Module 7
Sleep and Dreams
What is Consciousness?
You exist, right? How can
you prove it
What possesses
consciousness?
What doesn’t
possess
consciousness?
CONTINUUM OF
CONCIOUSNESS
• Different states
– Consciousness
• refers to different levels of awareness of
one’s 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
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
CONTINUUM OF
CONCIOUSNESS (CONT.)
• 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
CONTINUUM OF
CONCIOUSNESS (CONT.)
• Different states
– 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
CONTINUUM OF
CONCIOUSNESS (CONT.)
• Different states
– Unconscious
• can result from disease, trauma, a blow to
the head, general medical anesthesia
• results in total lack of sensory awareness
and complete loss of responsiveness to
one’s environment
SUPRACHIASMATIC NUCLEUS
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
RHYTHMS OF SLEEPING &
WAKING (CONT.)
• Location of your circadian clock
– Suprachiasmatic nucleus
• part of hypothalamus
• regulates sleep-wake cycle
• Highly responsive to change in light
RHYTHMS OF SLEEPING &
WAKING (CONT.)
• The pineal gland or
epiphysis synthesizes and
secretes melatonin, a
structurally simple hormone
that communicates information
about environmental lighting to
various parts of the body.
Ultimately, melatonin has the
ability to entrain biological
rhythms and has important
effects on reproductive
function of many animals. The
light-transducing ability of the
pineal gland has led some to
call the pineal the "third eye".
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
RHYTHMS OF SLEEPING &
WAKING (CONT.)
• Circadian problems and treatments
–
–
–
–
accidents
jet lag
resetting clock
Melatonin
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
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
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
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
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
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
Why We Sleep
• Functions of REM sleep
1. Housekeeping: REM sleep helps purge
unnecessary information out of our
memories.
2. Strengthening memories: REM sleep
allows us to form and store memories that
essential for our development.
SLEEP CHART
Brain Waves
• 1. BETA (Awake and alert)
• 2. Alpha ( Relaxed, drowsy)
• 3. Theta ( Transition, drifting off)
• 4. Sleep Spindles (True Sleep)
• 5. Delta ( Deep sleep)
http://www.humed.com/sleepdisorders/index.shtml
Why We Sleep
• Repair theory: Sleep restores:
1. neurotransmitters
2. Immune system
3. Mental functioning
• Adaptive theory: Sleep developed as a
result of our inability to dominate at night
Sleep Disorders
1. Insomnia: the inability to fall or stay
asleep during the night.
-Usually assoc. with individuals with highstress or worries
2. Sleep Apnea: condition which involves a
disruption in a person’s sleeping pattern
during sleep causing them to awaken.
-assoc. with obesity, substance abuse,
frequent snorer
Sleep Disorders
3. Narcolepsy: Sudden episodes of sleep
attacks occurring in unusual and
unavoidable situations.
-biological cause originating in neurons
which are responsible for and control
sleep
Sleep Disorders
4. Night Terrors: frightening episodes
occurring in children under the age of 13.
Occur in stage 3 or 4 of the sleep cycle.
5. Nightmares: REM dreams that represent
negative or frightening material
-tend to lessen in occurrence as we age
6. Sleepwalking: getting up and walking
even as the individual is sound asleep.
-occurs during stage 3 or 4 (Delta sleep)
WORLD OF DREAMS
• Theories of dream interpretation
1. Freud’s 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
WORLD OF DREAMS (CONT.)
• Theories of dream interpretation
2. Extensions of Waking Life Theory
• dreams reflect the same thoughts,
fears, concerns, problems, and
emotions that we have when
awake
-therefore; dreams are formulas for
figuring out your problems
WORLD OF DREAMS (CONT.)
• Theories of dream interpretation
3. 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
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)
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