Tami Taylor (S00659403)
Psychology 1010, Section 25, Dr. Karen Kwan, Ed.D.
A “Thought Paper” – I; February 15, 2011
Video: The Mind Awake and Asleep
The Annenberg Media Website introduces and summarizes the video I watched as follows: “The
Mind Awake and Asleep is the thirteenth program in the DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY series. Drawing on
the theories of early modern psychologists Wilhelm Wundt and William James, this program looks at
conscious and unconscious awareness, how the mind functions awake and asleep, and the biological
rhythms of activity, rest, and dreaming.”
The video reviewed different aspects and states of consciousness, daydreaming, and sleep. For me, a
few of the more interesting concepts and suppositions presented by the video were:

Are dreams the result of random bursts of impulses deep within the brain or a product of hidden
fears and desires?

The earth alternates between light and darkness and seasons of the year. These alternating cycles
are paralleled by biological rhythms in humans.

The term Circadian Rhythm is derived from the Latin word cir cadia, meaning about a day. Circadian
Rhythm is the human body’s 24 hour cycle of activity. We all have finely-tuned biological clocks that
not only take care of our bodily processes, but turn on and off our conscious contact with the world.

Consciousness is our awareness of ourselves and the world around us. It ebbs and flows like ocean
tides. Every day we experience a variety of different states of consciousness.

Without consciousness we could not survive.

The cerebral cortex is like our interior decorator. It arranges how things go together and arranges
our thinking. It imposes order on objects and events that we experience.

Higher-level consciousness breaks down everything relevant and noticed and irrelevant and ignored.
Without this filter we would be overwhelmed by sensory data.
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
Most of what happens consciously, happens automatically, such as breathing.

Scientific interest in consciousness has waxed and waned, just as consciousness does in our daily
lives.

19th-Century, German physiologist Wilhelm Wundt studied the consciousness between thoughts and
feelings. This brand of psychology is known as structuralism.

William James theorized that consciousness was essential for adapting to environment.

In 1920, John B. Watson, a famous behaviorist, posited that the scientific study of consciousness was
a worthless concept all together. He believed only external behavior could be observed and studied.

In the late 1950’s, the study of consciousness was reintroduced by a group of consciousness
physiologists.

Today, consciousness is studied in a number of ways - mainly how and why we pay attention to
certain things and not to others.

Attention is how information travels from outside to inside. Attention is a state of focused
awareness. It reduces confusion and massive sensory overload.

When we day dream, it is hard to pay attention, we lose focus and random thoughts and fantasies
float into our minds. It is the mind’s way to create inner, private realities.

We spend a third of our total life-span sleeping. Sleep is a restorative function, however, sleep
researchers have discovered that the brain is surprisingly active during sleep.

REM sleep is a 90-minute cycle that repeats itself throughout the night. REM is when dreaming is
believed to occur.
The Video: The Mind Awake and Asleep and Our Textbook
In large part, the information presented in the video was fairly consistent with the information
presented in our textbook. Specifically, much of the information offered in the video paralleled with
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specific parts in Chapter 1: Thinking Critically with Psychological Science, Chapter 2: The Biology of
Mind, and Chapter 3: Consciousness and the Two Track Mind.
Basically, chapter one of our textbook covers the history and roots of psychology. Chapter two covers
specific parts of the brain and how the brain works. And Chapter three covers sleep and dreams.
The video differs from chapter three of the textbook in the area of dreams. The video focused on
three specific, different theories of dreaming. Chapter three of the textbook focuses primarily on what
and why dream (pp. 80-81).
Dream Theory Number One - Psychological: The video explains that dream theories developed by
Freud suggest that dreams are psychological, revealing hidden urges; deep secrets that the mind is
trying to hide from consciousness awareness.
Dream Theory Number Two – Physiological: Later research argued that dreams are physiological,
beginning with random electrical impulses deep within the brain stem. Sleep researchers used
electroencephalograph (EEG) technology to trace brain waves in observations of people during nightlong sleep-sessions. These brain waves pointed to predictable sleep cycles that occur every 90 minutes.
Rapid Eye Movement (REM) cycles reoccur throughout the night, accompanied by rapid, irregular
changes of low electrical-voltage in the brain. It is during REM sleep that we tend to dream. Newborns
spend over half of their time in dreaming sleep.
Drs. Robert McCarley and J. Allen Hobsen of Harvard Medical School developed the activation
synthesis theory. According to activation synthesis theory, the impulses, or charges, are bits of
information stored in the brain, which are fired off without explicit order or meaning. The brain then
takes these bits of information and tries to make sense of them, knitting them together to form a
narrative or story.
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Dream Theory Number Three – The Middle Ground: Another theory combines both the psychological
and physiological functions of dreams, suggesting that stored memories, concerns, emotions, and
expectations are activated by the brain during sleep, and the mind works to interpret them.
Although they have varying points of disagreement, all three theories reveal that the brain is very
active, even during sleep.
Beginning on page 81 of the textbook, the textbook theorizes multiple reasons for why we dream.
The information set forth in the textbook coincides with dream theory number one, dreams “satisfy our
own wishes” - p. 81; dream theory number two, “The sleep cycle repeats itself about every 90 minutes”
– p.74; and dream theory number three, “REM sleep triggers neural activity that evokes random visual
memories, which our sleeping brain weaves into stories” – p. 83.
The video and the textbook both attempt to explain why we dream, how we dream, and what
purpose(s) dream serve. The treatment of these questions is consistent in both the textbook and the
video.
My Personal Assessment
I expressly chose this specific video to watch because my husband suffers from multiple sleeping
disorders, including a circadian rhythm disorder and intense nightmares. I was hoping to learn new
information that would help me to assist him.
I liked the video. I like to learn about behavior: why people act the way they act and do the things
they do. This video taught me more about consciousness and how consciousness contributes to how we
act and why we do what we do.
I found Donald Broadbent’s experiment on awareness and mental capacity very interesting for me
personally. I have always felt that I suffer from some sort of ADD. I find it very difficult to focus on one
thing when there are ten things going on around me. In the experiment, Mr. Broadbent had the
participants wear headphones. In one side of the headphones, random speech was played, and in the
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other side, music with speech. When the participants were later asked what they had heard in each ear,
they could only remember things that they heard in one ear or the other, but not in both ears. The
experiment proved, perhaps, that our attention has limited capacity. Further findings from this
experiment revealed that if something personally relevant to a participant was communicated, such as a
known name or a “happy birthday” wish, the participant would remember this type of communication.
I learned that in addition to its overall restorative role, sleep also simultaneously engages and
restores the brain. I found this fascinating. It seems paradoxical to me.
The role of our circadian rhythm is really interesting: (a) how cycles of the day play a part in our
energy levels and moods, and (b) how sleeping and REM sleep contribute to our behaviors.
I find it fascinating to learn about the ongoing research on dreaming. To further understand Freud’s
position on dreams and to learn about the Activation Synthesis Theory posited by McCarley. Every 90
minutes during sleep, an automatic activation system turns on for 30 minutes. During this time, the part
of the brain called the pons sends electrical charges to the forebrain. According to Activation Synthesis
Theory, the impulses, or charges, are bits of information stored in the brain which are fired off without
explicit order or meaning. The brain takes these bits of information and tries to make sense of them,
knitting them together to form a narrative or story. Meaning, that the brain cells create order out of
chaos; making meaning when no meaning is there. McCarley further argues that REM sleep is common
to all mammals, leaving it hard for him and his followers to believe other psychological dream theories
that would seem to suggest that a chipmunk has a psychological concept to process during the
chipmunk’s REM sleep. McCarley’s stand would be that REM sleep furnishes our brain with growth and
development.
The Cerebral Cortex forms our beliefs and directs our actions. While sleeping, the external world is
largely cut off. The brain can only model what is already stored inside it – recent concerns, current
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emotions, etc. It is theorized that these things are activated from electrical discharges in the brain.
Therefore, dreams are the interplay between parts of the mind.
I also enjoyed the Steven LeBerge study – Middle-ground of Dream State. He suggests that dreams
are the psychological/physiological interplay, triggering imaginative, interpreting parts of the mind. He
further suggested that in the lucid dream state, the dreamer could make up his or her mind, thereby
causing conscious control over the outcome of the dreamer’s dream, i.e., a way for the dreamer to face
his or her fears and/or solve problems which are being manifested in the dreams. Therefore, giving the
dreamer a new awareness of courage and self-confidence. This theory is highly controversial. Others
would suggest it is better to allow the dream to follow its own course and have its own symbolism.
LeBerge argues that not controlling our dreams is like saying we shouldn’t control our conscious
thoughts; that having the ability to control dreams could be a means of therapy. Lucid dreaming is
potentially a new way to alter our consciousness.
I am really taken back by how young the study of consciousness is. Unlike the study of the body and
medicine, we really don’t know that much about the brain and how it works.
Because I am interested in behavior and figuring out what makes us tick, I found all three of the
dream theories covered by the video to be fascinating and I agreed with all three. Dreaming is
absolutely linked to our behavior.
I really learned a lot from the video. I found it very challenging to condense my notes and
observations to four to six pages for this paper. In spite of all that I have learned, at the end of this
paper, I am left with even more questions. I want to learn, and know, more about sleep and dreaming,
and how they impact our everyday behavior.
In conclusion, and very importantly, what I believe was left out by both the video and the textbook, is
that there is a link, or a tie, of spirit and/or spirituality that is a part of our dreams or unconsciousness,
that ties us to God.
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