NEUROSCIENCE (symposium session): When fear has no bedtime: REM sleep, threat memory and PTSD
Tracks
Track 1
| Friday, November 13, 2026 |
| 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM |
Details
Sleep disturbance is both a hallmark symptom and a driving mechanism of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This plenary brings together four researchers working at the intersection of sleep and psychological trauma to explore how sleep shapes PTSD from its earliest origins to its long-term consequences. Topics span the full translational arc i.e., the role of sleep in consolidating or reducing intrusive memories after trauma, sex differences in fear extinction recall, pharmacological manipulation of REM sleep to enhance extinction, prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea in young adults with PTSD symptoms, and the clinical consequences of PTSD-related sleep disruption for neurodegenerative risk in military veterans. Together, these presentations illuminate the bidirectional relationship between sleep and PTSD, and point toward novel therapeutic targets for an under-treated and under-recognised clinical problem.
Speaker
Jessica Ogden
PhD Student
Monash University
Mechanisms underlying sleep's protective role in intrusive memory development
10:30 AM - 10:50 AMBiography
Maya Schenker
Rapid eye movement sleep in the pathophysiology and treatment of PTSD
10:50 AM - 11:10 AMBiography
Prof Amy Jordan
Director, John Trinder Sleep Laboratory
University of Melbourne
Obstructive sleep apnoea in PTSD: who, why and how best to treat
11:10 AM - 11:30 AMBiography
Prof Miranda Lim
Professor
Oregon Health & Science University
Clinical phenotypes of sleep disturbance in PTSD: Implications for neurodegeneration
11:30 AM - 11:50 AMBiography
Dr. Miranda Lim is Professor in the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University and holds a joint appointment at the Veterans Affairs Portland Health Care System. She has served as MPI and director of the Oregon Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (NIH P30 Center) and Associate Director of VA's Advanced Fellowship in Mental Illness Research and Treatment (MIRT) for VA's VISN20 Northwest Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC). Dr. Lim is a physician-scientist board-certified in Neurology and Sleep Medicine, and leads a combined basic, translational, and clinical research program, Sleep & Health Applied Research Program (SHARP).
Rick Wassing
Macquarie University / Woolcock Institute of Medical Research
Chair
Biography
Dr Scott Coussens
Manager
WCH
Chair
Biography
