Sleep

1
Sleep Dreams

• Chapter 7- Understanding Psychology

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Sleep

• Sleep is an altered state of consciousness
• Consciousness- A state of awareness

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Studying Sleep

• Sleep has been extremely difficult to study until
  recently
• EEG- (electroencephalograph) is a device that
  records the electrical activity of the brain.

• WHY do we sleep?
• Many different theories restorative, primitive
  hibernation, clear our minds.
• 4 stages of sleep

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Stage One

• Lightest level of sleep.
• Pulse slows, your breathing becomes uneven, your
  muscles relax.
• Brain waves are irregular and small
• Floating,falling
• Lasts up to 10 minutes

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Stage Two

• Relax more deeply
• Sleep spindles- bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain
  wave activity
• Can be awakened without too much difficulty
• Clearly asleep

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Stage Three

• Transitional stage
• Brain begins to emit delta waves
• Delta waves- large slow waves associated with
  sleep

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Stage Four

• Deepest sleep of all, hard to waken someone in
  stage 4
• Large, regular delta waves occurring more than
  50 of the time.
• Sleep-walking, bed-wetting, night terrors

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REM Sleep

• Occurs in stage 4, more rapid, active kind of
  sleep
• Rapid Eye Movement (REM)
• Pulse rate and breathing become irregular, eyes
  dart around,levels of adrenal and sexual hormones
  in your blood rise

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REM Cont

• Muscles EXTREMELY relaxed
• Brain shows waves that closely resemble those of
  a person who is fully awake
• Where Dreams occur!!

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Sleep cont.

• On average, a person spends 75 of sleep time in
  Stages 1-4
• Sleep cycle repeats itself about every 90 minutes
• REM gets longer every time you enter stage 4
  lasts about 15 minutes (early at night) and about
  45 minutes (late at night)

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EEG- Sleep stages and Brain waves
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Circadian Rhythm

• Biological clock that is genetically programmed
  to regulate physiological responses within a time
  period of 24 or 25 hours.
• Even operate when normal day and night cues are
  removed.
• Regulated by hormones

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Sleep Disorders

• Insomnia- the failure to get enough sleep at
  night in order to feel rested the next day.
• Prolonged and abnormal inability to obtain
  adequate sleep
• Reasons can be anxiety or depression. Overuse of
  alcohol or drugs can also cause insomnia

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Sleep Disorders cont.

• Sleep Apnea- a sleep disorder in which a person
  has trouble breathing while asleep.
• One of the most common symptoms is a specific
  kind of snoring that may occur hundreds of times
  during the night.
• A blockage of the airway causes this snoring
• Affects 1 in 100 americans

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Sleep Disorders cont.

• Narcolepsy- a condition characterized by suddenly
  falling asleep or feeling very sleepy during the
  day.
• Uncontrollable sleep attacks
• Victims of narcolepsy may have difficulties in
  the are or work, leisure and interpersonal
  relationships.
• Very Prone to accidents

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Sleep Disorders Cont

• Nightmares- unpleasant dreams. Occur during the
  dream phase of sleep (REM)
• Night Terrors- sleep disruptions that occur
  during stave 4 of sleep, involving screaming,
  panic, or confusion.
• May last anywhere from 5-20 minutes
• Heart rate and breathing rate double

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Sleep disorders

• Sleep Walking- A disorder in which the person is
  partly, but not completely, awake during the
  night.
• May walk or do other things without memory of
  doing so
• We see sleepwalking more in children than we do
  in adults
• CAN be dangerous, but most of the times is
  harmless

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DREAMS

• The mental activity that takes place during
  sleep.
• Everybody dreams, although most people are able
  to recall only a few, if any, of their dreams.
• http//www.boredpanda.com/15-interesting-facts-abo
  ut-dreams-dreaming/

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DREAMS Cont

• As the night wears on, dreams become longer and
  more vivid and dramatic.
• Your last dream is most liekly to be the longest
  and the one you remember most when you wake up
• Most dreams i9nvolve either strenuous
  recreational activities, or passive events such
  as sitting and watching

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Dreams Cont

• A large percentage of emotions experienced during
  dreams are negative or unpleasant
• Anxiety, anger, sadness, etc.
• Often we incorporate our everyday activities into
  our dreams
• Researches have found that most dreams take place
  in such commonplace settings
• Living rooms, cars,streets

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Dream Interpretations

• Dream interpretations have been discovered dating
  back to 5000 B.C.
• Sigmund Freud believed that no matter how simple
  or mundane, dreams may contain clues to thoughts
  the dreamer is afraid to acknowledge in his or
  her waking hours.
• Others feel that dreams serve no function
  what-so-ever. Just stimulated brain cells during
  sleep

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Dream interpretations cont

• Another theory proposes that dreaming allows
  people a chance to review and address some of the
  problems they may have faced during the day.
• Another is that dreams are used as mental
  housekeeping. Dreams are the brains way of
  removing certain unneeded memories. May be
  necessary because it is not useful to remember
  every single detail of your life.

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Hypnosis

• Is a form of altered consciousness in which
  people become highly suggestible to changes in
  behavior and thought
• Researchers are learning more and more about the
  Mind-body connection.

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Hypnosis cont

• By allowing a hypnotist to guide and direct,
  people can be made conscious of things they are
  usually unaware of and unaware of things they
  usually notice

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How it works

• At all times, certain sensations and thoughts are
  filtered out of our awareness
• Does NOT put patient to sleep. A hypnotic trance
  is very different
• In a Hypnotic trance, participants become highly
  receptive and responsive to certain internal and
  external stimuli.
• Able to focus ones attention on one tiny aspect
  of reality and ignore all other inputs.

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Theories of Hypnosis

• Some argue that hypnosis is not a special state
  of consciousness but simple the result of
  suggestibility.
• If people are just given instructions and told to
  try their hardest, they will be able to do
  anything that hypnotized ppl can do
• Other believe that there is something special
  about the hypnotic state. Believes that there are
  many different aspects to the states of
  consciousness.

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Uses of Hypnosis

• Posthypnotic Suggestion- a suggestion made during
  hypnosis that influences the participant's
  behavior afterward.
• Hypnosis is sometimes used to reduce pain
• Therapists may use hypnosis to help clients
  reveal their problems or gain insight into their
  lives.

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Meditation

• The focusing of attention to clear ones mind and
  produce relaxation
• Many people believe that most people can benefit
  from the sort of systematic relaxation that
  meditation provides

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Drugs and Consciousness
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Psychoactive Drugs

• Chemicals that affect the nervous system and
  result in altered consciousness
• Interact with the nervous system to alter a
  persons mood, perception, and behavior
• Range from stimulants like caffeine, to
  depressants like alcohol, to powerful
  hallucinogens like marijuana and LSD.

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How Drugs Work

• Like hormones, drugs are carried by the blood.
  UNLIKE hormones though, drugs are taken into the
  body from the outside.
• Once in the blood, the drug acts as a
  neurotransmitters and hook onto nerve cells
  (neurons) and send out their OWN chemical
  messages.

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How drugs work cont.

• EXAMPLE An alcohol molecule may tell a nerve
  cell not to fire . As more and more cells cease
  firing, the alcohol user becomes slower and may
  eventually lose consciousness.
• EXAMPLE LSD molecules may cause circuits in
  different areas of the brain to start firing all
  together instead of separately, causing
  hallucinations.

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Hallucinations

• Perceptions that have no direct external cause
• Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, or feeling
  things that do not exist.
• Hypnosis, meditation, certain drugs, withdrawal
  from a drug, and psychological breakdown may
  produce hallucinations
• Also, periods of high emotion, concentration, or
  fatigue may produce false sensations
• After taking a drug, everyone's hallucinations
  seem to be the same from person to person.

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Hallucinogens

• Drugs that often produce hallucinations
• Usually found in plants
• Example- LSD
• Most potent hallucinogen
• An average dose produces an experiential state
• A person can often experience very intense and
  rapid changing any number of perceptions
• Impairs thinking
• Panic reactions

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Opiates

• Also known as narcotics
• Include opium, morphine, and heroin.
• Opiates produce pain reduction
• Also produce what is known as euphoria, which is
  described as a pleasurable state somewhere
  between wake and sleep.
• Regular use can lead to addiction, and an
  overdose of opiates results in a loss of control
  of breathing- in which the user dies from
  respiratory faliure

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Alcohol

• Most widely used and abused mind-altering
  substance in the US
• The immediate effect of alcohol is general
  loosening of inhibitions.
• Despite its stimulating effect, alcohol is
  actually a depressant
• When people drink, they often act without the
  social restraint or self-control they normally
  apply to their behavior.

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Alcohol Cont

• The effects of alcohol depend on the amount and
  frequency of drinking, and the drinkers body
  weight.
• As the amount consumed increases within a
  specific time, the drinkers ability to function
  diminishes.
• Slurred speech, blurred vision, and impaired
  judgment and memory.
• Permanent brain and liver damage and a change in
  personality can result from prolonged heavy use
  of alcohol

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Drug Abuse

• People abuse drugs for many reasons
• Boredom, to fit in, gain self confidence, forget
  about problems, to relax, etc.
• MANY risks associated with drug abuse
• Danger or death or injury by overdose or
  accident, damage to health, legal consequences,
  destructive behavior, loss of control.

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Treatment

• 1. The drug abuser must admit they have a problem
• 2. The drug abuser must enter a treatment program
  and/or get therapy
• 3. The drug abuser must remain drug free
• Many drug addicts are encouraged to join support
  groups.

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In your notes

• Copy the chart on page 198 about psychoactive
  drugs!
• And remember.HUGS not DRUGS )