Emotional Memory: Selective Enhancement by Sleep
Open accessAbstract
Never go to sleep on an argument: an old wives' tale or a scientifically proven technique for controlling the memories you store? Recent findings show that sleep selectively enhances emotional memories, creating a long-lasting and potentially traumatic representation of distressing experiences.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Emotional memories are particularly strengthened across sleep, especially when sleep contains high amounts of REM sleep.
“Consistent with the theory, several studies have shown that emotional memories are particularly strengthened across sleep (560,574,732,861,895,898,1274,1276,1278,1294), in particular when containing high amounts of REM sleep (179,478,479,1274).”
From About Sleep's Role in Memory (2013) · cites this paper as [560]
Cites
THE AMYGDALA MODULATES THE CONSOLIDATION OF MEMORIES OF EMOTIONALLY AROUSING EXPERIENCES
McGaugh, J. L. (2004) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144157 · Cited by 2,296 · see citing works
Sleep-dependent memory consolidation
Stickgold, R. (2005) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature04286 · Cited by 1,857 · see citing works
Cognitive neuroscience of emotional memory
LaBar, K. S., & Cabeza, R. (2006) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn1825 · Cited by 1,834 · see citing works
Sleep-Dependent Learning and Memory Consolidation
Walker, M. P., & Stickgold, R. (2004) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2004.08.031 · Cited by 1,113 · see citing works
Wagner, U., Gais, S., & Born, J. (2001) · Learning & Memory · doi:10.1101/lm.36801 · Cited by 605 · see citing works
Acute SSRI Administration Affects the Processing of Social Cues in Healthy Volunteers
Harmer, C. J., Bhagwagar, Z., Perrett, D. I., Völlm, B. A., Cowen, P. J., & Goodwin, G. M. (2003) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/sj.npp.1300004 · Cited by 420 · see citing works
Brief sleep after learning keeps emotional memories alive for years
Wagner, U., Hallschmid, M., Rasch, B., & Born, J. (2006) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.03.061 · Cited by 296 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Rasch, B., & Born, J. (2013) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.00032.2012 · Cited by 2,783 · see citing works
“In fact, at a purely behavioral level, numerous studies have demonstrated that sleep after learning benefits declarative (17, 18, 60, 63, 79, 290, 326, 327, 343, 348, 350, 376, 408, 427, 431, 478, 479, 547, 560, 571, 574, 592, 603, 682, 732, 735, 861, 898, 930, 932, 959, 1069, 1172, 1192, 1217, 1274, 1276, 1278, 1282,…”
Sleep and emotional processing
Tempesta, D., Socci, V., De Gennaro, L., & Ferrara, M. (2018) · Sleep Medicine Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2017.12.005 · Cited by 443 · see citing works
The role of sleep and sleep deprivation in consolidating fear memories
Menz, M. M., Rihm, J. S., Salari, N., Born, J., Kalisch, R., Pape, H. C., Marshall, L., & Büchel, C. (2013) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.03.001 · Cited by 158 · see citing works
Sleep and the processing of emotions
Deliens, G., Gilson, M., & Peigneux, P. (2014) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/s00221-014-3832-1 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Effects of Sleep after Experimental Trauma on Intrusive Emotional Memories.
Kleim, B., Wysokowsky, J., Schmid, N., Seifritz, E., & Rasch, B. (2016) · Sleep · doi:10.5665/sleep.6310 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Kuriyama, K., Soshi, T., & Kim, Y. (2010) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.08.015 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Horton, C. L., & Malinowski, J. E. (2015) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00874 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Cunningham, T. J., Stickgold, R., & Kensinger, E. A. (2022) · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2022.910317 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
- Authors
- Holland, P., & Lewis, P. A.
- Affiliations
- Arrowe Park Hospital (GB)
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Lewis, Penelope A.
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007-03
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- R179-R181
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2002454952
- Cited by
- 35
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 0.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- emotional memory, sleep-dependent memory consolidation, memory enhancement, emotional arousal, traumatic memory, memory reconsolidation
- MeSH terms
- Emotions, Humans, Memory, Retention, Psychology, Sleep, Sleep, REM, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
