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Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Eye Tracking, Cortisol, and a Sleep vs. Wake Consolidation Delay: Combining Methods to Uncover an Interactive Effect of Sleep and Cortisol on Memory
Published on: June 18, 2014
Sleep-dependent memory processing
1Department of Psychology and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA. mpwalker@berkeley.edu
Abstract:
While the functions of sleep remain largely unknown, one exciting hypothesis is that sleep contributes importantly to processes of memory and brain plasticity. Over the last decade, a large body of work has provided substantive evidence supporting this role of sleep in what is becoming known as sleep-dependent memory processing. This review offers a summary of these data, focusing specifically on the role of sleep in (1) memory encoding, (2) memory consolidation (along with the brain basis of this process), and (3) neural plasticity. The clinical ramifications of such findings are also explored.
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