Sleep: A Crucial Element in Treating PTSD?

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can occur after experiencing a traumatic event. Flashbacks and memories of the event remain fresh as ever, causing the patient to be hypersensitive and fearful, as though the event were happening all over again. This shows that memory is a crucial factor in the development (and, of course, reversal) of PTSD.

Exposure-based therapy is usually the go-to treatment for PTSD. It works by exposing the patient to the things they fear and avoid, making them more familiar, thereby creating a more neutral and less frightened response.

Problem is, not everyone responds well to this treatment.

There's good news.

New findings suggest that sleep can help enhance the efficacy of exposure therapy in treating PTSD. And here comes the significance of memory.

Scientists have shown that when therapeutically altered memories are reactivated during sleep, it stimulates more brain activity involved with memory processing. And memory processing is associated with a reduction in PTSD.

That is, the patient is treated in the daytime using conventional methods like exposure. At night, the daytime memories of the treatment are reactivated, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of the treatment.

Why is sleep effective in treating PTSD?

Sleep serves as a treatment window. During sleep, the brain consolidates memories and stores them.

Past studies have shown that when you have an experience in the presence of a sound or scent, being exposed to that same sound or scent helps you store and recall the memory of that experience better.

That's how sleep works for PTSD treatment.

The researchers used conventional treatments for PTSD on the patients by day in the presence of a clicking sound.

While the patients slept at night, the researchers played the same clicking sounds, thereby boosting the retention of the memory the patients acquired during the daytime treatment.

The result?

Patients exposed to clicking sounds showed more brain waves than others who were not. Plus, they experienced more reduction in their PTSD symptoms. And they became less likely to avoid the traumatic memories.

It's a way to retain the treatment in the patient, even for patients who don't typically respond to conventional PTSD treatments.

This technique is called targeted memory reactivation (TMR).

However, one night of TMR may not be enough to show significant improvement in the PTSD patient. More may be required.

"None of the patients reported more nightmares or worsened sleep after TMR," said Hein van Marle, the study's principal investigator. "This gives us more confidence in applying it more frequently in our future work."

Read the full research here.

This is massive hope for people currently living with PTSD, especially those who don't respond so well to popular treatments.

Author

Satu H. Woodland, PMHCNS-BC, APRN Satu Woodland is owner and clinician of Hope Mental Health, an integrative mental health practice located at Bown Crossing in Boise, Idaho. She sees children, adolescents, and adults.  Ms. Woodland with her background in nursing, prefers a holistic and integrative approach to mental health care that addresses the mind and body together. While Ms. Woodland provides medication management services in all her patients, she believes in long-lasting solutions that include a number of psychotherapies, namely cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure and response prevention therapy, attention to lifestyle, evidenced based alternative psychiatric care and spirituality. If you’d like to gain control over your mental health issues, call Hope Mental Health at 208-918-0958, or use the online scheduling tool to set up an initial consultation.