United States: Imagine a life free from the tether of a bitter or unpleasant form of memory where the pleasant sleep is not disrupted by panic over remaining injuries.
The notion of studying this topic is relatively new, but the findings are quite promising.
In their US-based study titled Aversive memories can be weakened during human sleep via the reactivation of positive interfering memories in 2024, the scientists concentrate on how negative memories can be wiped out through the reactivation of positive ones.
More about the finding
A group of scientists set out to find out whether some familiarised negative emotional stimuli could be replaced with positive emotional stimuli after a night’s sleep.
They thoroughly worked with thirty-seven participants and urged them to link made-up words to negative images, such as injuries or dangerous animals, gulfnews.com reported.
Later, they attempted to neutralize half of them by presenting positive stimuli, such as images depicting happy children or beautiful countryside scenery, and associating those images with the words.
More about the study
The bulk of the experiment took place when the subjects were asleep. During the second night, the participants were in the deep sleep stage NREM, and the scientists used speakers to play records of the invented words.
There was also a significant difference in activation of the brain regions associated with emotional memories, particularly when positive reminders were employed.
This study’s findings were that after this sleep intervention, participants were less able to recall negative memories and instead were disproportionately inclined toward positive memories.

The researchers hope it could open new paradigms of how to assist individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or anyone with a desire to erase unpleasant memories.
But they quickly point out this was done under strictly controlled laboratory conditions, and it’s significantly more difficult to alter traumatic memories in real life, gulfnews.com reported.
It also remains to be seen for how long these changes may persist in the brain’s memory. Despite the very optimistic possibilities of memory editing, more studies should be conducted to make this method applicable.
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