Researchers at UC Berkeley found a number of dramatic stress-related transformations take place in our brain when we enter REM sleep. During REM sleep, memories are being reactivated, put in perspective and connected and integrated, but in a state where stress neurochemicals are beneficially suppressed...
* Sleep decreases amygdala activity to prior waking emotional experiences
There is a sharp decrease in levels of norepinephrine, a brain chemical associated with stress. By reprocessing previous emotional experiences in this neuro-chemically safe environment of low norepinephrine during REM sleep...
* These neural changes are accompanied by overnight reductions in subjective reactivity
...we wake up the next day, and those experiences have been softened in their emotional strength.
* The amygdala decrease is associated with reestablished prefrontal connectivity
However, it appears that sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder no longer fully benefit from this process. This may be because the psychological scars are so deep and can be so easily triggered by everyday events that the entire experience remains too visceral to be stripped away during REM sleep.
* Reductions in both brain and behavioral reactivity are associated with REM physiology
This study can help explain the mysteries of why medications can help some PTSD patients and their symptoms as well as their sleep.
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