2-sleep and states of consciousness Flashcards
DEFINE CONSCIOUSNESS
awareness of internal/external stimuli
Consciousness continuum
some levels are connected to awareness and others are not and the brain is considered to be inherently conscious, extending down to levels that are eventually very basic and non-reflective.
Between deep sleep (no awareness) and full consciousness (full awareness)
FOUR BASIC PROPERTIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
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it is intentional
- always doing something
-
It has unity
- Takes info from all your senses
- Integrates it into a unified experience
-
It is selective
- Includes some objects but not others
- Can tune into certain changes
-
It is transient
- Has a tendency to change
circadian rhythms
24-hour cycles that are a part of the body’s internal clock
Hypothalamus
- above pituitary gland, main center of HOMEOSTASIS!!
- Tendency to maintain a balance, or optimal level within a biological system
Suprachiasmatic nucleus
- brain’s clock mechanism in hypothalamus
- Axons of light-sensitive neutrons provide info
Melatonin
- hormone that is important regulator of sleep-wake cycles
- Stimulated by darkness
- Inhibited by light
Pineal gland
endocrine structure located inside the brain, releases melatonin, thought to be involved in the regulation of various biological rhythms and of the immune system during sleep
Chrono type
- individual differences in one’s sleep-wake cycle
- Morning bird vs night owl
Sleep regulation
refers to the brain’s control of switching between sleep and wakefulness as well as coordinating this cycles with the outside world
homeostatic function of sleep?
- Restore resources used throughout the day (contested)
- Reduce predatory risk (contested)
- No moving during night
- But… animals with strong predatory risk at night have evolved to sleep at night
- Negative relationship or no relationship with numbers of sleep at night and ?????? SOMETHING
- Healthy functioning (see next slides)
- Memory and learning
what brain areas control the sleep-wake cycle?
- Thalamus
- Hypothalamus
- Contains SCN—biological clock of body
- Regular slow-wave sleep
- Pons
- Important for regulating rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
what hormones are sleep associated with
- Melatonin
- Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH)
- Luteinizing hormone (LH)
- And growth hormone
- Pituitary gland secretes both FSH and LH
- Important in regulating the reproductive system
- Pituary gland also secrets growth hormone—physical growth and maturation as well as other metabolic processes
sleep rebound
if you stay up all night and sleep longer
Sleep debt
chronically getting fewer hours of sleep than we need
effects of sleep debt?
- decrease mental alertness
- Reduced cognition
- Depressive-like symptoms
- Obesity
- Blood pressure
- Levels of stress hormones
- Reduced immune function
- Risk of diabetes
- Hallucinations
jet lag
collection of symptoms that results from the mismatch between our internal circadian cycles and our environment
Rotating shift
- work schedule that changes from early to late on a daily or weekly basis—disruption
- Associated with persistent feelings of exhaustion and agitation that can make someone more prone to making mistakes on the job
stage 1 of sleep
-
alpha waves: lower frequency higher amplitude
- Early stages of sleep
- Very relaxed but awake
- Decrease in overall muscle tension and core body temperature
- Towards the end: theta waves
- Lower frequency and higher amplitude
stage 2 of sleep
-
Beta waves: lower frequency and higher amplitude than alpha waves
- Has sleep spindles!
- Has k-complexes
sleep spindles
The random spike!
1. Involved with learning and memory
2. Rapid bursts of higher frequency brain waves
K-complexes
very high spikes, high amplitude
1. Last check in with the environment
stage 3 of sleep
-
Slow wave sleep(delta waves)—lowest frequency, highest amplitude waves
- Some dreams occur in stage 3
- Heart rate and respiration slow dramatically
- More difficult to wake someone up
- People with higher levels of alpha wave brain activity during stage 3 and stage 4 often report that they do not feel refreshed upon waking
REM sleep
- brainwaves looks like it is awake
- rapid movements of the eyes
- You DREAAAAMMMMM
- Also associated with paralysis of muscle systems with the exception of those that make circulation and respiration possible
- Implicated in various aspects of learning and memory
REM rebound
- when people are deprived of REM sleep and then allowed to sleep, will spend more time in REM to recoup the lost time in REM\
- Suggests that REM is homeostatically regulated
- Also maybe involved in emotional processing and regulation
adaptive function of sleep (theory for why we sleep)
- evolutionary psychology!
- Sleep is essential to restore resources that are expended during the day
- Reduce energy expenditures!
- But… little research that supports this–Why not periods of rest and inactivity?
- Or… sleep is an adaptive response to predatory risks, which increase in darkness!
- Sleep in safe areas to reduce the chance of harm
- But relationship between predatory risk and sleep is very complex and equivocal
cognitive function of sleep (theory for why we sleep)
- importance for cognitive function and memory formation
- Slow-wave sleep after learning a new task can improve resultant performance on that task
- Essential for effective memory formation!
- Increased capacities for creative thinking, language learning, and inferential judgements
- Is possible that processing of emotional info is influenced by certain aspects of sleep
Manifest content
what we dream
Latent content
what the dream means
modern thoughts about dreams
- activation-synthesis model
- Response to the external world
- Dream about what’s happening in our lives
I WILL UPDATE THIS SLIDE BC THIS IS LIKE NO INFO
