Consciousness, Sleep, Dreaming Flashcards
What 3 things is sleep important for?
- immune system function
- concentration (deteriorates w/o sleep)
- avoiding accidents
What does sleep deprivation lead to?
- fatigue
- impaired concentration
- emotional irritability
- depressed immune system
- vulnerability
What are the 3 general explanations for sleep’s adaptiveness?
> restoration
circadian cycles
facilitation of learning
What are the 4 sleep theories?
sleep…
- recuperates [restores tissues]
- helps you remember [rebuilds memories]
- helps growth [pit. gland releases growth hormones]
- protects [sleeping in darkness - avoid predators]
Describe the ‘conserve +. restore’ view
- we sleep to conserve energy
- we sleep to strengthen memories
Describe the Sleep-to-learn study [KARNI ET AL]
- 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
What were the results of the Karni et al study?
- Learning was disrupted when REM sleep was prevented
- no change in performance for previously learned task
- learning disruption = specific to new learning
What did Marnick, nakayama + Stickgold conclude?
power naps can get you into slow wave sleep + REM
> gives you the benefits of a full night’s sleep
How do we measure the stages of sleep?
EEGs - each EEG is different for each stage
What happens in stage 1 - 2 of sleep?
[2 POINTS]
EARLY, LIGHT SLEEP
> short theta waves
K Complex shuts out external stimuli
What happens in stage 3 - 4 of sleep?
[2 POINTS]
SLOW WAVE SLEEP
- brain activity slows down
- produces large amplitude, regular, slow delta waves
What happens in stage 5 of sleep?
[3 POINTS]
REM SLEEP
- moving back to stage 1
- brain engages in low amplitude, fast and regular waves
- beta waves
How often do the stages repeat?
90 mins approx
What are the 3 main things to remember about REM sleep?
- most non-REM sleep occurs early
- REM sleep occurs frequent later
- REM sleep = vivid, illogical, emotional dreams
What is the difference between REM dreams and Non-REM dreams?
REM = bizarre, emotion-filled Non-REM = dull, mundane
Describe the brain’s visual imaging during REM.
Blue regions = decreased blood flow
yellow regions = increase in blood flow
What does Freud suggest about dreams?
> they provide a psychic safety valve to discharge unacceptable feelings
> dreams manifest content
What does the idea of “manifest content” suggest?
- the candy coating of the dream.
- The STORYLINE
What does the idea of “latent content” suggest?
The nasty stuff
- negative emosh content
- failure dreams
- misfortune
- sexual dreams (rare)
What does the idea of “dream work” suggest?
- change from latent to manifest
- an internal censor helps to perform dream work
What does the activation-synthesis hypothesis suggest?
- Information processing: dreams may help sort a day’s experiences in our memories
- brain engages in a lot of random brain activity
What does Activation refer to?
- dreams reflect the aroused, activated state of brain (during REM)
What does synthesis refer to?
- dreams synthesised from recent experiences/memories
Synthesis: what happens during sleep?
- memory images become ^ important
- recent experiences appear in dreams
- memories lead to others = illogical flow
