A wealth of studies supports the role of sleep in memory performance. Experimentally controlled studies indicate that prolonged wake after memory encoding is detrimental for memory outcome whereas sleep protects from wake-time interference and promotes memory consolidation. We examined how the natural distribution of wake and sleep between encoding and retrieval associated with overnight picture recognition accuracy among 161 adolescents following their typical sleep schedule with an in-home polysomnography. The memorized pictures varied in their level of arousal (calm to exciting) and valence (negative to positive). Suspecting genotypic influence on the sensitivity for sleep/wake dynamics, we also assessed if these associations were affected by known gene polymorphisms involved in neural plasticity and sleep homeostasis: brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met and Catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met. In the whole sample, overnight recognition accuracy was associated with the levels of arousal and valence of the pictures, but not with sleep percentage (i.e. the percentage of time spent asleep between memory encoding and retrieval). While the allelic status of BDNF or COMT did not have any main effect on recognition accuracy, a significant moderation by BDNF Val66Met was found (p = .004): the subgroup homozygous for valine allele showed positive association between sleep percentage and recognition accuracy. This was underlain by detrimental influence of wake, rather than by any memory benefit of sleep. Our results complement the mounting evidence that the relation between sleep and memory performance is moderated by BDNF Val66Met. Further studies are needed to clarify the specific mechanisms.

大量研究支持睡眠在记忆力表现中的作用。实验控制的研究表明，记忆编码后长时间醒来不利于记忆结果，而睡眠可以防止唤醒时间干扰并促进记忆巩固。我们使用家庭多导睡眠图检查了 161 名青少年遵循其典型睡眠时间表，编码和检索之间唤醒和睡眠的自然分布如何与夜间图片识别准确性相关。记忆的图片在唤醒水平（平静到兴奋）和效价（消极到积极）方面各不相同。怀疑基因型对睡眠/觉醒动力学敏感性的影响，我们还评估了这些关联是否受到涉及神经可塑性和睡眠稳态的已知基因多态性的影响：BDNF ) Val66Met 和儿茶酚-O-甲基转移酶 ( COMT ) Val158Met。在整个样本中，夜间识别准确率与图片的唤醒水平和效价相关，但与睡眠百分比（即记忆编码和检索之间睡眠时间的百分比）无关。虽然BDNF或COMT的等位基因状态对识别准确度没有任何主要影响，但BDNF的显着调节作用发现 Val66Met (p = .004)：缬氨酸等位基因纯合子组显示睡眠百分比和识别准确度之间呈正相关。这是由唤醒的有害影响而不是睡眠的任何记忆益处所掩盖的。我们的结果补充了越来越多的证据，即睡眠和记忆性能之间的关系受到BDNF Val66Met 的调节。需要进一步研究以阐明具体机制。