The purpose of the present study was to examine explicit and implicit
memory for auditory events presented immediately prior to sleep onset.
The results of the present study suggest subjects allowed 10 minutes
of sleep demonstrate deficient explicit memory for auditory stimuli pr
esented immediately prior to sleep onset. Subjects showed severe free
recall deficits for word pairs presented 3 minutes prior to sleep onse
t and recognition deficits for stimuli from 1 minute prior to sleep on
set. Implicit memory for word pairs presented prior to sleep onset see
med intact, and no recency effect was observed. In contrast to the 10-
minute condition, subjects allowed 30 seconds of sleep demonstrated no
equivalent explicit memory deficits. Memory performance in both delay
conditions, however, appeared globally impaired relative to control d
ata from subjects who remained awake. The results are interpreted in t
erms of elaboration of stimulus encoding, interruption of consolidatio
n and retrograde versus anterograde amnesia.