Skip to main content

Get REM Sleep; Manage Fear

A good night’s sleep may help you manage fear and risks better.


A study just posted in Journal of Neuroscience describes the importance of a good night’s sleep to controlling strong emotions, especially fear.
Previous studies in this area attempted to discover what happens in the brain after a frightful experience.  These prior studies, for example, show how Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affects sleep. A team at the Rutgers University Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, led by Itamar Lerner, has taken a different approach. They wanted to see if there is a relationship between adequate sleep and prevention or management of the brain’s reaction to subsequent stressful events.
Research Team
Lerner is a Postdoctoral Fellow in sleep research. Along with fellow researchers Neha Sinha-also doing Postdoctoral research-in her case in brain imaging, Shira Lupkin and Alan Tsai, they used new technology that allows mobile tracking of sleep habits over a period of time, not just one night in a sleep lab. This research was overseen by Dr. Martin Gluck, Professor of Neuroscience and Co-Director of the Memory Disorder Project at Rutgers- Newark.
Conclusion
The research team noted that getting a full night’s rest, including adequate Rapid-Eye-Movement (REM) sleep, has a preventive effect in the face of what might otherwise be a fearful, risky or frightful experience. This seems to be done by modulating the connections among the amygdala, hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex- all of which are areas of the brain involved in memory formation, emotions, the “fight or flight” response (and much more).
A link to the research is here.
One More Reason
In previous posts, we’ve discussed the critical importance of a full, complete night’s sleep to brain health and peak mental performance at every age. This new research adds another reason to make sure that we develop good sleep habits.
Shameless plug: if you aren’t getting a restful night of sleep, perhaps a sleep mask might help. At www.BigBrain.Place we offer a terrific one at the bargain price of $6.

www.BigBrain.Place offers fun products that are good for your brain.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stimulus Plan

Mr. President: The House stimulus bill is awful. Dangerous. Counter-productive. It has a very high probability of making things worse!. Your man Rahm Emanuel is supposed to be a tough guy: turn him loose on the House Dems - they are selling you down the river. Some simple tests: the spending will improve long-term productivity; the spending will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and the spending will happen fast; very, very fast. There may need to be some legislation to enable spending without years of environmental review. For example, spending on wind farms would improve long-run productivity and reduce dependence on foreign oil. But let's say the wind farm is a couple of miles offshore. You can't have environmental groups stopping the development to see if some fish will be harmed. This spending has to happen now. And, no tax cuts with the possible exception of AMT. People aren't going to spend any tax savings; they are going to pay their credit card bills or r...
10 comments
Read more

No Steve No

To:Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer: Please, please don't spend my money on Yahoo. Spend $4 billion per year for the next 10 years building something new and better. This has to now be an ego deal, not an economic deal. If you withdraw the bid, YHOO is a $15 stock. You are too smart for this. Many times the best deals are the ones you don't make. This is one of those times. Don't spend my money on this. Sincerely, gene
1 comment
Read more

I Want My GM Stock

It isn't clear how many shares of General Motors will be issued. I've nosed around, but can't find anything definite. However, the general indication is that the U.S. government (that is, us) will own 60% post bankruptcy. I want my piece immediately. And I want you to get yours to. According to the IRS website, about 156 million tax returns were filed for 2008. So, let's do this: 156 million multiplied by five equals 780 million shares. So, distribute five shares to everyone whot filed a return. After all, we taxpayers are going to be paying for this mess for years to come. Sure, there will be some very predictable whining that the government can't get repaid like that, or the cost to GM of keeping records and sending annual reports to all those independent shareholders is too great a cost. Well, I don't give a damn about that. The bad management and greedy unions that got GM into this mess could have foreseen the problem and they didn't. Tough noogies. I wa...
6 comments
Read more