Sleep to remember, sleep to protect: increased sleep spindle and theta activity predict fewer intrusive memories after analogue trauma

Recent evidence shows a strong correlative link between sleep disturbances and intrusive memories after traumatic events, presumably due to insufficient (nocturnal) memory integration. However, the underlying mechanisms of this link and the role of specific neural activities during sleep are poorly understood so far. Here, we investigated how the intra-individual affective response to an experimental trauma predicts changes in oscillatory activity during subsequent sleep and how these changes predict the processing of the experimental trauma. In a randomized within-subject comparison, twenty-two female, healthy participants (23.14 ± 2.46 years) watched a well-validated film clip including “traumatic” contents and a neutral film clip before bedtime on two separate nights. Heart rate was recorded during the film clips and nocturnal brain activity was recorded using 64-channel high-density EEG during subsequent nights. Intrusive memories were assessed via a seven-days diary and negative affect was assessed using laboratory trauma film reminders one week after the trauma film. An increased intra-individual heart rate during the trauma film predicted higher intra-individual sleep spindle amplitude the following night. Increased theta activity (4.25 - 8 Hz) during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep after the trauma film predicted fewer trauma film related intrusive memories and negative affect. Likewise, an increase in sleep spindles after the trauma film predicted fewer trauma film related intrusive memories. Our findings suggest that an experience-dependent up-regulation of these nocturnal oscillatory activity patterns, which are known to be involved in adaptive memory consolidation processes, serves as a protective factor against trauma-related intrusive memory development. Particularly, increased theta activity during REM sleep and sleep spindle activity seem to be of importance here.