REM Consolidation Research

In our clinical work and a couple of research studies, we noted that consolidating REM sleep in the sleep lab with advanced PAP devices almost invariably resulted in the patient reporting better sleep the next morning. The finding was so common in our clinical work, we trained our sleep techs to closely monitor REM fragmentation vs REM consolidation with an eye towards resolving the fragmentation and enhancing the consolidation by sophisticated adjustments of the pressurized air on ABPAP or ASV.

This new study seems to indicate our thinking was on track in so far as consolidated REM serving as an objective marker of better sleep.

In brief, this study exposed normal subjects to a traumatic movie and then had them track how frequently they experienced intrusive memories for a short period, a few days, afterwards. Simplified to practical terms, those whose REM was more consolidated prior to seeing the movie reported fewer intrusive images subsequently compared to those whose REM was not as well consolidated.

The theory suggests well consolidated REM (likely a good definition of normal REM sleep, which our center adopted) protects against the development of traumatic imagery.