Sleep duration of an individual has adverse influence on auditory episodic memory.

The present study evaluated the influence of habitual sleep duration on episodic memory in a wakeful state. Episodic memory was assessed for auditory and visual processing pathways. A total of 96 medical students (53 male and 43 female, between the age group 18-23 years) accustomed to different sleep durations volunteered in the tests. The tests included auditory free recall of 10 common words, pictorial free recall of 10 pictures and recognition of 10 miniature animal replicas with 10 distracters. There was no gender-related difference in the visual and the auditory memory scores. The visual episodic memory scores were similar in persons sleeping longer or shorter duration. On the other hand auditory memory scores were significantly lower in persons accustomed to >10 h sleep. The results indicate the importance of sleep duration on episodic memory processing of learned material even during wakeful state specially which involves auditory system.