Consciousness, Sleep, Dreaming

Question 1

What 3 things is sleep important for?

Answer 1

1. immune system function
2. concentration (deteriorates w/o sleep)
3. avoiding accidents

Question 2

What does sleep deprivation lead to?

Answer 2

• fatigue
• impaired concentration
• emotional irritability
• depressed immune system
• vulnerability

Question 3

What are the 3 general explanations for sleep’s adaptiveness?

Answer 3

> restoration
circadian cycles
facilitation of learning

Question 4

What are the 4 sleep theories?

sleep…

Answer 4

1. recuperates [restores tissues]
2. helps you remember [rebuilds memories]
3. helps growth [pit. gland releases growth hormones]
4. protects [sleeping in darkness - avoid predators]

Question 5

Describe the ‘conserve +. restore’ view

Answer 5

• we sleep to conserve energy

- we sleep to strengthen memories

Question 6

Describe the Sleep-to-learn study [KARNI ET AL]

Answer 6

• subjects performed a difficult learning task [had to detect a visual stimulus in a complex display]
• tested subjects on 2 tasks
  > task 1: learned previously + normal sleep
  > task 2: new task

Question 7

What were the results of the Karni et al study?

Answer 7

• Learning was disrupted when REM sleep was prevented
• no change in performance for previously learned task
• learning disruption = specific to new learning

Question 8

What did Marnick, nakayama + Stickgold conclude?

Answer 8

power naps can get you into slow wave sleep + REM

> gives you the benefits of a full night’s sleep

Question 9

How do we measure the stages of sleep?

Answer 9

EEGs - each EEG is different for each stage

Question 10

What happens in stage 1 - 2 of sleep?

[2 POINTS]

Answer 10

EARLY, LIGHT SLEEP
> short theta waves
K Complex shuts out external stimuli

Question 11

What happens in stage 3 - 4 of sleep?

[2 POINTS]

Answer 11

SLOW WAVE SLEEP

• brain activity slows down
• produces large amplitude, regular, slow delta waves

Question 12

What happens in stage 5 of sleep?

[3 POINTS]

Answer 12

REM SLEEP

• moving back to stage 1
• brain engages in low amplitude, fast and regular waves
• beta waves

Question 13

How often do the stages repeat?

Answer 13

90 mins approx

Question 14

What are the 3 main things to remember about REM sleep?

Answer 14

• most non-REM sleep occurs early
• REM sleep occurs frequent later
• REM sleep = vivid, illogical, emotional dreams

Question 15

What is the difference between REM dreams and Non-REM dreams?

Answer 15

REM = bizarre, emotion-filled
Non-REM = dull, mundane

Question 16

Describe the brain’s visual imaging during REM.

Answer 16

Blue regions = decreased blood flow

yellow regions = increase in blood flow

Question 17

What does Freud suggest about dreams?

Answer 17

> they provide a psychic safety valve to discharge unacceptable feelings

> dreams manifest content

Question 18

What does the idea of “manifest content” suggest?

Answer 18

• the candy coating of the dream.

- The STORYLINE

Question 19

What does the idea of “latent content” suggest?

Answer 19

The nasty stuff

• negative emosh content
• failure dreams
• misfortune
• sexual dreams (rare)

Question 20

What does the idea of “dream work” suggest?

Answer 20

• change from latent to manifest

- an internal censor helps to perform dream work

Question 21

What does the activation-synthesis hypothesis suggest?

Answer 21

• Information processing: dreams may help sort a day’s experiences in our memories
• brain engages in a lot of random brain activity

Question 22

What does Activation refer to?

Answer 22

• dreams reflect the aroused, activated state of brain (during REM)

Question 23

What does synthesis refer to?

Answer 23

• dreams synthesised from recent experiences/memories

Question 24

Synthesis: what happens during sleep?

Answer 24

• memory images become ^ important
• recent experiences appear in dreams
• memories lead to others = illogical flow

Question 25

What could damage to the visual system lead to?

Answer 25

• loss of visual aspects of dreams