Sleeping is very crucial for a healthy body. A lot of studies have correlated sleep with learning, stress and even memory loss. A new study on sleep has claimed that sleep deprivation leads to affect the brain’s ability to unlearn fear related memories.
The study said that people with this particular condition, which is quite evident among health workers and military people, are at greater risk of anxiety or posttraumatic stress disorder.
The study came in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. Anne Germain, at the University of Pittsburgh and Edward Pace-Schott at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital led the study. They analysed about 150 healthy adults. One third of the people got normal sleep and one third had restricted sleep (only half night sleep). Another one third was deprived of sleep. All these people put for fear test.
The researchers said that they used a three phase experimental model and the brain was scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The people under investigation were given three colours, two of which were paired with a mild electric shock.