{
  "abstract": "Regular nightmare sufferers have habitually over-aroused REM sleep, potentially leaving them less able to suppress or habituate to negative memories, and increasing their risk of mood disorders. To investigate this possibility we compared weekly Nightmare Sufferers and Normal Sleepers at List-Method Directed Forgetting, with encoding and recall separated by overnight polysomnographic sleep. At encoding participants learned pairs of neutral, negative, and positive lists, and subjective emotional- and Skin Conductance Responses (SCRs) were recorded. The following morning we assessed inhibitory control before testing free- and cued-recall. Overnight change in emotional/affective responses and mood scores before and after recalling negative lists were measured. Neither sleep group performed well at directed forgetting. Nevertheless attempted forgetting dampened state anxiety reactivity for Normal Sleepers but did not for Nightmare Sufferers, as seen in the figure 1 below. Surprisingly, this benefit to Normal Sleepers’ anxious reactivity was facilitated by more aroused REM. However, more aroused REM preserved stronger subjective negativity when Normal Sleepers tried to remember. For both sleep groups higher REM arousal supported SCR downregulation. Based on these findings, REM arousal-lowering interventions could be useful if SCRs and state anxiety reactivity have subsided but subjective negative impressions persist after sleep.Abstract P10 Figure 1",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom"
      ],
      "name": "Dominic Carr"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom"
      ],
      "name": "Matina Tsiora"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom"
      ],
      "name": "Simon Durrant"
    }
  ],
  "title": "P10 Overnight memory and affective habituation in frequent nightmare sufferers",
  "uid": "c6a824a2-034d-5ff2-9136-5b8b90696769"
}