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Sleep helps us consolidate our memories. Sleep also helps us learn. During REM sleep, which is the dreaming stage of sleep, the brain stops releasingstress chemicals. Now a new study finds that as we dream we can even soothe our stressful associations to certain experiences.
睡眠能帮助我们增强记忆。睡眠也有助于我们学习。在快速眼动睡眠中，也就是睡眠的做梦阶段，大脑停止释放压力化学信号。一项新的研究表明当我们做梦时，我们甚至可以减轻某些经历形成的压力。
Scientists scanned the brains of 35 subjects while they viewed emotionally arousing images. Half of the subjects viewed the images in the morning and again in the evening of the same day. The other half viewed the same images in the evening and then again the next morning after sleeping.
科学家们让35名受试者观看煽动性的图像并同时扫描他们的大脑。有一半的受试者在早晨观看这些图像并在当天的晚上又看了一次。另一半的受试者在晚上观看，睡了一夜后，第二天早晨再看一次。
Those who slept between viewings reported a significant decrease in their emotional reaction to seeing the images the second time. And brain scans corroborated the self-reports, showing a reduction of activity in the amygdala, an area responsible for processing emotions.
在两次观看图像间睡了一觉的受试者声称，当他们第二次看那些图像时，情绪上的反应明显减弱了。脑扫描显示负责处理情感的脑厌质颞叶前部的扁桃核的活动减少了，这一结果也证实了他们的说法。
The research was published in the journal Current Biology.
As Shakespeare knew when he said that sleep “knits up the ravell’d sleave of care” and was “the balm of hurt minds.”—Christie Nicholson
