Memory Reactivation Underlies Experience-Dependent Adaptive Regulation of Sleep

The processed data for the work "Memory Reactivation Underlies Experience-Dependent Adaptive Regulation of Sleep" Abstract Memories guide animals in utilizing past experiences to optimize current behavioral outputs. However, whether and how memory achieves it during sleep remains unclear. By tracking and modulating memory activity during sleep, we reveal that memory reactivation serves as an adaptive regulator of sleep dynamics: negative memory reactivation heightens arousability, while positive memory supports sleep stability. Such experience-specific regulation relies on the reactivation of the hippocampus-amygdala engram system during sleep and functions via distinct connectivity from different engram cells to sleep networks. In depression models, negative memory reactivation underlies stress-induced sleep disturbance, and targeted suppression of memory replay restores normal sleep. Together, our findings establish a memory-dependent sleep regulation in which memory reactivation engages downstream circuits responsive to specific memory content, thereby linking daily experience to adaptive sleep strategies.