Fear Memories Can Be Overcome During Sleep, Researchers Say

It can take only an instant for fear to take hold in the brain: a fear of snakes after being bitten by one, or anxiety around bodies of water after witnessing a drowning.

Overcoming that fear can take a long time, but now researchers are saying it can be done in your sleep. Scientists at Northwestern University say they have lowered levels of fear in people by using certain odors to trigger and rechannel frightening memories into harmless ones during a deep slumber.

“Sleep sort of stamps memories in more strongly,” said neurologist Jay Gottfried, senior author of the study, which was scheduled to be published online Sunday by the journal Nature Neuroscience. “That’s when a lot of memory formation can take place.”

The researchers first created a fear of a certain face in their subjects by using conditioning — making them link a face and an odor in their minds with a painful electric shock. After some trials, the participants became afraid of the face, and the smell acted as a cue associated with that face.

The researchers then used the smell to trigger fear memories during sleep as a way to enable patients to adjust without the stress of conscious terror.

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