Wave - physiology
Wakefulness - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:Previous studies have shown that sleep benefits prospective memory by facilitating spontaneous retrieval processes. Here, we investigated the sleep features supporting such a benefit. Forty-nine young adults (mean age ± SD: 22.06 ± 1.71 years; 18 males) encoded intentions comprising four related (phone-unplug earphones) and four unrelated (mirror-close the book) cue-action pairs. They were instructed to remember to perform these actions in response to cue words presented during a semantic categorization task 12 h later. The retention interval involved either a period of wakefulness (09:30-21:30; n = 24) or overnight sleep with polysomnographic monitoring (21:30-09:30; n = 25). We found a significant Group × Relatedness interaction for prospective memory accuracy (F = 8.35, p < 0.01). The sleep group successfully executed a significantly higher percentage of related intentions compared to the wake group (mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM): 94.00 ± 2.61% vs 66.67 ± 6.84%, p < 0.001). This benefit for related intentions was associated with longer post-learning slow wave sleep (r = 0.46, p < 0.05). In contrast, the percentage of unrelated intentions successfully executed did not differ between groups (82.00 ± 5.10% vs 72.92 ± 6.88%, p = 0.29). Slow wave sleep after memory encoding may strengthen the preexisting associations between semantically related cues and actions, thereby facilitating subsequent spontaneous retrieval processes.
ISSN:0161-8105
1550-9109
DOI:10.1093/sleep/zsz003