title: REM sleep and memory reorganization: Potential relevance for psychiatry and psychotherapy.
abstract: Sleep can foster the reorganization of memory, i.e. the emergence of new memory content that has not directly been encoded. Current neurophysiological and behavioral evidence can be integrated into a model positing that REM sleep particularly promotes the disintegration of existing schemas and their recombination in the form of associative thinking, creativity and the shaping of emotional memory. Particularly, REM sleep related dreaming might represent a mentation correlate for the reconfiguration of memory. In a final section, the potential relevance for psychiatry and psychotherapy is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Landmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuhn
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Jonathan-Gabriel
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Maier
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Spiegelhalder
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baglioni
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Frase
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Riemann
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, UK.
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sterr
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address: christoph.nissen@uniklinik-freiburg.de.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nissen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003405:Creativity; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D011570:Psychiatry; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012895:Sleep, REM; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Associative thinking; Creativity; Memory; Psychiatry; Psychotherapy; REM sleep; Reorganization; Sleep