Memory consolidation during sleep: A facilitator of new learning?

Guttesen, Anna á V., Harrington, Marcus O., Fleming, Melanie K., Gaskell, M. Gareth and Cairney, Scott A. (2026) Memory consolidation during sleep: A facilitator of new learning? Neuropsychologia, 221. ISSN 0028-3932

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Abstract

Sleep plays a crucial role in consolidating recently acquired memories and preparing the brain for learning new ones, but the relationship between these two processes is currently unclear. According to the prominent Active Systems Consolidation model, memory representations that are initially reliant on the hippocampus are redistributed to neocortex during sleep for long-term storage. An indirect assumption of this model is that sleep-associated memory processing paves the way for next-day learning by freeing up hippocampal encoding resources. In this review, we evaluate two central tenets of this ‘resource reallocation hypothesis’: (i) sleep-associated memory consolidation reduces hippocampal engagement during retrieval, and (ii) this reduction in hippocampal burden enhances the brain's capacity for new learning. We then describe recent work that has directly tested the relationship between sleep-associated memory processing and next-day learning. In the absence of clear evidence supporting the resource reallocation hypothesis, we consider alternative accounts in which efficient learning is not contingent on prior overnight memory processing, but rather that sleep-associated consolidation and post-sleep learning rely on overlapping or independent mechanisms. We conclude by outlining how future research can rigorously test the resource reallocation hypothesis.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Rights retention: For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. Funding: M.O.H is supported by Royal Society Research Grant RG\R1\241079. A.á.V.G and M.K.F. are supported by a principal research fellowship to Prof Heidi Johansen-Berg from the Wellcome Trust (222446/Z/21/Z) and supported by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR203316). M.K.F. is also supported by Guarantors of Brain. The Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging is supported by core funding from the Wellcome Trust (203139/Z/16/Z and 203139/A/16/Z). M.G.G. is supported by the ESRC grant (ES/X010643/1). S.A.C. is funded by the European Union (ERC, SLEEPAWAY, 101169737). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sleep,systems memory consolidation,next-day learning,resource reallocation,hippocampus,psychology(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	17 Nov 2025 17:30
Last Modified:	29 Nov 2025 20:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/101048
DOI:	10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109320

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