The effects of sleep on episodic memory in older and younger adults
Abstract
Evidence on sleep-dependent benefits for episodic memory remains elusive. Furthermore we know little about age-related changes on the effects of sleep on episodic memory. The study we report is the first to compare the effects of sleep on episodic memories in younger and older adults. Memories of stories and personal events were assessed following a retention interval that included sleep and following an equal duration of wakefulness. Both older and younger adults have superior memory following sleep compared to following wakefulness for both types of material. Amount of forgetting of personal events was less during wakefulness in older adults than in younger adults, possibly due to spontaneous rehearsal. Amount of time spent sleeping correlated highly with sleep benefit in older adults, suggesting that quantity of total sleep, and/or time spent in some stages of sleep, are important contributors to age-related differences in memory consolidation or protection from interference during sleep.
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In aged individuals (69-80 years), the improvement in recollection of hippocampus-dependent episodic memories after retention periods of nocturnal sleep, with reference to recollection after daytime wakefulness, was less pronounced than in young (19-29 years) subjects.
“In line with these findings, in aged individuals (69 -80 years), the improvement in the recollection of hippocampus-dependent episodic memories (for personally experienced events) after retention periods of nocturnal sleep, with reference to recollection after daytime wakefulness, was less pronounced than in young (19 -29 years) subjects (21).”
From About Sleep's Role in Memory (2013) · cites this paper as [21]
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“In one study, when stories were encoded in the evening and recalled the following morning after a full night of sleep, older adults showed a relationship between sleep duration and memory recall, but young adults did not show the same relationship (Aly and Moscovitch, 2010).”
BackgroundLong-term memory. sleep, and the spacing effect
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- Authors
- Aly, M., & Moscovitch, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Aly, Mariam
- Venue
- Memory
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2010-04
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 327-334
- ISSN
- 0965-8211 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-0686
- OpenAlex
- W2064392121
- Cited by
- 125
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 5.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Memory (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- sleep-dependent memory consolidation, episodic memory, aging, older adults, sleep versus wakefulness, forgetting, story recall, sleep duration
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Humans, Memory, Surveys and Questionnaires, Mental Recall, Sleep, Time Factors, Wakefulness, Photoperiod, Young Adult
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