Want to be Happier? Try getting a Good Night's Sleep

Chronicle News graphic

A good night's sleep really can make us happier—because the brain triages emotions, solidifying the storage of positive emotions while dampening the negative ones—according to a new study.

Mental health issues can be squashed during sleep, including chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and panic.

Swiss Researchers at the University of Bern and University Hospital Bern found that this process occurs during REM sleep, the time when people have the most intensely emotional dreams.

The study, published in the journal Science, shows how sleep is a vital method of improving mental health, as it dampens negative emotions and reinforces positive ones.

Rapid eye movement (REM or paradoxical) sleep is a unique and mysterious sleep state during which most of the dreams occur together with intense emotional content. How and why these emotions are reactivated is unclear. However, researchers say the brain's prefrontal cortex integrates many of these emotions during wakefulness—but they appear to be dormant during REM sleep.

(from goodnews.org)