Sleep is a critical modulator for daytime functioning, health and wellbeing and has a pivotal role in motor memory consolidation. It is for these reasons that sleep is a potentially important part of stroke care. However, this idea is severely under researched. It is necessary to explore sleep behaviour in stroke patients and the importance of healthy sleep for recovery and neurorehabilitation. More specifically, investigate the extent to which sleep may be a key modulator for motor neurorehabilitation success. It is the central aim of this thesis to contribute to the understanding of the sleep behaviour and daytime functioning in patients with chronic physical deficits after stroke and to explore the potential role of sleep for neurorehabilitation. Furthermore, this is the first known study to monitor sleep behaviour during a motor neurorehabilitation trial and assess outcome within this context. The research aimed to: 1) make a substantial contribution to the under researched field of post stroke sleep, 2) address some of the limitations imposed on previous studies, 3) focus on a specific cohort, 4) examine sleep in the context of a neurorehabilitation programme. The patient cohort employed in this research comprised chronic stroke patients (>'12 months) with upper limb hemiparesis. It was found that sleep and daytime functioning disturbances were prevalent in approximately one third of patients. Interestingly, patients were not generally aware of the severity of their daytime functioning deficits. Sleep and daytime functioning were mildly related to motor recovery and neurorehabilitation. In conclusion, sleep clearly has a role in stroke patient quality of life, recovery and neurorehabilitation outcome, however further research using alternative assessments of sleep are necessary. The findings of this thesis have implications for post stroke management including increasing medical knowledge and adjustments in rehabilitation protocols that favour sleep.