Trial reportSleep2020
The effect of zolpidem on memory consolidation over a night of sleep.
Trial report in Sleep, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Memory retention following acoustic stimulation in slow-wave sleep: a meta-analytic review of replicability and measurement quality.Frontiers in sleep · 2023Pooled it
- A sleep schedule incorporating naps benefits the transformation of hierarchical knowledge.Sleep · 2022Trial
- The effect of zolpidem on targeted memory reactivation during sleep.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2021Trial
- Differential Dose-Response Behavioural Profiles of Diazepam, Zolpidem and Indiplon in a Two-Trial Y-Maze Paradigm in Rats.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Effects of lemborexant and zolpidem on sleep electroencephalography in older adults with insomnia: a randomized trial.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2026Article
- The Effect of Preoperative Medication Intervention on Early Postoperative Cognitive Function in Elderly Patients With Poor Sleep Quality.Anesthesiology research and practice · 2026Article
- Thalamic transcranial electrical stimulation with temporal interference enhances sleep spindle activity during a daytime nap.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2026Article
- Article
- The Association of Zolpidem and Suicidality in Psychiatric Outpatients With Insomnia.Psychiatry investigation · 2025Article
- Phase-Amplitude Coupling of NREM Sleep Oscillations Shows Between-Night Stability and is Related to Overnight Memory Gains.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Article
- Article
- Divergent effects of sleep efficiency and sleep medication on episodic memory in mid to late life.Frontiers in sleep · 2025Article
- Vagal heart rate variability during rapid eye movement sleep reduces negative memory bias.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- MRS-assessed brain GABA modulation in response to task performance and learning.Behavioral and brain functions : BBF · 2024Review
- Sleep spindle density and temporal clustering are associated with sleep-dependent memory consolidation in Parkinson's disease.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2024Article
- Neural oscillations and memory: unraveling the mechanisms of anesthesia-induced amnesia.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Review
- A study of long-term GABA and high-energy phosphate alterations in the primary motor cortex using anodal tDCS andFrontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Article
- Respiration modulates sleep oscillations and memory reactivation in humans.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Nocturnal Delta Power is Associated With Lower Next-Day Pain But Not Pain Catastrophizing: Results From a Cohort of Female Participants With Temporomandibular Joint Pain.The journal of pain · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
STUDY
objectivesNonrapid eye movement sleep boosts hippocampus-dependent, long-term memory formation more so than wake. Studies have pointed to several electrophysiological events that likely play a role in this process, including thalamocortical sleep spindles (12-15 Hz). However, interventional studies that directly probe the causal role of spindles in consolidation are scarce. Previous studies have used zolpidem, a GABA-A agonist, to increase sleep spindles during a daytime nap and promote hippocampal-dependent episodic memory. The current study investigated the effect of zolpidem on nighttime sleep and overnight improvement of episodic memories.
methodsWe used a double-blind, placebo-controlled within-subject design to test the a priori hypothesis that zolpidem would lead to increased memory performance on a word-paired associates task by boosting spindle activity. We also explored the impact of zolpidem across a range of other spectral sleep features, including slow oscillations (0-1 Hz), delta (1-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), sigma (12-15 Hz), as well as spindle-SO coupling.
resultsWe showed greater memory improvement after a night of sleep with zolpidem, compared to placebo, replicating a prior nap study. Additionally, zolpidem increased sigma power, decreased theta and delta power, and altered the phase angle of spindle-SO coupling, compared to placebo. Spindle density, theta power, and spindle-SO coupling were associated with next-day memory performance.
conclusionsThese results are consistent with the hypothesis that sleep, specifically the timing and amount of sleep spindles, plays a causal role in the long-term formation of episodic memories. Furthermore, our results emphasize the role of nonrapid eye movement theta activity in human memory consolidation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.