Aversive memories can be overwhelming when they intrude on mnemonic awareness, impair cognitive function, and deteriorate mental health. In a 2024 study published in the journal of Pyschological and Cognitive Sciences, research has demonstrated that activating positive memories during wakefulness can reduce negative affect and depressive symptoms in humans, as well as alleviate depression-like behavior in rodents. They also highlighted the fact that positive memories and affirmations during sleep can help accelerate the removal of negative memories from the mind. To gain further insight into this, indianexpress.com spoke to a health expert. Dr Parth Nagda, Consultant, Psychiatry, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Navi Mumbai said that sleep is indeed very important in helping clear our bad memories. "Firstly, Sleep is important for consolidating our memory and emotional processing. During the rapid movement phase, the emotional processing happens, which reduces the impact of negative memories over time.," he said. Dr Nagda explained that there is something called synaptic pruning, which happens to reduce unnecessary thoughts by reducing the neural pathways, which are not needed. This helps with decluttering or formatting the brain. Sleep also helps with controlling cortisol, which is a stress hormone. Dreaming also provides a safe space to re-organise our memories in a less distressing way. According to him, even one or two good nights of sleep can help reduce our emotional distress. "Usually sleep patterns have to be consistent for most part of the week to see long-term changes. When you combine regular sleeping patterns with other lifestyle changes such as exercise, meditation, cognitive, behavioural therapy, or medication, it can yield good results," he suggested. Dr Shreshtha Gupta, Assistant Professor at Safdarjung Hospital, shared that sleep helps in memory consolidation, emotional processing, brain development, wakefulness and preparedness. All in all, REM sleep is associated with stronger immune system, which can be achieved around 2-4 am. The brain waves during this phase help with repairing injury and strengthen immune system.
