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Medical AI Inquiry: You was designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.  Labels: BACKGROUND, METHODS, RESULTS. Meshes: Chi-Square Distribution, Emotions, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Male, Reference Values, Retention (Psychology), Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Time Factors.
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Does brief sleep after learning keep emotional memories alive for years? Context: Sleep after learning supports memory consolidation. However, long-lasting memory effects of sleep have not yet been investigated. Postlearning sleep may be particularly involved in the long-term retention of emotional memories and could thereby contribute to the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a disease thought to result from overconsolidation of traumatic memories. Subjects (healthy men) who had learned neutral and emotional texts immediately before sleeping or remaining awake for the subsequent 3 hours were recontacted after 4 years for long-term memory assessment (forced-choice recognition test). Sleep following learning compared with wakefulness enhanced memory for emotional texts after 4 years (p = .001). No such enhancement was observed for neutral texts (p = .571).
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Brief periods of sleep immediately following learning cause preservation of emotional memories over several years. Sleep deprivation in the immediate aftermath of traumatic events could be a promising therapeutic measure to prevent PTSD. Final Decision: yes