Memory and Sleep: How Sleep Cognition Can Change the Waking Mind for the Better

Abstract

The memories that we retain can serve many functions. They guide our future actions, form a scaffold for constructing the self, and continue to shape both the self and the way we perceive the world. Although most memories we acquire each day are forgotten, those integrated within the structure of multiple prior memories tend to endure. A rapidly growing body of research is steadily elucidating how the consolidation of memories depends on their reactivation during sleep. Processing memories during sleep not only helps counteract their weakening but also supports problem solving, creativity, and emotional regulation. Yet, sleep-based processing might become maladaptive, such as when worries are excessively revisited. Advances in research on memory and sleep can thus shed light on how this processing influences our waking life, which can further inspire the development of novel strategies for decreasing detrimental rumination-like activity during sleep and for promoting beneficial sleep cognition. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 72 is January 5, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Systems consolidation, transformation and reorganization: Multiple Trace Theory, Trace Transformation Theory and their Competitors

“…As with pre-stimulus effects, investigators have also reported post-encoding or post-learning reactivation effects in the hippocampus and other structures, either during sleep or rest, that predict subsequent memory in rodents (Silva et al, 2009;Sutherland & McNaughton, 2000;Wilson & McNaughton, 1994) and humans (de Voogd et al, 2016;Dudai et al, 2015;Gruber et al, 2016;Hermans et al, 2017;Paller et al, 2021;Staresina et al, 2013;Tambini & Davachi, 2019). It is noteworthy that not only changes in HPC activity alone, but also in its functional connectivity with other structures, correlated with subsequent memory, suggesting that they reflect early memory consolidation processes.…”

Endogenous memory reactivation during sleep in humans is clocked by slow oscillation-spindle complexes

“…How do we strengthen memories while we sleep? The prime vehicle of systems consolidation is thought to be the reactivation of information encoded during prior wakefulness 1 – 4 . Through reactivation, memory representations are relayed between the hippocampus and neocortical long-term stores, transforming initially labile representations into long-lasting memories during sleep 5 , 6 .…”

Real-Time Dialogue between Experimenters and Dreamers During rem Sleep

“…48 In addition, novel approaches to promote health and well-being could be explored. 49 Neural decoding methods 2-5 could also be applied in various creative ways. Based on the current results, we suggest that future studies might consider shorter intervals for sleep staging (to avoid cases where part of an interval is REM with two-way communication, followed by an awakening, requiring the entire interval be designated as wake, as occurred sometimes in our studies).…”