The Role of Sleep in Motor Learning

Numerous factors affect motor learning, and its subsequent consolidation into effortlessly retrievable motor memories. Evidence from sleep research suggests a role for sleep in motor learning and motor memory consolidation. Optimal motor performance on a recently learned task is facilitated by sleepmediated consolidation of motor memories. Yet, sleep independent motor memory consolidation occurs for few tasks and do not appear to hamper performance. Growing evidence, however, is suggestive of a facilitative role for sleep in motor learning. Meanwhile the mechanisms underlying sleepmediated consolidation of motor memories are not clear, and the possible relevance of hippocampus to motor memory in the context of sleep-state awaits exploration.