7A Sleep as a psychological construct Flashcards
Consciousness
the awareness of your own internal mental processes, including your thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions and your awareness of the external world around you
- considered a psychological construct
Psychological construct
a concept that cannot be objectively observed or measured directly through the collection of data, but it is widely understood to exist
How is consciousness measured
indirectly measured through qualities (easier to assess) e.g physiological changes or observable behaviours, or through self-report methods
Various stages of consciousness categorise
- normal waking consciousness
- altered states of consciousness
Normal waking consciousness
a state associated with being aware of our internal and external environments
experienced in everyday activities when we are awake and have a regular level of awareness.
Altered state of consciousness
is any state that differs in awareness from normal waking consciousness
levels of awareness are lower or higher than in normal waking consciousness
there is also a change in mental processing where perceptions or thinking may be altered
e.g child daydreaming on a long car ride or an elite tennis player serving a winning point
Sleep
a naturally occurring and reversible altered state of consciousness, characterised by a reduction in awareness and responsiveness to external surroundings
unique brain wave activity and other distinguishable physiological changes
changes help to differentiate sleep from other altered states of consciousness that might result from brain injury or taking substances
may also be considered a psychological construct
Types of altered states of consciousness
1) naturally occuring altered states of conciousness
- occur without any external influence e.g sleeping, fatigue
2) induced altered states of consciousness
- brought about on purpose e.g alcohol -induced state, anaethetised state for operation
Two different types of sleep
1) apid eye movement (REM) sleep
2) non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep
NREM sleep
type of sleep characterised by a progressive decline in physiological activity
consists of three distinct stages and takes up around 80% of a sleep episode in people of school age and older
body is ‘repairing’ itself
NREM stage 1
transitional phase between being awake and sleeping
light sleep, may be easily woken up
psychological responses slow down
- brain activity
- heart rate
- body temp
If not disturbed for a couple of minutes, quickly moves into stage 2
NREM stage 2
light sleep, woken relatively easily and physiological responses continue to slow down
bursts of brain activity help resist being woken by environmental stimuli such as noises
experienced the most throughout a sleep episode
NREM stage 3
deep sleep physiological responses are at their slowest, most difficult to wake up
known as ‘slow-wave sleep’ as brain activity is slowest
experienced more in the first half of the night than the second half of the night
night progresses = experiences less N3 and may not experience it at all in the last one or two sleep cycles
REM sleep
type of sleep categorised by quick darting of the eyes behind closed eyelids and an increase in physiological activity
brain activity resembles wakefulness
- heart rate increase
- breathing increase
Voluntary muscles are seemingly paralysed and twitch only intermittently
most vivid and memorable dreams occur
occurs at the end of each sleep cycle
get longer and closer together as the sleep episode progresses = more in second half than first
up to 20% of sleep episode
mind is ‘repairing’
Hypnogram
line graph that represents the stages of sleep plotted against time
