Chapter 5 Variations in Consciousness

Waking and Sleeping Rhythms

When we are awake we are?

In a state of Consciousness Consciousness refers to the active processing of information in the brain. It could be thought of as a form of short-term memory & attention combined. It is the activity running through our heads or minds.
(stream of consciousness)

Brain activity can be measured by using an EEG.

Central theory of conscious behavior can be found in:

Conscious Subconscious

Unconscious

D A Y

What are some common Daydreams & Fantasies?

D
R

E
A M S

F A N T A S I E S

Mr. Duez Fantasy

 They can help us prepare for future events. They can nourish our social development. Can substitute for impulsive behavior.

Why do we daydream?

Fantasy Prone Personalities:

Someone who imagines and recalls experiences with lifelike vividness and who spends considerable time fantasizing.

Biological Rhythms

Annual Cycles: seasonal variations (bears hibernation, seasonal affective disorder)

28 day cycles: menstrual cycle. 24 hour cycle: our circadian rhythm 90 minute cycle: sleep cycles.

Circadian Rhythm
Circadian 24 hour biological processes that may be interrupted by exposure to light
Resets biological clock by affecting suprachiasmatic nucleus and pineal gland which secretes melatonin. Jet lag & shift work can also knock circadian rhythms out of sync.
Our 24 hour biological clock. Our body temperature & awareness changes throughout the day. It is best to take a test or study during your circadian peaks.

How can the circadian rhythm help explain jet lag?

Sleep

There are 5 identified stages of sleep. It takes about 90-100 minutes to pass through the 5 stages. The brains waves will change according to the sleep stage you are in. The first 4 sages and know as NREM sleep. The 5 stage is called REM sleep. Rem lasts about 90 minutes (as night progresses we spend more time in REM cycle). 4 to 6 cycles per night is typical.

Sleep Stages

Stage 1

Hallucinations can occur and feeling of falling.

This is experienced as falling to sleep and is a transition stage between wake and sleep. It usually lasts between 1 and 5 minutes and occupies approximately 2-5 % of a normal night of sleep. eyes begin to roll slightly. consists mostly of theta waves (high amplitude, low frequency (slow)) brief periods of alpha waves, similar to those present while awake

Stage 2
This follows Stage 1 sleep and is the "baseline" of sleep. This stage is part of the 90 minute cycle and occupies approximately 45-60% of sleep. Brain waves slow down dramatically. Deeper stage of sleep. Sleep spindles (bursts of neural activity or neural firings) occur. Not easy to wake up.

Stage 3 & 4
Stages three and four are "Delta" sleep or "slow wave" sleep and may last 15-30 minutes. It is called "slow wave" sleep because brain activity slows down dramatically. From the "theta" rhythm of Stage 2 to a much slower rhythm called "delta" and the height or amplitude of the waves increases dramatically.

Stage 3 and 4 (cont.)

Contrary to popular belief, it is delta sleep that is the "deepest" stage of sleep (not REM) and the most restorative.

It is delta sleep that a sleep-deprived person's brain craves the first and foremost.
In children, delta sleep can occupy up to 40% of all sleep time and this is what makes children unawake able or "dead asleep" during most of the night.

Stage 5: REM
REM: Rapid Eye Movement This is a very active stage of sleep. Composes 20-25 % of a normal nights sleep. Breathing, heart rate and brain wave activity quicken. Vivid Dreams can occur. From REM, you go back to Stage 2 But the brain causes a decrease in muscle tone and control. Impossible to sleep walk in this stage (the body is immobile). REM cycles decline during childhood and levels off at 20%

 8 hours is the average need But we ALL sleepabout 25 years on average in our life.

How do you feel when you dont get enough sleep?

Can you just make up lost sleep in 1 night?

NO

 We are not entirely sure why sleep occurs. There is a mechanism that causes us to fall asleep in the brain (2 really). And we believe it has an evolutionary purpose as well. Yet the body does not do as much recuperation during sleep as we might believe, & the brain is active during sleep, so we are not really decreasing activity.

Sleep Disorders

Insomnia
Recurring problems in falling or staying asleep.
Not your once in a while (I have a big test tomorrow) having trouble getting to sleep episodes.

Insomnia is not defined by the number of hours you sleep every night.

Narcolepsy
Characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. Lapses directly into REM sleep (usually during times of stress or joy). Excessive sleepiness. Unpredictable and uncontrolled.

Sleep Apnea
A sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and consequent momentary reawakenings.

Night Terrors
A sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified. Occur in Stage 4, not REM, and are not often remembered.

Sleepwalking
(Somnambulism)
Sleepwalking is a sleep disorder effecting an estimated 10% of all humans at least once in their lives. Sleep walking most often occurs during deep non-REM sleep (stage 3 or stage 4 sleep) early in the night.

Symptoms and Features: Ambulation (walking or moving about) that occurs during sleep. The onset typically occurs in prepubertal children. difficulty in arousing the patient during an episode amnesia following an episode episodes typically occur in the first third of the sleep episode polysomnographic monitoring demonstrates the onset of an episode during stage 3 or 4 sleep Fatigue (which is not the same as drowsiness) Stress and anxiety

Dreams
A sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping persons mind. Manifest Content: the remembered storyline of a dream.
Latent Content: the underlying meaning of a dream.

Manifest Content

Latent Content

Why do we Dream?
Content of one's dreams may be affected by one's gender events in one's life, & external stimuli experienced during the dream.

There are variations across cultures in dream recall, content, and interpretation.

Freuds wish-fulfillment Theory

Dreams are the key to understanding our inner conflicts. Ideas and thoughts that are hidden in our unconscious. Manifest and latent content Freud argued that the purpose of dreams was wish fulfillment.

InformationProcessing Theory Dreams act to sort out and understand the memories that you experience that day. REM sleep does increase after stressful events.

Problem Solving
Cartwright has articulated a problem-solving view

Activation Synthesis Theories

During the night our brainstem releases random neural activity, dreams may be a way to make sense of that activity.
Hobson & McCarley assert that dreams are side effects of the neural activation seen during REM sleep. hypothesis When we dream, our brain is as active as while we are awake: we experience images, sensations, etc. that we synthesize into a dream.

REM Rebound
The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation. What will happen if you dont get a good nights sleep for a week, and then sleep for 10 hours?
You will dream a lot.