PTSD and the Sleep Connection
PTSD and sleep – why is this connection important to understand?
Given mental illness (of which PTSD is one) is one of the five key risk factors for developing an addiction and that sleep (the peaceful, restful kind) is one of the key things a person can do to heal their brain from an addiction, I was fascinated by Amy Stanton’s NPR Morning Edition story January 16, “Ending Nightmares Caused by PTSD,” and wanted to share it with readers. Quoting directly from Ms. Stanton’s story:
“…Scientists wanted to find out the reason why people with PTSD can’t sleep and dream normally. One theory comes from Matthew Walker, a psychology researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. His particular interest lies in rapid eye movement, or REM. It’s the time during sleep when a lot of dreaming occurs.
It’s also a time when the chemistry of the brain actually changes. Levels of norepinephrine — a kind of adrenaline — drop out completely. REM sleep is the only time of day when this happens. That struck Walker as a mystery. “Why would rapid eye movement sleep suppress this neurochemical?” he asks. “Is there any function to that?”
Walker found that in healthy people, REM sleep is kind of like therapy. It’s an adrenaline-free environment where the brain can process its memories while sort of stripping off their sharp, emotional edges. “You come back the next day, and it doesn’t trigger that same visceral reaction that you had at the time of learning.”
…Walker’s theory suggests that in people with PTSD, REM sleep is broken. The adrenaline doesn’t go away like it’s supposed to. The brain can’t process tough memories, so it just cycles through them, again and again.” Read the rest / listen to the full story >>>
Lisa Frederiksen
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