Evidence against a large effect of sleep in protecting verbal memories from interference

The human brain has evolved to acquire novel information rapidly while serving the need to store long-term memories in a stable and lasting form. Presenting interfering information directly after learning can lead to forgetting of the original material. It has been suggested that sleep aids the stabilization of new memories and protects them from interference. Here, we aim to replicate in two separate experiments the claim that sleep protects memories from retroactive interference (Current Biology, 16, 2006 and 1290; PLoS ONE, 4, 2009 and e4117). We let participants study wordlists before letting them sleep for an afternoon nap or for a full night. In a control condition, subjects stayed awake for the same amount of time. After the consolidation interval, participants learnt an interfering wordlist and were tested on memory of the original wordlist. Sleep did not stabilize memory for the original wordlist in either study. We discuss our findings in the light of recent advances in computational neuroscience, and conclude that the stabilizing effect of sleep against interference has been overestimated.

Automated summary

The human brain has evolved to acquire novel information rapidly while storing long-term memories in a stable form. Sleep has been suggested to help stabilize new memories and protect them from interference, but experiments show that sleep may not always stabilize memories of original material as previously thought.