The Stuff of Dreams: How Sleep Eases Emotional Trauma

The Stuff of Dreams: How Sleep Eases Emotional Trauma
COLUMN by LEE DYE
"Our dreams help us heal" unless they are bad dreams that make going to sleep something to fear. For combat veterans with PTSD, sleep is not something to look forward to. Many of them have terrible dreams and medications are often unable to stop the broken sleep pattern.

Nov, 30, 2011
Scientists have unlocked one of the great mysteries of the human experience, how we deal with traumatizing experiences that could leave us emotionally crippled. It happens during an "elegant ballet of biology" that softens painful memories, according to psychologist and neurologist Matthew Walker of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the research team.

And here's the amazing part: It all happens while we sleep. Our dreams help us heal.

"When you snooze you win," Walker said during a telephone interview.

Walker's team produced strong evidence that supports an assumption among scientists that a specific phase of sleep, called rapid eye movement, or REM, plays a key role in helping us deal with troubling emotions. Until now, there has been "little to no" evidence that's true, and there was even less understanding of how it works.

But the Berkeley team found that during REM, which is also the time we dream, stress chemicals are suppressed in the "emotional hub" of the brain called the amygdala. The research shows that after a good night's sleep, even potentially traumatizing experiences are softened.

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