Study shows sleeping is best therapy to reduce painful memories on a problem

Study shows sleeping is best therapy to reduce painful memories on a problem

Study at California University has found that sleeping on problem naturally helps to reduce painful memories because dreaming provides overnight therapy for them. When we dream during
our sleep, which is known as REM, the stress systems deactivates in our brain when the brain runs over recent emotional memories.

Scans of brain revealed that after sleeping, areas that oversee rational thought take over when the emotional centre of the brain is less active. This process of interchange helps us overcome
painful experiences from the previous day. This study could explain the reasons behind post-traumatic stress disorder victims, who have severe difficulty overcoming painful memories

The senior author of the study, Matthew Walker, said, “Dreaming provides us with a form of overnight therapy, a soothing balm that removes the sharp edges from the prior day’s emotional
experiences. By reprocessing previous emotional experiences … during REM sleep, we wake up the next day and those experiences have been softened in their emotional strength. We feel better about them, we feel we can cope.

University of California, Berkeley researchers took 34 volunteers and closely observed their brain activity with MRI scanners, as they were shown a series of 150 images designed to provoke
an emotional response. This test was carried out twice, with a 12 hour period in between, dividing the participants in two groups.

The study results revealed that the people who slept between their two scans had lower emotional reaction when they saw the pictures second time. Brain scans spotted a fall in activity
in the amygdala, a part of the brain that related to control of emotions, and a rise in the prefrontal cortex, a brain part that rules over rational responses.

Els van der Helm, who led the study, stated, "During REM sleep, memories are being reactivated, put in perspective and connected and integrated, but in a state where stress neurochemicals
[chemicals in the brain] are beneficially suppressed."

The study was published in the Current Biology journal and the researchers believe that this study could explain why blood pressure drugs have proved effective in some post-traumatic stress
disorder patients.

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Posted by Zeeshan Gohar on Nov 26 2011. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry