An individual chronically consumes caffeine before attempting sleep, which impairs declarative memory consolidation. Which mechanism explains this effect within sleep cycles?

💡 Explanation

Caffeine acts as an adenosine receptor antagonist, which decreases slow-wave sleep (SWS) crucial for declarative memory consolidation because adenosine promotes sleepiness and SWS. Therefore, antagonism impairs memory consolidation, rather than the other options which would typically enhance sleep quality.

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