Memory performance after arousal from different sleep stages

Abstract

Learning material was presented to independent groups of [human] subjects [Ss] after arousal from non-rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, after arousal from REM sleep or under conditions of no prior sleep. Measures of immediate and subsequent free recall were taken. Memory performance was apparently impaired where learning took place after non-REM arousal. This was manifest in the number of categories recalled, over both immediate and subsequent recall, and in the number of items recalled/category over subsequent recall. The memory performance decrement after non-REM arousal may be understood in terms of a retrieval deficit and a coding deficit. The former may be consequent upon a lower general level of arousal; the latter may be specific to memory.