Abstract
Studies suggest that sleep benefits event-based prospective memory, which involves carrying out intentions when particular events occur. Prospective memory has a prospective component (remembering that one has an intention), and a retrospective component (remembering when to carry it out). As effects of sleep on retrospective memory are well established, the effect of sleep on prospective memory may thus be due exclusively to an effect of sleep on its retrospective component. Therefore, the authors investigated whether nighttime sleep improves the prospective component of prospective memory, or a retrospective component, or both. In a first session, participants performed an event-based prospective-memory task (that was embedded in an ongoing task) 3 minutes after forming an intention and, in a second session, 12 hours after forming an intention. The sessions were separated by either nighttime sleep or daytime wakefulness. The authors disentangled prospective-memory performance into its retrospective and prospective components via multinomial processing tree modeling. There was no effect of sleep on the retrospective component, which may have been due to a time-of-day effect. The prospective component, which is the component unique to prospective memory, declined less strongly after a retention interval filled with sleep as compared with a retention interval filled with wakefulness. A hybrid interaction suggested that refreshed attention after sleep may account for this effect, but did not support the consolidation of the association between the intention and its appropriate context as a mechanism driving the effect.
Highlights
The beneficial effect of sleep on memory for past events has been thoroughly investigated and firmly established
Some studies suggested that objective sleep quality, total sleep time, and specific sleep stages play an important role in this positive effect of sleep on prospective memory (PM) (Diekelmann et al, 2013b; Fabbri et al, 2014; Kyle et al, 2017; Leong, Koh, et al, 2019; Scullin et al, 2019)
The retrospective component of PM was better in the evening than in the morning, suggesting a timeof-day effect
Summary
The beneficial effect of sleep on memory for past events (retrospective memory) has been thoroughly investigated and firmly established (for a review, see Rasch & Born, 2013). Recent studies suggest that sleep benefits prospective memory (PM; for a review, see Leong, Cheng, et al, 2019). Total sleep deprivation decreases PM performance (Grundgeiger et al, 2014), whereas sleep that takes place during the retention interval improves PM performance (Barner et al, 2017; Diekelmann et al, 2013a, 2013b; Leong, Koh, et al, 2019; Leong, van Rijn, et al, 2019; Scullin & McDaniel, 2010). Some studies suggested that objective sleep quality, total sleep time, and specific sleep stages play an important role in this positive effect of sleep on PM (Diekelmann et al, 2013b; Fabbri et al, 2014; Kyle et al, 2017; Leong, Koh, et al, 2019; Scullin et al, 2019).
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