The Effect of Obstructive Sleep Apnea on Sleep-dependent Emotional Memory Consolidation.

A growing body of evidence suggests that sleep is critical for the adaptive processing and consolidation of emotional information into long-term memory. Previous research has indicated that emotional components of scenes particularly benefit from sleep in healthy groups, yet sleep-dependent emotional memory processes remain unexplored in clinical cohorts, including those with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This line of research is important as it will add to the understanding of how disrupted sleep in OSA contributes to both impaired cognition and emotion dysregulation.

REM-related obstructive sleep apnea: when does it matter? Effect on motor memory consolidation versus emotional health.

Study Objectives: The clinical importance of obstructive sleep apnea, which can be prevalent during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, is unclear. The current study examines the effect of REM-related obstructive sleep apnea on motor memory consolidation as well as on mood states.

Methods: We compared performance on the motor sequence task (MST), psychomotor vigilance test (PVT), Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire, and the Profile of Mood State (POMS) survey between 3 groups: healthy controls (n = 18), REM-exclusive OSA (n = 17), and patients with OSA with respiratory events throughout REM and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep (n = 18).