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Poor sleep habits in adolescents are associated with disrupted memory encoding and sleep-dependent offline consolidation

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 5:00 – 7:00 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Rebecca Crowley¹ (), Jessie Ricketts¹, Lisa Henderson², Gareth Gaskell², Jakke Tamminen¹; ¹Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom, ²University of York, United Kingdom

Sleep before learning restores hippocampal encoding capacity, while sleep after learning stabilises and integrates new memories into neocortical stores. Although these processes are well documented in adults and young children, they remain poorly understood in adolescence, despite circadian shifts and behavioural changes that disrupt sleep during this period. We hypothesised that the transition to adolescence would be associated with poorer sleep and reduced encoding and consolidation efficiency. Participants (225 11-12-year-olds and 263 13-15-year-olds) completed a word learning task across two sessions spaced 24 hours apart, testing immediate encoding and overnight consolidation. Sleep was assessed via questionnaires, diaries, and actigraphy in a subsample. Bayesian mixed effects models revealed substantial sleep differences between age groups. Older adolescents exhibited stronger evening chronotypes, later sleep onsets (41 mins later), shorter durations (44 mins shorter), and poorer sleep hygiene (an individual’s habits and environmental factors that promote good sleep). In the word learning task, older adolescents outperformed younger peers at encoding, but underperformed at delayed recall, suggesting age-related improvements in encoding were offset by weaker consolidation. Across groups, better sleep hygiene predicted better encoding and consolidation (βs = 0.10 - 0.56). Closer analysis of sleep hygiene suggested physical activity before bedtime and lack of bedtime routine were particularly strongly associated with poorer memory. These findings suggest that behavioural choices around bedtime contribute to the trade-off between improved encoding capacity and reduced consolidation efficiency in adolescence. Interventions targeting modifiable sleep behaviours may strengthen memory formation during this developmental period.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Development & aging