PTSD Study: Sleep Deprivation May Help You Cope With Traumatic Events

In a new study published this month in the journal Biological Psychiatry, researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health in Tokyo examined the relationship between sleep deprivation and fear associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a serious disorder in which, after some type of traumatic event (combat, natural disaster, abuse, etc.) involving the threat of injury or death, a person can suffer from a debilitating anxiety disorder involving the following:

• a heightened sense of awareness (e.g. insomnia)
• reliving the event (e.g. nightmares)
• avoidance of things that remind them of the event (e.g. the bedroom)
• guilt about their survival

The researchers recruited two groups of healthy volunteers. All participants watched a film with traumatic content. Then, one group was allowed to go to sleep, while the other was forced to stay awake for 24 hours. Amazingly, the researchers measured less fear of the film's content in the sleep-deprived group than in the group that got to sleep.

The researchers hypothesized that a case of sleep deprivation, like acute insomnia after a life threatening trauma, may help prevent people from forming fearful memories. Not long ago, I blogged about sleep and memory. We know that Rapid Eye Movement sleep (REM Sleep) is when we see a good portion of the mental restoration, when we move information from our short term memory into our long term memory and organize our thoughts in such a way that can help us recall information later on. Could it be that with total sleep deprivation the brain is not allowed to form a long term memory of an event? While this may be possible, more research is certainly needed to better understand this complex situation.

Current treatments for PTSD include reliving the experience ("exposure") and then working with someone on the feelings that are brought up by re-living the experience. In many cases, anxiety medication or sleep medication may be warranted. Complications associated with PTSD may include depression, substance abuse and alcoholism.

If you feel like you may be suffering from PTSD, contact your doctor immediately. This is not a situation that will simply "work itself out."

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™

***

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Comments

[RK Johnston]

02:06 AM on 02/04/2011

One major problem--
Try to deprive yourself of sleep for far too long...and your body will take action. If I start nodding off, and my body jerks itself awake...that means I need to get my butt home and horizontal on the matress, the sooner the better.

As a result of working graveyard shifts when I was a security officer, my body's sleep-regulator got thrown heavily out of whack. It took about two years after I had to resign (due to another health problem), but the regulator is almost back to normal.

And you can take it from me: coffee, spicy food, loud music, walks outside, tobacco (cigars in my case) didn't do didlly/squat to improve my alertness. Only after a hot shower and bed rest was a somewhat back to normal!

Deprive your body of it's needed rest, and it will shut you down to get what it requires!
--RKJ

[peterghansonmd]

05:01 PM on 02/02/2011

Good post. Our grandparents referrence to "beauty sleep" could equally be applied to brain and body. Rest is a weapon, for the next day's battles. No rest means a lousy stress defense. My patients tell me they learned a lot of the context of sleep from a blog on Thomas Edison, who is, after all, the Father of Insomnia. Not much of a problem before his light-bulb idea! http://stressworksinc.com/Blog/post/Insomnia-Is-It-Worth-Losing-Sleep-Over.aspx

[ThinkCreeps]

05:51 AM on 02/01/2011

At last, justification for the `beatings will continue until morale improves' leadership style.

[gene-garcon]

04:35 PM on 01/31/2011

Reading one reader's comment about studying before sleep would be far more helpful and apt to sink in the memory, I one hundred percent agree about that. I always tend to dream about thing that I think about before I sleep. But I've always thought that even a small traumatic event could have an impact on one person's sleep. I may be wrong.

[Crystal Naritai]

08:34 AM on 01/31/2011

I hate how researchers have decided that watching horror movie is equal to = witnessing a live threatening event, or experiencing a life threatening event.

[WSAY]

10:10 AM on 01/31/2011

Yeah - research should conclude what we want it to conclude. What is with there researchers?

[french queen13]

07:59 PM on 01/31/2011

I want to know how they get grants for this useless stuff. A friend of mine always said she wanted a grant to study the effect on personality and lifestyle of unexpected wealth. She was, of course, selflessly volunteering to be the guinea-pig in this experiment ... :)

[RemoveTheGreedyOnes]

07:15 AM on 01/31/2011

It may help for the night, but once you do go to sleep and have to get up for work or what have you, chances are the way you feel and perform far outweighs the benefits of sleep deprivation. No way it's good for you overall.

[cheo]

03:36 AM on 01/31/2011

Statistics just represent a certain number of a given total. What about the ones in the sleepless group whom the study doesn't address? They don't say what their results were.
Their study does not support my particular experience. After a life-threatening trauma I couldn't sleep for weeks, (and longer) and every time I even try to talk about the event it's like it's happening all over again.
Though it is an interesting article, I don't see at all how staying awake keeps your mind/body from re-living the event. I'm inclined to think there are much more effective therapies to mitigate the charge of a trauma.

[RatPack78]

03:21 AM on 01/31/2011

I was told in college the best way to study was to study right before sleep. That way knowledge was more apt to sink in rather than fade away. According to this article, the same applies to any event: you're more likely to remember something if you sleep immediately after experiencing it.

[WSAY]

10:11 AM on 01/31/2011

You were told that? Whoever told you that was making things up as they went along.

[HufferDave87]

12:04 AM on 01/31/2011

Wow...so these researchers found it surprising that people who are completely exhausted aren't as fearful? I'm pretty sure when I haven't slept in 24 hours I can barely think straight and I'm not really concerned about much either, other than GOING TO SLEEP. Plus the fact, doesn't it make sense anyway, since they had more conscious thought time after seeing the traumatic video than the other group? Troubling memories and emotions do typically fade with time, so it seems to make sense.

On a different note...is this actually supposed to be useful information? So...should we just take people who come back from Afghanistan with PTSD and suggest that they only sleep every other night? Somehow I feel like that might have some consequences for their jobs, relationships, and lives in general...

[AnthonyAfterwit]

03:00 AM on 01/31/2011

I think somebody sounds cranky - time for a nap, buddy.

[LA2000]

03:01 AM on 01/31/2011

I don't think the concept is designed to cure PTSD but rather to prevent it in the first place. The idea is that PTSD may be reduced if the subject of a traumatic event is not allowed to sleep immediately after the trauma. Once you have PTSD, no one is suggesting sleep deprivation will help. Think of it this way: quitting smoking may prevent cancer. Quitting smoking after you have cancer is not going to cure it.

And yes, this information could be very useful. If this theory is shown to be true, then a great deal of debilitating pain and suffering may ultimately prove avoidable.

[rjaxone]

11:35 PM on 01/30/2011

The trouble with these kinds of studies is that they are so inconclusive and tend to go way beyond their data. In this article they conclude with > "...could it be...." and "...much more research is needed...."

At best this hypothesis is anecdotal. Why not wait to publish until the findings are more substantial, rather th than encouraging people to "contact their doctors..." now.

These researchers need some sleep....

[Eriq]

12:24 AM on 01/31/2011

Right!!!

[frankcaprafan]

11:07 PM on 01/30/2011

"avoidance of things that remind them of the [traumatic] event (e.g. the bedroom)" LOL

[TeeLolly]

10:23 PM on 01/30/2011

I've found that after doing an all-nighter to meet a work-related deadline, I see things from a completely different perspective and have a renewed sense of energy for the next few hours after the work is done, as well as after getting some sleep and waking up again.

[french queen13]

08:50 PM on 01/30/2011

This article sounds like it's saying "Stay in denial!"

[frankcaprafan]

11:08 PM on 01/30/2011

It's citing research.

[globyghost]

08:17 PM on 01/30/2011

Or it could have been that awesome natural high one gets when sleep deprived...hoping for another study where they try marijuana or shrooms.

[Andy Scatterbrain]

08:55 PM on 01/30/2011

There is some interesting work going on in that area:
http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/07/20/mdma-may-have-role-in-treatment-of-ptsd/15778.html

The sad thing is you don't see a lot of people calling for more research: Psych drugs you have to take every day just make sooo much more money.

[qzulix]

06:16 PM on 01/30/2011

For any veteran out there who's looking for help with PTSD, contact your local V.A. which should have many resources. You might begin here:
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/

Here's a great link for veterans to find support and information: http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/