The Benefits Of Deep Sleep

A new study from Rutgers University shows that REM sleep – the stage of sleep during which the body relaxes completely and you dream – can make people less afraid. Using sleep-monitoring devices and sleep logs, the researchers measured how much their subjects slept, and then conditioned them to fear certain images.

What they found is that in the process of fear-learning, the participants who had more REM sleep also had less connectivity between the fear center of the brain and the areas responsible for encoding memories. In other words, deep sleep prevented traumatic emotions associated with the images from sticking to the subjects’ brains. This happens because, during REM, norepinephrine – a chemical that mobilizes the body for action – is cleared, and because the stress hormones are at low levels.

As sleep disturbances are an aggravating factor in many mental health conditions, such as post-traumatic stress syndrome, the study’s findings can have huge consequences on trauma prevention treatment. 

“You could imagine that the army could start screening procedures where people with more REM sleep could be better candidates for combat units,” said Itamar Lerner, the study’s lead investigator, who is also with the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers.