Interaction of REM and non-REM sleep with memory
Tülin Yürdem1
, Funda İfakat Tengiz2
1Izmir Katip Çelebi University, Faculty of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey
2Department of Medical Education, Izmir Katip Çelebi University, Faculty of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey
Keywords: Memory consolidation, memory, non-rapid-eye movement sleep, rapid-eye movement sleep, sleep, slow-wave sleep.
Abstract
Numerous studies on the function of sleep have been conducted, getting a great deal of information. One of them is the effect of sleep on memory. Investigations have been performed to see how sleep and wakefulness affect the outcome of memory-related tasks such as learning and skill development, and it has been observed that the sleep state yields better results. After identifying rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep and separating sleep into REM and non-rapid-eye movement (NREM), the memory interaction of sleep in these two stages began to be examined separately. Because there are neurochemical, electrophysiological, and neurobiological differences between these two stages of sleep, and these differences influence showing the effect of sleep on memory in different ways and at different times. To prove this idea, research and hypotheses dealing with these two stages separately were conducted, and the interaction of sleep and memory was tried to be explained. The findings revealed that sleep is an important factor in memory consolidation and that different periods of sleep have a beneficial effect on different types of memory.
The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.
The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.