Module 7

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Module 7

• Sleep and Dreams

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CONTINUUM OF CONCIOUSNESS

• Different states
• Consciousness
• refers to different levels of awareness of ones
  thoughts and feelings
• Continuum of consciousness
• refers to a wide range of experiences, from being
  acutely aware and alert to being totally unaware
  and unresponsive

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CONTINUUM OF CONCIOUSNESS (CONT.)

• Different states
• Controlled processes
• activities that require full awareness, alertness
  and concentration to reach some goal
• Automatic processes
• activities that require little awareness, take
  minimal attention, and do not interfere with
  other ongoing activities
• Daydreaming
• activity that requires low level of awareness,
  often occurs during automatic processes, and
  involves fantasizing or dreaming while awake

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CONTINUUM OF CONCIOUSNESS (CONT.)

• Different states
• altered states
• result from using any number of procedures, such
  as meditation, psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, or
  sleep deprivation, to produce an awareness that
  differs from normal consciousness

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CONTINUUM OF CONCIOUSNESS (CONT.)

• Different states
• Sleep and dreams
• Sleep
• consists of five stages that involve different
  levels of awareness, consciousness, and
  responsiveness
• Dreaming
• unique state of consciousness in which we are
  asleep but experience a variety of astonishing
  visual, auditory, and tactile images often
  connected in strange ways and often in color

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CONTINUUM OF CONCIOUSNESS (CONT.)

• Unconscious and Implicit Memory
• Freuds theory, when we are faced with very
  threatening wishes or desires, especially if they
  are sexual or aggressive
• defend self-esteem by placing these thoughts in
  the unconscious
• cannot voluntarily recall unconscious thoughts
• Implicit or Nondeclarative Memory
• learning without awareness
• occurs in emotional situations or in acquiring
  habits

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CONTINUUM OF CONCIOUSNESS (CONT.)

• Unconscious
• can result from disease, trauma, a blow to the
  head, or general medical anesthesia
• results in total lack of sensory awareness and
  complete loss of responsiveness to ones
  environment

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RHYTHMS OF SLEEPING WAKING

• Biological clocks
• biological clocks are internal timing devices
  that are genetically set to regulate various
  physiological responses for different periods of
  time
• Circadian rhythm
• refers to a biological clock that is genetically
  programmed to regulate physiological responses
  within a time period of 24 hours

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RHYTHMS OF SLEEPING WAKING (CONT.)

• Location of biological clocks
• Suprachiasmatic nucleus
• part of hypothalamus
• lies in the lower middle of the brain
• regulates sleep-wake cycle
• highly responsive to change in light

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RHYTHMS OF SLEEPING WAKING (CONT.)
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RHYTHMS OF SLEEPING WAKING (CONT.)

• Location of biological clocks
• interval timing clock
• can be started and stopped like a stopwatch
• gauges the passage of seconds, minutes, or hours
• helps creatures time their movements, such as
  knowing when to start or stop doing some activity
• located in the basal ganglia
• food-entrainable circadian clock
• midnight snack clock
• regulates eating patterns in people and animals
• might be responsible for late night eating
• obese people might have an abnormality in their
  clock

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RHYTHMS OF SLEEPING WAKING (CONT.)

• Circadian problems and treatments
• accidents
• jet lag
• resetting clock
• melatonin

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WORLD OF SLEEP

• Stages of sleep
• distinctive changes in the electrical activity of
  the brain and accompanying physiological
  responses of the body that occur as you pass
  through different phases of sleep
• Alpha stage
• feeling of being relaxed and drowsy, usually with
  the eyes closed

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WORLD OF SLEEP (CONT.)

• Non-REM sleep
• where you spend approximately 80 of your sleep
  time
• divided into 4 stages
• identified by particular pattern of brain waves
  and physiological responses
• begin with stage 1 and gradually enter stages 2,
  3, and 4

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WORLD OF SLEEP (CONT.)

• Non-REM sleep
• Stage 1 sleep
• transition from wakefulness to sleep that lasts
  1-7 minutes
• gradually lose responsiveness to stimuli and
  experience drifting thoughts and images
• presence of theta waves

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WORLD OF SLEEP (CONT.)

• Non-REM sleep
• Stage 2 sleep
• beginning of what we know as sleep
• high-frequency bursts of brain activity called
  sleep spindles
• muscle tension, body temperature and heart rate
  gradually decrease
• more difficult to be awakened

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WORLD OF SLEEP (CONT.)

• Non-REM sleep
• Stages 3 and 4
• also called slow wave or delta sleep
• waves of very high amplitude and very low
  frequency (delta waves)
• stage 4 is often considered the deepest stage of
  sleep
• most difficult to be awakened from
• heart rate, respiration, temperature, and blood
  flow to the brain are reduced
• marked secretion of growth hormone (GH),
• controls levels of metabolism, physical growth,
  and brain development

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WORLD OF SLEEP (CONT.)

• REM sleep
• makes up the remaining 20 of your sleep time
• stands for rapid eye movement
• eyes move rapidly back and forth behind closed
  lids
• pass into REM sleep about five or six times
  throughout the night with about 30 to 90 minutes
  between periods
• REM sleep remains for about 15 to 45 minutes then
  passes into non-REM sleep

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WORLD OF SLEEP (CONT.)
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QUESTIONS ABOUT SLEEP

• According to a national survey
• 16 of adults sleep less than 6 hours
• 24 sleep 6-6.9 hours
• 31 sleep 7-7.9 hours
• 26 sleep 8 or more hours
• average 6.9 hours a night

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QUESTIONS ABOUT SLEEP

• Why do I sleep?
• repair theory
• activities during the day deplete key factors in
  our brain or body that are replenished or
  repaired by sleep
• primarily a restorative process
• adaptive theory
• sleep evolved because it prevented early humans
  and animals from wasting energy and exposing
  themselves to the dangers of nocturnal predators

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WORLD OF DREAMS

• Theories of dream interpretation
• Freuds theory of dream interpretation
• we have a censor that protects us from
  realizing threatening and unconscious desires or
  wishes, especially those involving sex or
  aggression
• censor protects us from threatening thoughts by
  transforming our secret, guilt-ridden and
  anxiety-provoking desires into harmless symbols
  that appear in our dreams and do not disturb our
  sleep or conscious thoughts

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WORLD OF DREAMS (CONT.)

• Theories of dream interpretation
• Extensions of Waking Life Theory
• dreams reflect the same thoughts, fears,
  concerns, problems, and emotions that we have
  when awake
• Activation-Synthesis Theory
• dreaming occurs because brain areas that provide
  reasoned cognitive control during the waking
  state are shut down
• sleeping brain is stimulated by different
  chemical and neural influences that result in
  hallucinations, delusions, high emotions, and
  bizarre thought patterns that we call dreams

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WORLD OF DREAMS (CONT.)

• Typical dreams
• What do people dream about?
• several characters
• involve motion
• take place indoors more often than out
• visual sensation, but rarely sensations of taste,
  smell, or pain
• seem bizarre, may include flying or falling
  without injury
• may be recurrent (dreams of being threatened,
  pursued, or trying to hide)

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WORLD OF DREAMS (CONT.)

• Typical dreams
• involve emotions of anxiety or fear rather than
  joy or happiness
• rarely involve sexual encounters and are almost
  never about sexual intercourse
• rarely can we control or dream about something we
  intend to dream about
• dreams usually have visual imagery and are in
  color in sighted people
• blind people from birth, dream in tactile,
  olfactory, or gustatory (taste), not visual

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APPLICATION SLEEP PROBLEMS TREATMENTS

• Insomnia
• difficulties in either going to sleep or staying
  asleep through the night
• associated with daytime complaints
• fatigue
• impairment of concentration
• memory difficulty
• lack of well-being

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APPLICATION SLEEP PROBLEMS TREATMENTS (CONT.)

• Nondrug treatment
• go to bed only when sleepy
• put light out immediately
• do not read or watch TV
• if not asleep in 20 minutes, get out of bed and
  relax in another room until tired again
• repeat step 4 as often as required
• set alarm for same time each morning
• do not nap during the day
• follow program rigidly for several weeks
• Drug treatment

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APPLICATION SLEEP PROBLEMS TREATMENTS (CONT.)

• Drug treatment
• Benzodiazepines (Dalmane, Xanax, Restoril)
• reduce anxiety, worry, and stress
• effective in moderate dosages in short term (2-4
  weeks) treatment
• prolonged use in higher dosages may lead to
  dependence
• Nonbenzodiazepines (Ambien, Sonata, Lunesta)
• rapidly becoming popular
• fast acting
• reduce daytime drowsiness
• fewer cognitive side effects
• less likely to lead to dependence

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APPLICATION SLEEP PROBLEMS TREATMENTS (CONT.)

• Sleep Apnea
• repeated periods during sleep when a person stops
  breathing for 10 seconds or longer
• may repeatedly stop breathing, momentarily awake,
  and then resume sleep
• results in insomnia, and exhaustion during the
  day
• Narcolepsy
• chronic disorder that is marked by excessive
  sleepiness
• form of sleep attacks or short periods of sleep
  throughout the day
• accompanied by brief periods of REM sleep and
  loss of muscle control (cataplexy)
• triggered by emotional change

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APPLICATION SLEEP PROBLEMS TREATMENTS (CONT.)

• Night Terrors
• occur in stage 3 or 4 (delta sleep)
• frightening experiences that often start with a
  piercing scream
• followed by sudden awakening in a fearful state
  with rapid breathing and increased heart rate
• usually no memory of experience in the morning
• Nightmares
• occur during REM sleep
• very frightening and anxiety-producing images
  occur
• involve great danger
• upon awakening, person can describe nightmare in
  great detail

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APPLICATION SLEEP PROBLEMS TREATMENTS (CONT.)

• Sleepwalking
• occurs in stage 3 or 4 (delta sleep)
• getting up and walking while literally sound
  asleep
• have poor coordination
• clumsy but can avoid objects
• can engage in limited conversation
• no memory of sleepwalking