July 5, 2022 – REM sleep is the darling of the sleep world. Abbreviated for “quick eye movement,” REM excites us because it’s when we make the most of our dreams – when, perhaps, all of our inner worries, frustration, and lust.
We already have proven evidence that REM sleep helps us manage those feelings, but a new study has shown how.
In fact, the nerves (hundreds of messengers) in front of the brain may be busy stimulating positive emotions but also weakening our worst emotions and pain, say researchers from the University of Bern. and the University Hospital of Bern, in Switzerland. It’s a preventative measure, they believe.
The findings not only reinforce the importance of sleep for mental health but may also lead to new treatments for certain mental health conditions.
How Sleep Helps Us Exercise Our Feelings
The researchers obtained their results after examining brain activity in rats on pathway, REM, and REM sleep deprivation.
They wanted to investigate why the frontal lobe of the brain – the first cortex – organizes so many sensations when you wake up but seem inactive during REM sleep, he said. lead research author Mattia Aime, a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Biomedical. Research at the University of Bern. It’s a disturbing phenomenon, the authors note in their research in the journal Science.
Neurons have three important parts, defined by Aime – dendrites, axons, and the cell body (soma). Dendrites receive information and transmit it to the cell body. Information is then passed on to axons to help send it to other neurons. Thus, dendrites pull information in, and axons send it out.
But the researchers found that during REM, sensory materials were stored at the dendritic level, and that part of the cell’s “output” blocked communication.
“That means the dendrites, which are active during REM sleep, provided a stimulant,” Aime says, blocking any external messages associated with risk. Think of it as a game of “whispering down the street” that is paused when someone gets a scary or unpleasant whisper and doesn’t pass it on to the other person.
Aime calls the device “bi-directional” because the different parts of the neu (the “inlet” and “inlet” parts) behave in opposite directions.
“This is very important to satisfy the accumulation of emotional memories,” Aime says. “Dendrites store information, cell bodies [are] inactive to avoid over -storage.”
Research can help treat mental health conditions, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can cause nightmares.
“The association of REM-dependent learning with PTSD is very interesting,” Aime says, noting that when this process is compromised, it can lead to PTSD-like behaviors.
REM sleep is also believed to contribute to anxiety and increased stress.
“These studies provide the way to a better understanding of emotional activity during sleep in the mammalian brain and open new perspectives for new purposes,” he said.
