“These findings may be meaningful not only for people with PTSD, but possibly for those with anxiety disorders as well,” said senior author Anne Richards, MD, MPH, of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, and SAN. Said. Francisco VA Medical Center.
“There are non-invasive methods that can harness the benefits of this stage of sleep to provide relief from symptoms,” she said.
The researchers enrolled 45 participants who had all experienced combat or non-combat trauma; About half had moderate symptoms of PTSD and the other half had mild symptoms or were asymptomatic.
The researchers studied spindles during non-rapid eye movement 2 (NREM2) sleep, the stage of sleep when they primarily occur, which comprises about 50 percent of total sleep.
In the study, participants took part in a “stress visit” in which they were shown images of violent scenes, such as accidents, war violence, and human and animal injury or mutilation, before a lab-monitored nap that lasted approximately two hours. It happened later. ,