Psyched Psychology for Year 10

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PsychedPsychology for Year 10

• In your dreams

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• What is sleep?
• Sleep is a state where we are unresponsive to
  external stimuli and where we experience a state
  of immobility
• There are different stages of sleep. These can be
  generally classified as non-REM or REM (Rapid Eye
  Movement)

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• Sleep is regulated by the pineal gland and is a
  circadian rhythm
• If our pineal gland is damaged then if affects
  how much we sleep
• We also rely on external cues such as light to
  regulate our sleep

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• Why do we sleep?
• Evolutionary psychologists claim that sleep has
  an adaptive purpose
• Sleep restores our body and repairs any damaged
  cells
• Animal sleep deprivation studies support this
  theory

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• Sleep deprivation affects metabolism and
• core body temperature.

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• What happens when we sleep?
• An EEG helps researchers investigate sleep
• Each stage of sleep gives different readings on
  an EEG
• Brain waves are described by their frequency and
  amplitude and are called beta, alpha, theta and
  delta
• REM sleep is Rapid Eye Movement sleep

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• What happens if we do not sleep?
• It is unethical to deprive humans of sleep
  although some have done it voluntarily
• Randy Gardner went without sleep for 11 days
• Peter Tripp went without sleep for 8 days
• Sleep deprivation impairs our memory, thought
  processes and can lead to hallucinations and
  delusions

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• How much sleep do we need?
• Newborn infants require the most amount of sleep
  (16-18 hours)
• Elderly people require the least (6-7 hours)
• Australian teenagers are often sleep deprived

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• There are many things
• that can be done to
• help you sleep better
• eg. establishing a
• routine, not eating a
• lot of food just before
• bed and eliminating
• caffeine from your
• diet.

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• What are dreams?
• Dreams are strange stories and narratives that
  are usually experienced during REM
• If we dont get enough REM sleep then we try to
  spend more time in REM
• There is no one reason as to why we dream, only
  theories

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• Psychoanalytic theory of dreaming
• (Sigmund Freud)
• Our mind consists of three levels conscious,
  preconscious and unconscious

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• Dreams are a way for us to access our unconscious
  mind
• Manifest content is the things in our dream that
  we remember
• Latent content is the things we dont remember,
  but what the symbols stand for
• There is little scientific evidence to support
  this theory

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• Activation-synthesis hypothesis
• (Hobson and McCarley)
• This is a biological explanation as to why we
  dream
• In REM, our brain has lots of electrical activity
  which sends information to parts of our brain
  that processes sensory information

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• Because we are asleep our brain tries to give
  this information some meaning and will often draw
  on past memories to do this
• It is supported by scientific evidence

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• What do our dreams mean?
• The culture in which you live and your personal
  experiences affect the content of your dreams
• Universal symbols are common among all people and
  usually mean the same thing

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• Dreams about being pursued, never reaching a
  destination, falling and water can sometimes
  indicate anxiety
• Dream interpretation will always be subjective