Sleep Can Be More Helpful Than You Think

            Apparently, to get over one’s fears, scientists have found a new, less painful method to remove someone’s phobias than the old traditional way. This new method treats a person in their sleep, whereas the old way was a prolonged exposure to the feared object in hopes of creating new safer memories to outlast the old one.

            This method is pretty amazing to me, because it removes all fear, or at least it theoretically should, during sleep. Although, being the skeptic that I am, it does not make a lot of sense if I just use some common sense and logic. Sleep is the time where a person is most vulnerable; he or she is incapacitated and experiences hallucinations, and then is extremely disoriented when woken up. I personally, can attribute to the truthfulness of this every day of my life when my alarm goes off. Here I am, sleeping oh ever so peacefully, when a blaring siren goes off and I am forced to flail around a bit before I find the snooze button. Thus, trying to incorporate some of his or hers fears into their dreams or sleep does not seem like too bright of an idea. I remember when it happened to me as a child, I think they were called nightmares. Anybody who has had a nightmare obviously knows the terrors of having one, and usually would prefer not to experience them again.

            Of course, this method has hardly been tested and is not ready for full judgment yet, because only 15 people were tested, and the new method is most nearly associated with a person’s sense of smell. Some fears that are specifically linked to some smells would be hard to find, such as arachnophobia. Anyone with arachnophobia who knows what a spider smells like probably does not actually have it if one got close enough to smell it. This could also go horribly wrong when the person associates a good memory with a particular smell, and when the scientists associate the smell with something he or she fears, nothing too good can come out of that. Although, it could have the opposite effect, as in associating the feared item with a good memory which reduces how scary it is. Like I said, it still needs to be tested before any real judgment on it can be made.

            As for now, I think it is a fantastic idea with a couple of holes that need to be filled. It could later become a wonderful treatment, but not a guaranteed treatment, because each individual’s psyche reacts differently to the same situations.