post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), they can be repetitive, uncontrollable, and distressing.”Harrington is the lead author of a new study investigating the effect of sleep deprivation on unwanted thoughts.The study finds that sleep deprivation increases the frequency of unwanted thoughts and lessens an individual’s ability to control them.Funded by the Medical Research Council, the research appears in Clinical Psychological Science.“In everyday life,” says Harrington, “mundane encounters can remind us of unpleasant experiences.
For example, a car driving too fast on the motorway might cause us to retrieve unwanted memories from a car accident many years ago.”However, for people with some psychiatric disorders, unwelcome thoughts can be a.