Expressions such as ‘sleep on it’ refer to the resolution of distressing experiences across a night of sound sleep. Sleep is an active state during which the brain reorganizes the synaptic connections that form memories. This Perspective proposes a model of how sleep modifies emotional memory traces. Sleep-dependent reorganization occurs through neurophysiological events in neurochemical contexts that determine the fates of synapses to grow, to survive or to be pruned. We discuss how low levels of acetylcholine during non-rapid eye movement sleep and low levels of noradrenaline during rapid eye movement sleep provide a unique window of opportunity for plasticity in neuronal representations of emotional memories that resolves the associated distress. We integrate sleep-facilitated adaptation over three levels: experience and behaviour, neuronal circuits, and synaptic events. The model generates testable hypotheses for how failed sleep-dependent adaptation to emotional distress is key to mental disorders, notably disorders of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress with the common aetiology of insomnia.

诸如“sleep on it”之类的表达方式是指通过一整夜的熟睡来解决痛苦的经历。睡眠是一种活跃状态，在此期间大脑重新组织形成记忆的突触连接。该观点提出了睡眠如何改变情绪记忆痕迹的模型。睡眠依赖性重组是通过神经化学环境中的神经生理学事件发生的，这些事件决定了突触生长、生存或被修剪的命运。我们讨论非快速眼动睡眠期间的低水平乙酰胆碱和快速眼动睡眠期间的低水平去甲肾上腺素如何为情绪记忆的神经元表征的可塑性提供独特的机会之窗，从而解决相关的痛苦。我们将睡眠促进适应整合到三个层面：经验和行为、神经元回路和突触事件。该模型产生了可检验的假设，说明睡眠依赖性情绪困扰适应失败如何成为精神障碍的关键，特别是焦虑、抑郁和创伤后应激障碍以及失眠的常见病因。