ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sleep
Sec. Sleep, Behavior and Mental Health
Divergent Effects of Sleep Efficiency and Sleep Medication on Episodic Memory in Mid to Late Life
Provisionally accepted
- University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States
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Objectives: Different aspects of sleep quality are known to decline with age, and these changes have been shown to impact performance across multiple cognitive domains. However, despite a growing body of literature, the impact of changes to quality of sleep on episodic memory remains elusive, with some studies finding effects and others failing to find a relation. Methods: In this study, participants (N = 173, mean age = 65.30, range = [45 - 88]), completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index as well as three episodic memory tests (verbal and visual episodic memory, and pattern separation). Results: We found that worse sleep efficiency was associated with worse overall episodic memory as well as pattern separation. Further, medication use had a positive effect on visual episodic memory. Both findings occurred in an age-dependent manner. Conclusions: These results underscore the complexity of sleep–memory interactions and suggest that certain aspects of episodic memory may be more sensitive to specific components of sleep quality than others, particularly as individuals age.
Keywords: Aging, Efficiency, episodic memory, medication, Sleep
Received: 22 Aug 2025; Accepted: 09 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Amin, Yoon, Naveen, El-Magharbel, Vincent, Chien and Eich. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Teal S Eich
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