Sleep and Dreams Flashcards
Who came up with restoration theory and what did they state
Oswald, he said sleep is essential for revitalising and restoring the physiological processes that keep the body and mind healthy and properly functioning after the days activities
List the studies that supported and opposed restoration theory
Support - zager, Shapiro, and the baby study
Oppose - Horne, Horne and Harley, Hobson
Describe Hornes study’s findings
Sleep deprivation did not interfere with participants ability to play sports or make them ill. sleep is not essential for physical functioning (short term)
Describe Hobson study’s findings
Sleep is entirely for the brain. Body restoration can be achieved by simply resting
Describe the baby study which supports restoration theory
Newborn babies have a high proportion of REM sleep. It makes up 50 to 60% of sleep time and it drops as they grow. This is a time of rapid brain growth and development so it’s logical that the baby has increased REM sleep
Describe Zagers study’s findings
Sleep deprived rats had a 20% decrease in white blood cell count, loss of body mass and eventually died
Describe Shapiro’s study’s findings
Ultramarathon runners sleep lasted on average 90minutes longer than usual over the next 2 nights. In particular non-REM sleep rose from 25% to 45% of total sleep
What is a zeitgeber
An environmental trigger that effects our circadian rhythm eg. Light
What is a schema
A set of ideas linked to a work or concept or situation
How long does it take for caffeine levels in your body to half
5 hours
What does activation synthesis theory state
That dreams occur due to a random firing of the pons. The brain makes random story’s to make sense of this stimuli which is our dreams
How is adenosine involved in sleep
It builds up throughout the day making us feel tired and then is broken down during sleep
How does stimulants like caffeine keep us awake
They block the adenosine receptors which make us feel tired
How does blue light from technology affect our sleep
It stops the release of melatonin ( the sleep hormone ) so avoid technology before bed
How does alcohol affect our sleep
It acts as a depressant so makes us feel more tired but it them acts as stimulant which reduces the quality of sleep by disrupting the ratio of REM To nREM
What is the role of the SCN (supracharismatic nucleus)
The SCN controls of circadian rhythm and receives light/dark information is connected to the optic nerve. It also tells the pineal gland when to release melatonin (darkness)
What does the cognitive approach state
The role of Sleep and Dreams is memory consolidation and information processing. Sleep is a similar cognition to being awake ( its not its own special process)
What does Menick’s study state
Napping is as good as sleeping for memory consolidation
What does seehagen’s study state
When babies learn a new action those that have had a nap have better recall of the skill.
What does Walker’s study state
He used a finger tapping task to find that sleep helps memories to be reliably encoded into the brain
What does Stickgold state
Sleep is of benefit to every type of memory.
What are strengths and weaknesses for cognitive approach
For - highly scientific as based on evidence
- explains why Dreams have a narrative - schemas
Against - limited explanation as it ignores the role of biology
Sleep can’t just be for restoration of cognition eg. Immune system strengthened from sleep
The approach is reductionist as it’s highly unlikely to be just cognitions that influence sleep and Dreams
Who created re-organisational theory and what is their main phrase
Crick and Mitchison. We dream in order to forget
What are the 2 types of memory according to reorganisational theory and what happens to them during sleep
Parasitic memories - wasteful/not needed memories - will be removed during sleep
Adaptive memories - useful memories - remain
What does reorganisational theory state happens during dreaming
Useless memory’s accumulated throughout the day (parasitic memories) are pruned out to make space for other more useful memories (adaptive memories)
What are the pros and cons of reorganisational theory
Pros - computer models support this theory
Dolphins have no REM & large brains so explains that pruning can allow smaller brain
Recognises importance of REM
Cons - sleep is beneficial to memory not harmful - stickgold
Not much human evidence
No insight into nREM
Don’t know why Dreams have a narrative
Describe Horne and Harleys study’s findings
participants had their head warmed with a hairdryer and 4 out of 6 of them had a longer proportion of nREM
What are some possible analysis marks for cognitive process
stickgold
Walker et al
Seehagen
Menick
Treatment of sleep disorders
Before completing a newly learned task ‘Sleep on it’
Psychoanalytic says Dreams have meaning
Peter Tripp = sleep deprived and had worse cognitive function
Agree with biological, newly formed connections between neutrons in the brain happen in REM SLEEP
Possible analysis marks for biological processes
Sleep disorder treatment should be biochemical
Melatonin therapy for treatment of sleep disorders - jet lag
Agree with cognitive, newly formed connections between neutrons in the brain happen in REM SLEEP
Objective unlike psychoanalytic
What are the strengths and weaknesses of biological processes
Strengths - children need to sleep more than adults - rapid growth of body
Weaknesses- limited as it ignores role of thinking
The approach is reductionist as it’s highly unlikely to be just biology that influences sleep and Dreams
Doesn’t explain why Dreams have a narrative
What are the strengths and weaknesses of psychoanalytic processes
Strengths - Dreams reflect things that cause us anxiety like Freud predicted
- recent study’s found that there is unconscious processes
Weaknesses - based on case studies so differ for people
- low generalisability as restricted sample base so not representative sample
- lack of study’s and measure subjectively
Possible analysis marks for psychoanalytic processes
Treatment of sleep disorders should be uncovering unconscious processes
Holistic view in sleep + Dreams, as lots on why we dream
Used in therapy to uncover unconscious conflicts that is causing psychological distress
Describe the psychoanalytic process
Dreams are wish fulfilment The ID (unconscious mind) takes over from ego (conscious mind) during dreaming. Dreams have manifest content (actual dream) and latent content (true meaning). 3 processes hide latent content through symbols to avoid anxiety. Ego distorts reality through defence mechanisms to protect itself from embarrassment
Describe the 3 processes that disguise lantent content in Dreams
Condensation - several ideas or symbols getting merged together
Secondary elaboration - dreamers own interpretations or adding things during explanation
Displacement - disguises emotions by confusing important and non-important parts
Describe the six defence mechanisms used to protect the ego from itself
Repression - uncomfortable thoughts pushed down
Recreation acting like a child
Denial - distorts reality into making problems seem less bad
Displacement - can’t show emotion to the true target so shows them to another target (easier)
Projection - claim our feelings belong to someone else
reaction formation- behaviour is opposite to true feelings
