REM sleep is important for emotional regulation
Summary
- During REM, out brain processes and reduces intensity of stress and negative emotions.
Details
- in a 2019 Dutch study, researchers impaired REM sleep and observed greater activation of the amygdala, which processes negative emotions
- REM sleep acts as a kind of nightly therapy
References
Quotes
Something very cool also happens in REM sleep: in 2019, Dutch researchers showed that REM sleep is critical for emotional processing. During sleep, ‘memory traces’ of experiences from the past day are spontaneously played back, like a movie – but the brain blocks the release of the stress hormone noradrenaline (norepinephrine) during REM sleep, and so REM sleep appears to act as a kind of nightly therapy for the brain, helping to process and reduce the intensity of stressful events and negative emotions.
The Dutch researchers were able to impair this REM sleep in some subjects and showed that there was greater activation of the amygdala, the part of the brain that processes negative emotions, the next day. Because of this research and that of others, we now know that disrupting REM sleep interferes with this nightly therapy and can increase the risk of anxiety and depression.