Lecture 14 Dreaming Flashcards
Dreaming occurs
when you are in REM and non-REM (NREM) states
NREM
75% of our sleep
Muscle atonia
Whatever you are doing in the dream in replicated in your cortex but stopped for your body. Caused by pons
Sleep walking
NREM sleep disorder
If you disable pons
this is called REM sleep walking
Visual anoneria
People who have no dream imagery, tend to also have a walking deficit in imaging memories
Dream research
plagued by the problem of not knowing when dreams happen and the fact that we forget most of our dreams.
worst way to recall dreams
ask people what their dreams are like
2nd worst way to recall dreams
having a diary next to your bed where you log your dreams
2nd Best way to recall dreams
ask people every morning what their dreams are
best way to recall dreams
sleep lab, but it is the most difficult to do.
Dreams are like
scene shifts are common
tend to be a narrative (going to the bathroom)
tend to be experienced “first person”
Dream emotion tends to match content
always animated
rarely bizarre, but when they are we don’t notice it until we are awake.
Phrontal cortex
notices the strange dreams
Dreams are not like
Films
visual images
recent social situations
pre-sleep behaviors
recent episodic memory
Interference from the world
dreaming and you need to urinate
dreaming of teeth falling out (which 70% of people do during sleep) caused by dental irritation
How can you affect your dream
Dream incubation
Pre-sleep attention to a specific concern
Dream incubation
Threat simulation theory (TST)
By philosopher Antti Revonsuo
A major function of dreaming to practice dealing with potential future threats that were common in our ancestral environment.
Support for TST
children have many dreams about animals chasing them, but it decreases when they age.
Negative emotions appear twice as often as positive ones.
People react appropriately to dream threats 94% of the time
genetic, not cultural
when something is frequent in childhood but decreases with age, like kids dreaming and obsessed with animals.
Play and Phobia
Ancient survival behaviors are also over-represented in play and phobias.
Animals play appropriately for what they need to learn to do in the future .
kids
don’t like school and textbook but like recess, their brain is telling them its useless.
How information travels through brain
starts from stem and moves forward to pre-frontal cortex
The dreaming Brain
THe brainstem is very active, sending information forward
The DLPFC (involved with executive function) is deactivated,
REM sleeps are practicing motor function
AIM model of conscious state
Activation
Information flow
Mode of information processing
in REM sleep high on internal
Waking high on external
NREM is in the middle
Lucid Dreaming
When you know you’re dreaming and you control your actions, and sometimes dream content
You can only control your eyes in the real world,
Training: dream diaries, reality check, tech, you can go lucid when you realize your in dream.
Sleep Paralysis
You feel awake
You might feel chest pressure
You cant move
Its a carryover of muscle atnoia from sleep to waking
You have hallucinations, often of the presence of a malevolent character
You feel abject terror
Incubus
you feel something on your chest so your brain depicts something scary
Alien abductions
Only ever witnessed by one person
