Cited by 150Sleep and Wakefulness ResearchMemory Processes and InfluencesMemory and Neural Mechanisms

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 171 of the 171 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 141 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

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

Open access
Paller, Ken A., Creery, Jessica D., Schechtman, Eitan·2021·Annual Review of Psychology

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.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This review argues that sleep, especially NREM/SWS, supports memory consolidation through reactivation and nested oscillations, with consequences for problem solving, creativity, emotional regulation, and well-being. It also proposes that maladaptive sleep-based memory processing may contribute to rumination and psychiatric symptoms, and that targeted memory reactivation (TMR) can modify these processes.

Key findings

  • Memory reactivation during sleep, especially NREM/SWS, is linked to consolidation; hippocampal sharp-wave/ripples (70–110 Hz in humans, 150–200 Hz in rodents) nest within thalamo-cortical spindles (11–16 Hz, 0.5–3 s) and cortical slow oscillations (≤1 Hz), providing a temporal frame for hippocampal–neocortical communication.
  • A meta-analysis including over 90 experiments found that TMR cues presented during SWS or N2 selectively improved memory for cued information relative to uncued information; TMR benefits have been shown for spatial, skill, vocabulary, and word recall, and can enhance problem solving and creativity.
  • Sleep processing can support problem solving and emotional regulation; in one study, after an 8-hour break including sleep or wake, only 35% of participants discovered a hidden shortcut, but participants who slept were more likely to discover it than those who did not.
  • Maladaptive sleep cognition may contribute to psychiatric conditions: sleep disturbances are reported in 50–80% of people with psychiatric disorders; MDD shows reduced slow-wave activity and altered dynamics; REM instability/arousals are linked to PTSD and insomnia; and TMR cueing negative memories increased negative ratings one week later in socially anxious adolescents but not healthy ones.

Methods

  • Narrative review synthesizing human and rodent studies of memory consolidation during sleep, including EEG/intracranial recordings, fMRI, behavioral sleep/wake comparisons, TMR, and meta-analytic evidence.
  • No new primary data or sample; the paper integrates prior findings and proposes a conceptual framework linking sleep memory processing to waking cognition and well-being.
  • Main analysis is conceptual synthesis across systems consolidation, sleep physiology (SWRs, SOs, spindles), TMR, creativity/problem solving, emotion, and psychiatric disorders.

Limitations

  • The paper states that many mechanisms remain not fully understood, including hippocampal–neocortical contributions to memory change, and that the jury is still out on whether sleep effects apply universally across memory types.
  • The paper notes mixed results: SO enhancement sometimes occurs without memory improvement; word-pair recall measures often have low test-retest reliability; some studies failed to find sleep benefits for problem solving; TMR may not produce the same reactivation as spontaneous reactivation; and IAT measures have poor reliability, with one TMR bias result failing to replicate.
  • Evident from the text: as a review, it does not provide new experimental tests, and causal claims about maladaptive sleep cognition and psychiatric disorders are often speculative or hypothesized rather than directly established.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1146/annurev-psych-010419-050815

Cites

171 of 171 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

105 Not checked yet · 66 Own interpretation · 7 No basis given · 5 Own method

Verify all 141 references — free account

Show all 98 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 48
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 47
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 1
85 of 85
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Sleep plays a critical role in memory consolidation.

    “Bringing together the critical role of sleep in memory consolidation with the fact that memory is used for many cognitive functions leads to the following further inference: Sleep disturbances may have far-reaching cognitive consequences.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The cortical-hippocampal-cortical loop theory of reactivation-dependent memory consolidation is correct.

    “These results were thus used to support the cortical-hippocampal-cortical loop theory of reactivation-dependent memory consolidation outlined above.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Sleep spindles are unlikely to occur in close succession and are typically separated by 3–6 s.

    “Spindles are unlikely to occur in close succession and are typically separated by 3–6 s.”
3 of 3

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?

Citations

Cites

Show all 168 references

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Müller G, 1900, Experimentelle Beiträge zur Lehre vom Gedächtnis [Experimental contributions to the theory of memory]
  2. Riemann D, 2012, Pharmacopsychiatry, 45, 167
  3. Walker MP., 2017, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
  4. Westerberg CE, 2020, Highly superior autobiographical memory is associated with superior sleep physiology

Cited by

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Metadata

Authors
Paller, K. A., Creery, J. D., & Schechtman, E.
Affiliations
Northwestern University (US)
Venue
Annual Review of Psychology
Published
2021-01-04
Volume
72
Issue
1
Pages
123-150
ISSN
  • 0066-4308 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-2085
OpenAlex
W3087541990
Cited by
150
References
168
Citations by year
2026: 21 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 10
FWCI
2.09
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Annual Review of Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (T32HL007909)
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS112942, T32NS047987)
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, rumination, worry, emotion regulation, creativity, problem solving, forgetting, self-construction
MeSH terms
Cognition, Humans, Memory, Mental Health, Mental Recall, Sleep

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