Pitfalls in Sleep and Memory Research and How to Avoid Them: A Consensus Paper

Understanding the complex relationship between sleep and memory is a major challenge in neuroscience. Thousands of studies on memory consolidation in humans suggest that sleep triggers offline memory processes, resulting in less forgetting of declarative memory and performance stabilization in non-declarative memory. However, an increasing number of contradictory findings reveal potential issues with how research is conducted in this field and call into question the reliability and interpretation of the results. In this consensus paper, we describe four sets of prevalent methodological pitfalls in human sleep and memory research: (i) non-optimal experimental designs, (ii) task complexity, (iii) fatigue effects in repetitive tasks, and (iv) inappropriate data analysis practices. We then offer solutions to each of these pitfalls. We believe that implementing these solutions in future research of sleep and memory will lead to more reliable results and significantly advance our understanding in this field.