Dr. Matt Walker

So we couldn't believe it.

He flew down to Berkeley.

We spent several days together.

We went out to dinner.

We just could not stop talking.

He subsequently did some incredible work in this area.

And Prezacin went on to become an FDA-approved medication for PTSD and repetitive nightmares that was approved by the Veterans Administration.

It seems to be, and you can look at this in terms of the electrical activity of REM sleep, the electrical brainwaves of REM sleep in these patients.

And you're right, it doesn't seem to be of the same electrical quality.

But what was interesting in Murray Raskin's studies, when he started to treat patients with the prazosin and tamp down that noradrenaline, one of the other things that returned back to normality was not just that the symptoms dissipated,

their REM sleep started to return with a greater amount.

And so I think it fits very well with this notion that whatever REM sleep that was going on may not necessarily have been electrically or neurochemically

identical to normative REM sleep.

But when you assisted the system with a chemical to bring it back into normality, REM sleep was gifted back to the brain and emotional resolution started to unfold.

Now, I should note that there have been

a number of studies that have replicated the finding.

Some studies have not though.

And so we still need to understand exactly why this is the case.

And there are other therapies that we'll probably discuss in a later episode on dreaming that are as, if not more effective than that drug therapy for repetitive nightmares, that is a psychological intervention rather than a pharmacological intervention.

And that seems to be very effective too.