Abstract:
A popular and current research focus is the relationship between sleep and memory. In numerous
studies, adequate sleep has been related to improved memory for facts and pictures, specifically
emotionally salient ones. However, because such studies have primarily investigated sleep’s
effects on the encoding of general episodic memory, the effects of sleep on the retrieval of
autobiographical memory have been largely ignored. The present study’s objective was to
determine whether sleep quality and daytime sleepiness relates to the retrieval of emotional
autobiographical memory. Specifically, it was hypothesized that decreased sleep quality and
more daytime fatigue relates to increased recall of negative memories. Participants completed
measures of sleep quality, sleepiness, mood, depression, and reported a memory of a meaningful
personal experience before subsequently rating this memory on scales of vividness, emotional
valence, rehearsal, and age. Results indicate that while overall sleep quality does not relate to the
emotional valence of autobiographical memories, poorer sleep efficiency does correspond to an
increase in negative memory recall. Further, multiple regression analysis revealed daytime
sleepiness to be a significant predictor of more negative memories recalled. These results add to
the previous literature by highlighting the importance of sleep on the retrieval of emotional
personal memories. Future research is needed to replicate and extend these findings.
