UK (Commonwealth Union) – The activities of the of the mind during sleep have been a source of fascination for scientists over a long period of time. Quite often many people recall being in a semiconscious state during sleep where they may hear something and wake feeling uncertain if it was a dream or something they actually heard.
New research has found that playing sounds to individuals during sleep may be applied to help them forget specific memories. The early-stage discovery, conducted at the University of York, may possibly be formed into techniques to assist in diminishing traumatic and intrusive memories, according to researchers.
Prior studies have indicated that playing “sound cues” while sleeping can be used to enhance specific memories, but the latest research gives the first strong evidence that the technique can also be applied in assisting people to forget.
Dr Bardur Joensen the study’s first author and former PhD student at the Department of Psychology, University of York stated that even though it’s still experimental, right now the findings raise the potential of increasing and decreasing the capability to recall particular memories by playing sound cues while the person is asleep. “People who have experienced trauma can suffer a wide range of distressing symptoms due to their memories of those events. Though still a long way off, our discovery could potentially pave the way to new techniques for weakening those memories that could be used alongside existing therapies,” said Dr Joensen.
The study was conducted with, 29 participants learning links between overlapping pairs of words. The participants then slept overnight at the University’s sleep lab. The researchers then analyzed their brainwaves and at the point they reached deep or slow-wave sleep, also referred to as stage 3 sleep, as they were quietly played the word representing the object.
Researcher indicated that the next step is to use the cues to help the participants forget harmful memories.
