Can Napping Resolve Some of Your Problems?

When Todd was five, the neighbor's cat went ballistic and gave hima really bad scratch. Twenty years later, Todd still steers clear of cats.In fact, areas of his brain involved in emotion and fear light up, andTodd starts to sweat and feel anxious, if someone even mentions cats

Can Todd train his brain to react differently? But now Todd has fallenin love with a woman who owns several cats and can't imagine her lifewithout her feline friends.

For years, people have sought relief from fearful or painful memories byexploring them in the safety of a psychologist's office. There'ssomething about activating the regions of the brain involved in thosememories-in settings where the anticipated outcome never materializes-thatcreates new associations. In other words, if Todd racks up enough scratch-freeexperiences talking about cats in the safety of a counselor's office,seeing cats safely from a distance, or petting cats without consequence,the link Todd's brain makes between cats and scratches will beginto weaken.

Scientists are figuring out a new way to desensitize the brain through these kinds of repeated, pain-free exposures. And they'redoing it during sleep.

Researchers created fearful memories by delivering mild electric shocksto study participants at the same time theparticipants were shown picturesof faces and exposed to distinct scents, like lemon or mint. Pretty soon,all it took was seeing the pictures and smelling the scent and participantswould break out in a slight sweat, their amygdalas on alert, anticipatingthe mild shock.

After training the brain to respond fearfully to certain images and smells,could researchers retrain the brain? Could they desensitize those memories?Create pain-free associations that would begin to diffuse the painfulassociations they had fostered? Even more intriguing, could they createpain-free associations while the participants were asleep?

They managed to do just that, and they accomplished it by having participantsnap in the lab with electrodes on their scalps to monitor brain waves.During slow-wave sleep, when recent memories are most active, researchersrepeatedly exposed the nappers to the same scents-lemon and mint-thistime without any shocks.

At first, even while sleeping, participants responded the same way theyhad when they were awake, by sweating and with brain activity that indicatedthe same kind of negative anticipation. Before long, however, with repeatedexposures, the volunteers began to show less negative reactions both intheir bodies and their brains.

People who slept longer and received more "safe" exposures benefitedthe most from the treatment.

After waking up, participants continued to show decreased responses tothe photos and scents, meaning the desensitization they demonstrated whilesleeping stuck with them.

Will nap therapy replace talk therapy in the near future? Probably not.Although if the two approaches are ever combined, time spent on your psychologist'scouch might mean bringing along a pillow, as well.