The effects of sleep on prospective memory: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Prospective memory (PM) enables us to execute previously conceived intentions at a later time and is used when remembering to call a friend or submitting a proposal on time. Evidence that sleep benefits PM is presently mixed. Further, when a benefit is observed, it is unclear if this is achieved through improvements in strategic monitoring (maintaining an intention in mind and searching for cues) or spontaneous retrieval (an automatic process occurring without preparatory attention). We conducted a meta-analysis of 24 independent samples (N = 165,432) to quantify the effect of sleep on PM and gain clarity regarding the retrieval process benefitted by sleep. Cohen's d with 95% confidence intervals (CI