Here's another reason for getting enough sleep: it could help conquer fears and phobias. A study recently conducted by a team from Chicago's Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine reveals that phobia treatment during sleep works wonders, according to USA Today.

Published in Nature Neuroscience, an online journal, the study documented the reactions and behavior of 15 healthy young subjects, who had to undergo mild electric shocks while being made to look at two faces. The subjects were also presented with a particular odor with each face. By doing this, researchers successfully associated the faces with fear. As the subjects slept, researchers exposed them to one particular odor. Upon waking up, the subjects' fear threshold was once again tested by having them look at both photos of faces. The result was interesting: the subjects exhibited lower fear reactions for the face associated with the odor they smelled during sleep, as reported by BBC News.

Lead author of the study, Katherina Hauner, says that the finding of the study is refreshingly new. "We showed a small but significant decrease in fear. The bigger picture is that, perhaps, the treatment of phobias can be enhanced during sleep," she told BBC News. Working as the assistant director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Hauner believes that adding this little treatment in a patient's phobia or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) therapy may be a significant advantage.

To treat phobias and PTSD, psychotherapists usually resort to exposure therapy in treating patients. It entails exposing a patient to his or her fears, of course without the danger that comes with the dreaded object or situation. With this study, patients now have the option to face their fears in their sleep.

Mark Mahowald, member of the American Academy of Neurology, commends the study for its novel finding. "The study is important and exciting because it's a reminder that sleep doesn't just improve or consolidate memory; it can extinguish memories," he said, as reported by USA Today. Deleting memories from the mind is quite significant for treatment of phobias and PTSD.

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