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RecruitingNCT03840083Updated Apr 3, 2025

Sleep-dependent Learning in Aging

An interventional study of Sleep in Sleep, sponsored by University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 80 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-04-03.

Sponsored by University of Massachusetts, Amherst · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by Jul 2025, 1 year 3 months ago, but the record still lists the study as recruiting.
  • Registered 6 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Jul 2018, registered Feb 2019).
  • Started Jul 2018; still recruiting 8 years 3 months later.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
584
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years to 80 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The specific objective of this proposed research is to understand whether deficits in sleep-dependent memory changes reflect age-related changes in sleep, memory, or both. The central hypothesis is that changes in both memory and sleep contribute to age-related changes in sleep-dependent memory processing. To this end, the investigators will investigate changes in learning following intervals of sleep (overnight and nap) and wake in young and older adults.

Read the detailed description

Exp 1: Using neuroimaging, the investigators will consider whether differences in brain areas engaged during memory encoding contribute to age-related changes in sleep-dependent memory consolidation for a word-pair learning task.

Exp 2: The investigators will examine the rate of memory decay between encoding and sleep using two probes of declarative memory (word-pair learning and visuo-spatial learning).

Exp 3: The investigators will provide additional opportunity for encoding of the word-pair and visuo-spatial learning tasks.

Exp 4: Using neuroimaging, the investigators will examine neural engagement during encoding and performance following intervals of sleep and wake.

Exp 5: The investigators will examine the rate of decay of motor sequence learning.

Exp 6: The investigators will examine whether enhanced training ('overtraining') improves sleep-dependent memory consolidation for older adults.

02

Conditions studied

  • Sleep
03

In context

Lead sponsor

University of Massachusetts, Amherst is the lead sponsor of 48 studies on the registry; 5 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 80 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Age 18-80 yrs
  • Healthy sleeper
  • No diagnosed sleep or neurodegenerative disorder

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Past diagnosis of any sleep disorder or evidence of a sleep disorder as assessed by self-reported sleep quality assessments, a standardized diagnostic interview, and an acclimation night of polysomnography. Using acclimation-night polysomnography, participants will be excluded with an Apnea-Hypopnea Index >15; a Period-Limb Movement in Sleep index of >15/hr; sleep-onset latency > 45 min (indicative of insomnia); or sleep efficiency \< 80% (see Edinger et al., Sleep, 2004). In cases in which questions arise regarding a participants' inclusion or sleep records, a practicing neurologist board-certified in sleep medicine will review the documentation.
  2. Past diagnosis neurological illness or head injury
  3. Reported average sleep per night \< 5 or > 9 hrs
  4. Current employment involving shift work or an inability to keep a regular sleep schedule during the week prior to testing
  5. Current use of psychotropic, recreational drugs, or sleep-altering medications (sleep medications, cold medicines within the past week, clonidine, sympathomimetic stimulants)
  6. Daily caffeine intake of > 4 cups (coffee, tea, colas)
  7. Weekly alcohol intake of > 10 cups
  8. Pregnancy or \< 12 months post-partum
  9. History of bipolar disorder, mania, or current evidence of depression as measured by Beck Depression Inventory score > 25
  10. Abnormal sleep (e.g., shift work, travel across >2 time zones within the past 3 months).
  11. Diagnosis of any Axis I disorder, neurological illness or head injury (according to Demographic and Health History form);
  12. Score indicative of cognitive dysfunction (subtest scores \< 40)
  13. Beck Depression Scale score indicative of depression (> 19).

Additionally, individuals will be excluded from magnetic resonance imaging studies (Exps 1, 4) for:

  1. Left handed or ambidextrous
  2. Claustrophobia
  3. Presence of metal (thoroughly screened via questionnaire and metal detector)
  4. Pregnancy
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
584 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Sleep

    Individuals will either nap (Exps 1, 4) or have overnight sleep (Exps 2, 3, 5, 6)

    Behavioral: Sleep

  • No intervention
    Wake

    Individuals will stay awake for the same amount of time as they slept in the sleep condition

Interventions

  • BehavioralSleep

    Participants will sleep (either a mid-day nap or normal overnight sleep)

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in memory accuracy for intervention compared to control

    We will measure memory accuracy before the sleep/wake interval and subtract this from memory accuracy after the sleep wake interval. If sleep benefits memory then this value will be greater in the sleep condition compared to the wake condition.

    Time frame: 2 hours (Experiments 1,4) or 12 hours (Experiments 2,3,5,6)

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Started Jul 2018 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Jul 2025, 83 months after the start.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Feb 4, 2019
First posted
Feb 15, 2019
StartActual
Jul 15, 2018
Primary completionEst.
Jul 14, 2025
CompletionEst.
Jul 15, 2025
Last update
Apr 3, 2025
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 3, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03840083
Lead sponsor
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Responsible party
Rebecca Spencer (Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst) — Principal investigator
First posted
Feb 15, 2019
Start date
Jul 15, 2018
Primary completion
Jul 14, 2025 (estimated)
Completion
Jul 15, 2025 (estimated)
Last update
Apr 3, 2025

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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No contact was published for this record. The registry link below has the sponsor’s details.

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