title: Sleep after learning aids memory recall.
abstract: In recent years, the effect of sleep on memory consolidation has received considerable attention. In humans, these studies concentrated mainly on procedural types of memory, which are considered to be hippocampus-independent. Here, we show that sleep also has a persisting effect on hippocampus-dependent declarative memory. In two experiments, we examined high school students' ability to remember vocabulary. We show that declarative memory is enhanced when sleep follows within a few hours of learning, independent of time of day, and with equal amounts of interference during retention intervals. Sleep deprivation has a detrimental effect on memory, which was significant after a night of recovery sleep. Thus, fatigue accumulating during wake intervals could be ruled out as a confound.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroendocrinology, University of Lübeck, 23538 Lübeck, Germany. gais@kfg.uni-luebeck.de
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gais
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lucas
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Born
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D014851:Wakefulness / Q000502:physiology