Sleep disorders are commonplace in nearly all psychiatric disorders. Walker states, “we’re closer to being able to look into whether the person has a psychiatric disease or a sleep disorder . . . all signs point to sleep doing something for emotional regulation and emotional processing”.

Professor Walker now aims to turn his attention to the two phases of sleep that occur during the night: Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) in an attempt to discover their role, if any, in the process.

Ref:

Yoo, S., Gujar, N., Hu, P., Jolesz, F.A., Walker, M.P. (2007) The human emotional brain without sleep — a prefrontal amygdala disconnect. Current Biology 17: 877-878