The Effects of an Afternoon Nap on Episodic Memory in Young and Older Adults

Scullin, Michael K.; Fairley, Jacqueline A.; Decker, Michael J.; Bliwise, Donald L.

doi:10.1093/sleep/zsx035

Cited by 39 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…In contrast, younger adults showed the well-known sleep-benefits on memory. Similar results have been obtained by other groups (e.g., Cherdieu et al, 2014;Scullin, Fairley, Decker, & Bliwise, 2012;Wilson et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Reactivating vocabularies in the elderly

Cordi

Schreiner²,

Rasch

2017

Preprint

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Quality of memory and sleep decline with age, but the mechanistic interactions underlying the memory function of sleep in older adults are still unknown. It is widely assumed that the beneficial effect of sleep on memory relies on reactivation during Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and targeting these reactivations by cue re-exposure reliably improves memory in younger participants. Here we tested whether the reactivation mechanism during sleep is still functional in old age by applying targeted memory reactivation (TMR) during NREM sleep in healthy adults over 60 years. In contrast to previous studies in young participants, older adults’ memories do not generally benefit from TMR during NREM sleep. On an individual level, a subgroup of older adults still profited from cueing during sleep. These improvers tended to have a better sleep efficiency than non-improvers. In addition, the oscillatory results resembled those obtained in younger participants, involving increases in theta (~6Hz) and spindle (~13 Hz) power for remembered and gained words in a later time windows. In contrast, non-improvers showed no increases in theta activity and even strongly reduced spindle power for later gained vs. lost words. Our results suggest that reactivations during sleep might lose their functionality for memory in some older adults, while this mechanism is still intact in a subgroup of participants. Further studies need to examine more closely the determinants of preserving the memory function of sleep during healthy aging.Grant informationThe study was supported by grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) No. 100014_162388. T.S. is supported by a grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) No. P2ZHP1_164994.AbbreviationsN1 and N2Stage 1 and 2 sleepSWSSlow-wave sleepSWAslow-wave activityREMRapid eye movement sleepTSTTotal sleep timeTMRtargeted memory reactivation

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Reactivating vocabularies in the elderly

Cordi

Schreiner²,

Rasch

2017

Preprint

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“…age preservation vs. impairment of memory consolidation) [34]. The inconsistencies might reflect small samples, multiple comparisons, and that most studies have not disentangled consolidation deficits from known age-related deficits in processing speed and effortful retrieval [35]. Testing prospective memory provides a potential solution to these processing speed and retrieval challenges.…”

Section: Sleep Aging and Memory Consolidationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid eye movement sleep mediates age-related decline in prospective memory consolidation

Scullin

Gao

Fillmore

et al. 2019

Sleep

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Study Objectives: Prospective memory, or remembering to execute future intentions, accounts for half of everyday forgetting in older adults. Sleep intervals benefit prospective memory consolidation in young adults, but it is unknown whether age-related changes in slow wave activity, sleep spindles, and/or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep mediate hypothesized effects of aging on prospective memory consolidation. Methods: After an adaptation night, 76 adults aged 18-84 completed two experimental nights of in-laboratory polysomnography recording. In the evening, participants encoded and practiced a prospective memory task and were tested the next morning. On a counterbalanced night, they encoded and practiced a control task, and were tested the following morning. Results: Increasing age predicted worse prospective memory consolidation (r = −.34), even when controlling for encoding, speed, and control-task performance (all ps < .05). Frontal delta power, slow oscillations, and spindle density were not related to prospective memory consolidation. REM sleep duration, however, explained significant variance in prospective memory consolidation when controlling for age (∆R 2 = .10). Bootstrapping mediation showed that less REM sleep significantly mediated the aging effect on prospective memory consolidation [b = −.0016, SE = 0.0009 (95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.0042 to −0.0004)]. REM sleep continued to mediate 24.29% of the total effect of age on prospective memory after controlling for numerous demographic, cognitive, mental health, and sleep variables. Conclusion: Age-related variance in REM sleep is informative to how prospective memory consolidation changes with increasing age. Future work should consider how both REM sleep and slow wave activity contribute, perhaps in a sequential or dynamic manner, to preserving cognitive functioning with increasing age.

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“…In animal models, sleep loss diminishes hippocampal functioning [119], and in human studies (Table 1), this association was especially evident in patients with obstructive sleep apnea [97–100]. Thus, age-related changes in both the hippocampus and sleep physiology combine to explain why older adults show less memory consolidation than young adults [120]. …”

Section: Neuroimaging Implications For Cognitive Aging and Alzheimer’mentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Older Adults Need Sleep? A Review of Neuroimaging, Sleep, and Aging Studies

Scullin

2017

Curr Sleep Medicine Rep

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Purpose of Review Sleep habits, sleep physiology, and sleep disorders change with increasing age. However, there is a longstanding debate regarding whether older adults need sleep to maintain health and daily functioning (reduced-sleep-need view). An alternative possibility is that all older adults need sleep, but that many older adults have lost the ability to obtain restorative sleep (reduced-sleep-ability view). Prior research using behavioral and polysomnography outcomes has not definitively disentangled the reduced-sleep-need and reduced-sleep-ability views. Therefore, this review examines the neuroimaging literature to determine whether age-related changes in sleep cause—or are caused by—age-related changes in brain structure, function, and pathology. Recent Findings In middle-aged and older adults, poorer sleep quality, greater nighttime hypoxia, and shorter sleep duration related to cortical thinning in frontal regions implicated in slow wave generation, in frontoparietal networks implicated in cognitive control, and in hippocampal regions implicated in memory consolidation. Furthermore, poor sleep quality was associated with higher amyloid burden and decreased connectivity in the default mode network, a network that is disrupted in the pathway to Alzheimer’s disease. Summary All adults need sleep, but cortical thinning and amyloidal deposition with advancing age may weaken the brain’s ability to produce restorative sleep. Therefore, sleep in older adults may not always support identical functions for physical, mental, and cognitive health as in young adults.

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The Effects of an Afternoon Nap on Episodic Memory in Young and Older Adults

Cited by 39 publications

References 72 publications

Reactivating vocabularies in the elderly

Reactivating vocabularies in the elderly

Rapid eye movement sleep mediates age-related decline in prospective memory consolidation

Do Older Adults Need Sleep? A Review of Neuroimaging, Sleep, and Aging Studies

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