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Sleep and Dream

By: Danielle Hyatt, Hannah Casagrande,


Samanta Anorve, and Jeff Abrams

Vocabulary
Alter state of consciousness: A form of
experience that departs significantly from the
normal subjective experience of the world
and the mind
Hypnagogic state: presleep consciousness.
Hypnic jerk: Sudden quiver or sensation of
falling.
Circadian rhythm: Natural occurring 24 hour
cycle.
REM sleep: a stage of sleep characterized by
rapid eye movements and a high level of
brain activity
Electrograph: an instrument that measures
eye movement

Sleep
Sleep can produce a state of unconsciousness in which the mind
and apparently turn off the functions that create experience.
Presleep consciousness is called hypnogogic state.
On rare nights you might experience a hypnic jerk .
Then comes dreams
Finally, you enter the post sleep consciousness (the hypnopompic
state) in which you then awake.

Sleep cycle
Sequence of events that occurs during a
night of sleep is part of one of the
major rhythm of human life, the cycle
of sleep and walk.
Circadian rhythm is a naturally
occurring 24 hour cycle.
Not easily explained but it seems to
underline the tendency many have of
staying up & waking up a bit later.
25.1 hour people.

EEG
In 1929 researchers made EEG.
EEG recording revealed a regular pattern, of
change in electrical activity in the brain
accompanying the circadian cycle.
Largest changes in EEG occurred during the
sleep, and allowed sleep researcher to identify
5 sleep stages:
1.Theta waves
2.sleep spindles and K complexes
3.3&4. Deepest stages of sleep.

REM
REM periods reported having dreams much more
often than those during non REM periods
It is believed that 80% of people awake during REM
sleep report dreaming
SLeep researcher William Dement and Nathaniel
Kleitman woke volunteers 5 or 15 minutes after the
onset of REM.
Suggested that dreaming occurs in real time
Not all dreams occur in REM periods.

Sleep Deprivation
Newborns will sleep 6-8 times in 24 hours, often totaling
more than 16 hours of sleep.
They typical 6 yr old sleeps 11 or 12 hours per night
An average adult sleeps 7- 7.5 hours per night
Over a whole lifetime, we get about 1 hour of sleep for
every 2 hours we are awake
sleep might be expendable
Sleep following learning is essential for memory
consolidation
Lack of sleep each night can have a cumulative detrimental

Sleep Disorders
Insomnia: difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep
Most common sleep disorder
about 30-48% report symptoms of insomnia
and about 6% actually meet criteria for a diagnosis of insomnia
Potential causes of insomnia:
Working night shifts, response to depression, anxiety

Sleep apnea: disorder in which the person stops breather for a brief
periods while asleep
a person with apnea usually snores because apnea involves an involuntary

Sleep Disorders Continued


Somnambulism aka sleepwalking: occurs when a person arises and
walks around while asleep
more common in children peaking between the ages of 4-8
15-40% of children experience at least one episode
these episodes happen early in the night, usually in the slow-wave sleep, it is ok to
wake the sleeper and take them back to their bed

Narcolepsy: a disorder in which sudden sleep attacks occur in the


middle of waking activities
involves the intrusion of a dreaming state of sleep into waking and is often
accompanied by unrelenting excessive sleepiness and uncontrollable sleep

Sleep Disorders Continued


Sleep paralysis: the experience of waking up
unable to move and is sometimes
associated with narcolepsy
Usually happens as you are awakening.
Night terrors or sleep terrors: abrupt
awakenings with panic and intense
emotional arousal.
occur mostly in children and only 2% of
adults.
happen most often, early in the sleep
cycle and do not usually have a dream
content the sleeper can report.

Dream Consciousness
Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely
insane every night of our lives. -William C. Dement (1959)
The quality of consciousness in dreaming is altered from waking
consciousness. There are 5 major characteristics of dream
consciousness that separate it from the waking state.
Emotion, thought, sensation, uncritical acceptance, and
difficulty remembering

Dream Consciousness
1.We feel emotion intensely. Whether it is pleasure, love, terror, or
awe.
2.Dream thought is illogical. The concept of time and space to do
not apply. One second youre there, then youre not.
3.Sensation allows to you deeply experience touch, sound, and
movement. (Pain is very uncommon.)
4.Dreaming occurs with uncritical acceptance. Though you might be
dreaming of a very strange and unusual event, you experience it
as though it is perfectly normal.
5.We have difficulty remembering dreams when they end. People

Dream Theories
The first psychological theory of dreams was founded by Sigmund
Freud (1900/1965)
According to Freuds theory, dreams represent wishes, and some of these wishes
were so unrealistic, taboo, or anxiety provoking that the mind expresses them in
disguised forms.

Manifest Content:
A dreams apparent or superficial meaning.

Latent Content:
A dreams underlying meaning.

Example:

Dream Theories Continued..


The problem with Freuds theory is that there are many different
ways to interpret a dream and many different interpretations that
will stand out to you.
Though dreams may not represent hidden wishes, there is
evidence that they relate to suppressed thoughts.
Another key theory of dreaming: activation-synthesis model.
The theory that dreams are produced when the brain attempts to make sense of
random neural activity that occurs during sleep.
For example: You fall asleep in class. In the classroom some one plays a song on
their phone, it seems like its part of your dream, but slowly your senses will
come to the realization that it is not.

The Dreaming Brain


- patterns of activation and deactivation
- amygdala is very active (responses to threatening events)
- occipital lobe is active and responsible for visual imagery not
perception
- prefrontal cortex is less active making dreams seem unplanned.
- motor cortex is activated but spinal neurons running through the
brainstem inhibit the expression of this motor activation. ( most
people say it is to protect us)

Summary
- sleeping and dreaming present a view of the mind in an altered
state of consciousness
- During a night's sleep, the brain passes in and out of five stages of
sleep, most dreaming occurs in the REM stage.
- Sleep needs decrease over the life span, but being deprived of
sleep and dreams has psychological and physical costs.
- sleep can be disrupted through disorders that include insomnia,
sleep apnea, somnambulism, narcolepsy, sleep paralysis, and
night terrors.

summary continued
- in dreaming, the dreamer uncritically accepts changes in emotion,
thought, and sensations but poorly remembers the dream on
awakening
- Theories of dreaming include Freuds psychoanalytic theory and
the activation-synthesis model.
- fMRI studies of the brain in dreaming reveal activations associated
with visual imagery, reduction of other sensations, increased
sensitivity to emotions such as fear, lessened capacities for
planning, and the prevention of movement.

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