Numerous studies have shown that post-learning sleep enhances visual episodic recognition memory. However, it remains unclear whether this consolidation benefit is moderated by the emotional valence of the learned material. To clarify whether sleep selectively enhances memory for emotional material, we conducted a meta-analysis including N = 1059 post-sleep/wake observations. Overall, our results do not support this hypothesis. When only studies with a sleep group/wake group comparison were included in the analysis (k = 22), the retention advantage for emotional (negative/positive) over neutral material was not significantly different between sleep and wake groups. When studies without wake groups were included in the analysis after statistical estimation of wake–group parameters, the retention advantage for emotional material was significantly larger in wake groups than in sleep groups (k = 34). Interestingly, however, an additional analysis of eight studies investigating the selective effects of rapid-eye-movement sleep and slow-wave sleep on post-interval emotional memory provided evidence for a selective enhancement of emotional over neutral memory performance after rapid-eye-movement sleep compared to slow-wave sleep. These findings suggest that sleep does not generally enhance visual recognition memory for emotional stimuli. However, the result pattern is consistent with the idea that specific sleep stages preferentially enhance consolidation of emotional and neutral material, respectively.

大量研究表明，学习后的睡眠增强了视觉情景识别记忆。然而，目前尚不清楚这种巩固的好处是否会被所学材料的情感价值所调节。为了阐明睡眠是否选择性地增强了对情感物质的记忆，我们进行了一项荟萃分析，包括N  = 1059睡眠/唤醒后观察。总体而言，我们的结果不支持该假设。当仅将具有睡眠组/觉醒组比较的研究纳入分析时（k = 22），在睡眠和觉醒组之间，相比于中性物质，情感（负/正）保留优势没有显着差异。在对唤醒组参数进行统计估计后，如果将不包含唤醒组的研究纳入分析，则唤醒组情感物质的保留优势显着大于睡眠组（k = 34）。然而，有趣的是，对八项研究的进一步分析，这些研究调查了快速眼动睡眠和慢波睡眠对间隔后情绪记忆的选择性作用，为快速眼动后情绪相对于中性记忆表现的选择性增强提供了证据。睡眠相比慢波睡眠。这些发现表明，睡眠通常不会增强情绪刺激的视觉识别记忆。但是，结果模式与特定的睡眠阶段分别分别增强情感和中性物质的巩固的想法一致。