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Sleep helps us consolidate our memories. Sleep also helps us learn. During REM sleep, which is the dreaming stage of sleep, the brain stops releasingstress chemicals. Now a new study finds that as we dream we can even soothe our stressful associations to certain experiences.
睡眠能幫助我們增強記憶。睡眠也有助于我們學習。在快速眼動睡眠中，也就是睡眠的做夢階段，大腦停止釋放壓力化學信號。一項新的研究表明當我們做夢時，我們甚至可以減輕某些經歷形成的壓力。
Scientists scanned the brains of 35 subjects while they viewed emotionally arousing images. Half of the subjects viewed the images in the morning and again in the evening of the same day. The other half viewed the same images in the evening and then again the next morning after sleeping.
科學家們讓35名受試者觀看煽動性的圖像并同時掃描他們的大腦。有一半的受試者在早晨觀看這些圖像并在當天的晚上又看了一次。另一半的受試者在晚上觀看，睡了一夜后，第二天早晨再看一次。
Those who slept between viewings reported a significant decrease in their emotional reaction to seeing the images the second time. And brain scans corroborated the self-reports, showing a reduction of activity in the amygdala, an area responsible for processing emotions.
在兩次觀看圖像間睡了一覺的受試者聲稱，當他們第二次看那些圖像時，情緒上的反應明顯減弱了。腦掃描顯示負責處理情感的腦厭質顳葉前部的扁桃核的活動減少了，這一結果也證實了他們的說法。
The research was published in the journal Current Biology.
該研究發表在《當代生物學》期刊上。
The researchers note that by processing emotional experiences during REM sleep, when norepinephrine levels are dramatically reduced, we feel less strongly about such experiences when we wake.
研究人員注釋到，在快速眼動睡眠中，降腎上腺素數量明顯減少,此時處理情感經歷，當醒來時對這種經歷的感覺會降低。
As Shakespeare knew when he said that sleep “knits up the ravell’d sleave of care” and was “the balm of hurt minds.”—Christie Nicholson
莎士比亞早已知道了這一點。他曾說過，“睡眠將憂慮的細絲散開”，“睡眠是受傷心靈的安慰劑”。
