How poor sleep affects brain's ability to keep unwanted memories at bay

How poor sleep affects mental health could be related to a low function of brain regions that work to keep unwanted intrusive memories at bay according to a new studyIntrusive thoughts and memories while occasional and momentary for most can be recurrent vivid and upsetting for those suffering from mental disorders such as depression anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder Marcus Harrington a lecturer of psychology at the University of East Anglia UK and lead author of the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explainedResearchers compared brain scans of participants who slept and did not sleep the previous night and found memory control problems in the sleepdeprived they faced difficulties in engaging brain regions that suppress the process of retrieving memoriesMemories of unpleasant experiences can intrude into conscious awareness often in response to reminders Harrington saidGiven that memories play a central role in our affective perception of the external world memory control failures may go a long way towards explaining the relationship between sleep loss and emotional dysregulation the lead author saidREM or rapid eye movement sleep the stage when one dreams was found to help restore function in the brain regions involved in memory control In a healthy adult the REM stage accounts for about a quarter of a whole nights sleepTaken together our findings highlight the critical role of sleep in maintaining control over both our memories and ongoing thoughts Harrington saidThe study could also help develop treatments and prevention strategies for mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety the researchers saidFor the study functional MRI brain scans of 85 healthy adults were taken while attempting to suppress unwanted memories half the participants had a rested sleep in the lab while the other half was awake all nightAmong the wellrested suppressing memory was related to a heightened activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex a brain region that controls thoughts actions and emotions along with a reduced activity in the hippocampus known to help in retrieving memoriesFurther those spending more time in REM sleep were found to be better at engaging the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during memory suppressionThe researchers said this pointed to how the dreaming stage of sleep could help restore brain processes that prevent unwanted memories from entering conscious thoughtWe show that sleep deprivation disrupts prefrontal inhibition of memory retrieval and that the overnight restoration of this inhibitory mechanism is associated with time spent in rapid eye movement REM sleep the authors wroteAlso ReadWant to learn a new language An 8hour sleep might help according to a new studyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever