Sleep has been proven to have a long list of physical and mental health benefits, and now a new study suggests that it might help “erase” bad memories as well.
This is according to researchers from the University of Hong Kong, who conducted a procedure called “targeted memory reactivation” (TMR) to reactivate positive memories and weaken painful ones. during sleep.
“Recalling painful or traumatic experiences can be profoundly distressing,” the researchers wrote in their findings, published in the journal PNAS. “Sleep may offer an opportunity to reduce such suffering.”
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“We developed a procedure to weaken older aversive memories by reactivating new positive memories during sleep.”
A new study suggests that sleep may help “erase” bad memories. (iStock)
In the study, a total of 37 participants were shown 48 “nonsense words,” each paired with a different unpleasant picture, before they went to sleep.
The following evening, they were shown half words paired with positive pictures from four categories: animals, babies, people, and scenes.
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During the next “non-rapid eye movement” sleep, the researchers introduced “auditory memory cues.”
When participants woke up, they had fewer memories of negative images and stronger memories of positive ones.
“Recalling painful or traumatic experiences can be deeply distressing,” the researchers wrote. “Sleep may offer an opportunity to reduce such suffering.” (iStock)
“Our results are consistent with recent TMR research showing that episodic forgetting can be triggered by the reactivation of distracting memories during sleep,” the researchers wrote in the study.
“Going beyond previous research on neutral memories, our results suggest that TMR preferentially reactivated recently acquired positive memories and weakened older aversive memories, thereby altering fate emotional experiences.”
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dr. Earnest Lee Murray, a authorized neurologist at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson, Tennessee, noted that TMR is a method for treating PTSD and other aversive (bad) memories.
“This is done by combining sensory cues with therapeutic interventions and then re-presenting those cues during specific stages of sleep,” Murray, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
Many patients report improved mood and anxiety when sleep improves, the sleep doctor said. (iStock)
This treatment has been shown to reduce the emotional impact of aversive memories, the neurologist added.
“This study not only shows the suppression or weakening of an aversive memory, but it does so by reactivating new positive memories while the patient is asleep,” Murray said. “This will open the door for additional research in ways to weaken traumatic or other bad memories.”
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In addition to psychotherapy, drugs are sometimes used to suppress nightmares or other aversive memories, he noted.
“This study continues to show ways to treat these conditions without use of drugswhich are often full of harmful side effects.”
“This study continues to show ways to treat these conditions without the use of drugs, which are often fraught with harmful side effects,” said the sleep doctor. (iStock)
Alex Dimitriu, dr. med., a authorized psychiatrist and sleep medicine physician and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine in California, was also not involved in the study, but said it is “fascinating” in what it reveals about how the brain processes memories during sleep.
“Our brain unpacks, processes and repackages emotions in sleep,” he told Fox News Digital. “I’ve suspected this before and often tell my patients that sleep is like therapy for our emotions.”
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Many of the doctor’s patients have reported improvements mood and anxiety when sleep improved.
“There is evidence that especially in the REM stage (dream sleep) there is a lot of emotional processing and repetition going on,” Dimitriu said. “However, in this study, the intervention was in non-REM sleep, which shows that emotions are processed in other sleep stages as well.”
The process of using TMR to suppress negative emotions and strengthen positive memories could have a “tremendous impact” on people with depression or trauma, an expert said. (iStock)
The process of using TMR to suppress negative emotions and strengthen positive memories could have a “terrible effect” on people with depression or traumasaid the expert.
“I’m excited to see further research in this area, which essentially means we can learn and change while we sleep.”
Potential limitations
The study had some limitations, the researchers noted.
“Our brain unpacks, processes and repackages emotions in sleep.”
“First, although our experiment aims to weaken aversive memories, laboratory-induced emotional experiences of viewing aversive/positive pictures may not mimic typical traumatic experiences,” they wrote.
It can also be difficult to find positive components within some highly traumatic experiences, they noted.
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“Future research should explore ways to introduce positive distracting memories, such as positive autobiographical or therapy-related memories, to effectively weaken memories of real-life trauma,” the researchers said.
“The role of REM sleep in the modulation of emotional memories will be further investigated,” the study authors wrote. (iStock)
“Secondly, the role of REM sleep in the modulation of emotional memories will be further investigated.”
The study received ethical approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Hong Kong.
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Funders included the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, along with other grants.
Fox News Digital has reached out to researchers for comment.
