SLEEP AND

DREAMS…

Chapter 5 Huffman/Ch 6 Nairne

States of Consciousness
• Consciousness: an organism’s
subjective awareness of internal
and external events in its
environment
• Attention: internal processes
that set priorities for mental
functioning
• Levels of awareness:
–HIGH: Controlled processes that
require attention (and interfere
with other functions)
–MIDDLE: Automatic processes
requiring minimal attention (such
as riding your bike)
–LOWEST: Minimal or no
awareness of the environment
• Levels of awareness:
–HIGH: Controlled processes that
require attention (and interfere
with other functions)
–MIDDLE: Automatic processes
requiring minimal attention (such
as riding your bike)
• Automaticity – fast and effortless
processing that requires little or no
focused attention
• Levels of awareness:
–HIGH: Controlled processes that
require attention (and interfere
with other functions)
–MIDDLE: Automatic processes
requiring minimal attention (such
as riding your bike)
–LOWEST: Minimal or no
awareness of the environment
Sleep
• Sleep is a behavior
AND an altered state
of consciousness
• We spend about a
third of our lives in
sleep.
 EEG Changes
During Sleep
• Summated brain wave
activity (EEG)
– Wakefulness: beta activity
(13-30 Hz)
– Eyes closed: alpha activity
(8-12 Hz)
EEG Changes
During Sleep
Stage 1: Light Sleep –
Alpha Waves
Stage 2: Eye movements &
brain waves slow; sleep
spindles
 EEG Changes
During Sleep
• Stage 3: very slow waves -
delta waves appear
• Stage 4: almost all delta
waves
– Very hard to wake during this
stage
 EEG Changes
During Sleep
• REM stage: rapid,
irregular and shallow
breathing, eyes jerk
rapidly, both wake and
sleep waves (sawtooth
pattern)
 Theories of Sleep
• Repair/Restoration
– Sleep allows for recuperation from
physical, emotional, and intellectual
fatigue
• Survival Value
– Sleep evolved to conserve energy
and protect our ancestors from
predators
 Wish Fulfillment –
Freud’s DreamTheory…

A.K.A. Psychoanalytic
theory: Dreams
represent disguised
symbols of repressed
desires and anxieties
Manifest Content:
symbols used to
“Sometimes,a cigar is disguise true meaning of
just a cigar.” dream
- Freud, on the Latent Content: true
meaning of dreams
unconscious meaning of
a dream
 WHY DO WE DREAM!?
• Activation-synthesis hypothesis:
– Dreams represent random activation
of brain cells during REM sleep
• Problem Solving
– Dreams focus on the problems we
have in an attempt to find a solution
• Threat simulation
– Dreams evolved to help us practice
skills we need to avoid threats.
 Dyssomnias

• Insomnia - difficulty in getting

to sleep or remaining asleep
–Situational: related to anxiety or
excitement
–Drug-induced: sleeping pills
(tolerance)
 Dyssomnias
• Sleep apnea: person stops
breathing and is awakened when
blood levels of carbon dioxide
stimulate breathing
• Narcolepsy: Sleep appears at odd
times
– Sleep attack: urge to sleep during the
day
– Cataplexy: REM paralysis occurs,
person is still conscious
 Myths of Sleep
• Everyone needs 8 hrs of sleep per night to
maintain good health
• Learning of complicated subjects such as
calculus can be done during sleep
• Some people never dream
• Dreams last only a few seconds
• Genital arousal during sleep reflects dream
content
• It is unrelated to sexual content
• May be a useful index of physical versus
psychological causes of impotence in males