The Role of Sleep in Emotion and Memory Processing

CONFERENCE REPORTER

At the SLEEP 2026 Annual Meeting, Tony Cunningham, PhD, emphasized the critical role of sleep in memory processing. He explained that sleep is beneficial at all stages of memory, including before and after memory formation, and is especially important for emotional memory. The "sleep-to-remember, sleep-to-forget" hypothesis suggests that sleep helps to remove emotional layers from memories, allowing them to be recalled without the same emotional impact.¹

This hypothesis posits that over successive nights of rapid-eye movement (REM)-rich sleep, the emotional tone of a memory is gradually eroded, while the content is strengthened. Cunningham noted that disorders like posttraumatic stress disorder may disrupt this process, impairing emotional memory processing.

Essentially, sleep helps in chipping away at the emotional layers of a memory while preserving the memory itself. Cunningham shared that good, healthy adaptive sleep is essential for this process, which is crucial for emotional memory.

Dr Cunningham is an assistant professor and the director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition and the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic in the Psychiatry Department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.

References

1. Lipinska G, THomas KG. Sleep-to-remember, sleep-to-forget: examining emotional memory and emotional reactivity in PTSD-diagnosed participants. Sleep. 2018;41(Suppl 1):A36.

2.