Sleep enhances exposure therapy.
- Kleim B Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
- Wilhelm FH Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Health Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
- Temp L University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
- Margraf J Center for the Study and Treatment of Mental Health, Department of Clinical Psychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.
- Wiederhold BK Virtual Reality Medical Center, San Diego, CA, USA.
- Rasch B Department of Biopsychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
- 2013-07-12
Published in:
- Psychological medicine. - 2014
Adult
Electroencephalography
Female
Humans
Implosive Therapy
Male
Phobic Disorders
Sleep
Treatment Outcome
Young Adult
English
BACKGROUND
Sleep benefits memory consolidation. Here, we tested the beneficial effect of sleep on memory consolidation following exposure psychotherapy of phobic anxiety.
METHOD
A total of 40 individuals afflicted with spider phobia according to DSM-IV underwent a one-session virtual reality exposure treatment and either slept for 90 min or stayed awake afterwards.
RESULTS
Sleep following exposure therapy compared with wakefulness led to better reductions in self-reported fear (p = 0.045, d = 0.47) and catastrophic spider-related cognitions (p = 0.026, d = 0.53) during approaching a live spider, both tested after 1 week. Both reductions were associated with greater percentages of stage 2 sleep.
CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that sleep following successful psychotherapy, such as exposure therapy, improves therapeutic effectiveness, possibly by strengthening new non-fearful memory traces established during therapy. These findings offer an important non-invasive alternative to recent attempts to facilitate therapeutic memory extinction and consolidation processes with pharmacological or behavioral interventions.
Sleep benefits memory consolidation. Here, we tested the beneficial effect of sleep on memory consolidation following exposure psychotherapy of phobic anxiety.
METHOD
A total of 40 individuals afflicted with spider phobia according to DSM-IV underwent a one-session virtual reality exposure treatment and either slept for 90 min or stayed awake afterwards.
RESULTS
Sleep following exposure therapy compared with wakefulness led to better reductions in self-reported fear (p = 0.045, d = 0.47) and catastrophic spider-related cognitions (p = 0.026, d = 0.53) during approaching a live spider, both tested after 1 week. Both reductions were associated with greater percentages of stage 2 sleep.
CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that sleep following successful psychotherapy, such as exposure therapy, improves therapeutic effectiveness, possibly by strengthening new non-fearful memory traces established during therapy. These findings offer an important non-invasive alternative to recent attempts to facilitate therapeutic memory extinction and consolidation processes with pharmacological or behavioral interventions.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- green
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1017/S0033291713001748
- PMID 23842278
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/141645
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