Dr. Matthew Walker

The sister chemical in the body everyone has heard about, it's called adrenaline. Upstairs in the brain, it's noradrenaline. And noradrenaline does lots of things, but one of the things it does is it gets released in rude amounts when you undergo one of these emotional experiences. It's the thing that plants the red flag on the memory and says to the brain, this is priority. This was emotional.

This is important. And so it's useful to prioritize what gets remembered in the brain. But it's only useful to tag the memory initially as important. It's not useful to hold on to the emotion. And Dream sleep provides that form of the emotional detox.

This is important. And so it's useful to prioritize what gets remembered in the brain. But it's only useful to tag the memory initially as important. It's not useful to hold on to the emotion. And Dream sleep provides that form of the emotional detox.

This is important. And so it's useful to prioritize what gets remembered in the brain. But it's only useful to tag the memory initially as important. It's not useful to hold on to the emotion. And Dream sleep provides that form of the emotional detox.

So I presented this data at a conference, this theory that dream sleep strips the emotion from the memory because dream sleep is the only time when the brain has this perfect therapeutic chemical cocktail of shutting off noradrenaline. And the brain actually has the emotional memory centers reactivated during dreaming.

So I presented this data at a conference, this theory that dream sleep strips the emotion from the memory because dream sleep is the only time when the brain has this perfect therapeutic chemical cocktail of shutting off noradrenaline. And the brain actually has the emotional memory centers reactivated during dreaming.

So I presented this data at a conference, this theory that dream sleep strips the emotion from the memory because dream sleep is the only time when the brain has this perfect therapeutic chemical cocktail of shutting off noradrenaline. And the brain actually has the emotional memory centers reactivated during dreaming.

So you can reactivate the emotional memories, but you process them in a quote unquote safe neurochemical environment. But in PTSD, they'd already measured levels of noradrenaline, the cerebrospinal fluid, and found that they were excessively high. No wonder they couldn't strip the memory, the emotion from the memory. And I was presenting this.

So you can reactivate the emotional memories, but you process them in a quote unquote safe neurochemical environment. But in PTSD, they'd already measured levels of noradrenaline, the cerebrospinal fluid, and found that they were excessively high. No wonder they couldn't strip the memory, the emotion from the memory. And I was presenting this.

So you can reactivate the emotional memories, but you process them in a quote unquote safe neurochemical environment. But in PTSD, they'd already measured levels of noradrenaline, the cerebrospinal fluid, and found that they were excessively high. No wonder they couldn't strip the memory, the emotion from the memory. And I was presenting this.

And then in the afternoon session, a psychiatrist came along from Puget Sound. He worked in the VA, the veterans system. And he was treating patients with PTSD. And they, most of them had high blood pressure. So he was treating them with a generic drug called Prazosin. And the drug, it turns out, because it's the VA, it's cheap, it's generic, it crosses the blood brain barrier.

And then in the afternoon session, a psychiatrist came along from Puget Sound. He worked in the VA, the veterans system. And he was treating patients with PTSD. And they, most of them had high blood pressure. So he was treating them with a generic drug called Prazosin. And the drug, it turns out, because it's the VA, it's cheap, it's generic, it crosses the blood brain barrier.

And then in the afternoon session, a psychiatrist came along from Puget Sound. He worked in the VA, the veterans system. And he was treating patients with PTSD. And they, most of them had high blood pressure. So he was treating them with a generic drug called Prazosin. And the drug, it turns out, because it's the VA, it's cheap, it's generic, it crosses the blood brain barrier.

So it goes up into the brain. And he was perplexed because his patients were coming back to him and their blood pressure was a little bit better. But they started saying to him, I'm not having the nightmares anymore and my symptoms are getting better. So I had a theory that was in search of clinical data. He had clinical data that was in search of a theory.

So it goes up into the brain. And he was perplexed because his patients were coming back to him and their blood pressure was a little bit better. But they started saying to him, I'm not having the nightmares anymore and my symptoms are getting better. So I had a theory that was in search of clinical data. He had clinical data that was in search of a theory.

So it goes up into the brain. And he was perplexed because his patients were coming back to him and their blood pressure was a little bit better. But they started saying to him, I'm not having the nightmares anymore and my symptoms are getting better. So I had a theory that was in search of clinical data. He had clinical data that was in search of a theory.

And it was one of those kind of hair on the back of your neck moments standing up. Race to him afterwards said, look, I've got to catch a flight back down to Berkeley. I'm going to fly you down next week. We need to go out for dinner. We need to speak about this. We started speaking about it. He did clinical trials. It then became the only... VA approved medication for PTSD.

And it was one of those kind of hair on the back of your neck moments standing up. Race to him afterwards said, look, I've got to catch a flight back down to Berkeley. I'm going to fly you down next week. We need to go out for dinner. We need to speak about this. We started speaking about it. He did clinical trials. It then became the only... VA approved medication for PTSD.

And it was one of those kind of hair on the back of your neck moments standing up. Race to him afterwards said, look, I've got to catch a flight back down to Berkeley. I'm going to fly you down next week. We need to go out for dinner. We need to speak about this. We started speaking about it. He did clinical trials. It then became the only... VA approved medication for PTSD.

There have been some failed replications with that medication. I'll tell you that right now, but nevertheless, it is usually one of the first line medication treatments now for PTSD veterans for nightmares. So that's the first benefit of dreaming. I would say that you can then argue, well, how do you disentangle that from just REM sleep that they're getting?