The Memory Consolidation Function of Sleep

Sleep has been identified as an off-line state that optimizes the consolidation of newly acquired information in memory. The sleep-dependent memory consolidation effect is related to the type of memory. What's more, the specific sleep stages perhaps contribute differently to memory consol- idation. There are two hypotheses attempting to explain the mechanism of sleep-dependent memory consolidation effect, including system consolidation hypothesis and synaptic homeostasis hypothesis.