Sleep and Dreams Flashcards
How many stages of sleep are there?
5
What is the first stage of sleep? What percentage? What happens?
Light sleep takes up 4.5%. Muscle activity slows and occasional twitching.
What is the second stage of sleep? What percentage? What happens?
Moderate sleep takes up 45-55% of sleep, and breathing pattern and heart rate slow down. Also body temperature lowers.
What is the third stage of sleep? What percentage? What happens?
Deep sleep takes up 4-6%. Brain begins to generate slow delta waves
What is the fourth stage of sleep? What percentage? What happens?
Very deep sleep. 12- 15%. Rhythmic breathing and brain produces delta waves.
What is the fifth stage of sleep? What percentage? What happens?
REM sleep is this stage, and it takes up 20-25%. It is rapid eye movement stage and we dream here.
What are delta waves?
The electrical activity of the brain with a frequency of 1-8Hz. It is the typical sleep frequency.
What is REM sleep?
In REM sleep your body becomes paralysed. You sleep in intervals during the night. 90% of dreaming happens here.
What is NREM sleep?
Our body slow and it is the opposite of REM sleep. Less that 10% of our dreams occur here.
What is Freud’s Sleep Theory?
Sigmund Freud believed that every action and thought is motivated by your unconsciousat some level, and nothing happens by chance. He also believes that in order to live live in our society we must hold back many urges and tendancies. But these urges must be released somehow, or he says it might be harmful to hold them back, so Freud believes they have a way of coming to the surface in forms of dreams.
What is the Activation Synthesis Hypothesis?
The Activation Synthesis Hypothesis is a neurobiological theory first proposed by Harvard University psychiatrists John Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley in 1977. The theory explains that dreams are created by changes in neuron activity that activates the brainstem during REM sleep. This means that as the brain and body goes through the cycle of day and night, the chemicals that activate the nerves of the brainstem shift and change. This change triggers brain activity that activates memories in our brain, which then come to the surface during periods of light REM sleep. These are called dreams.
What are some cultural differences in beliefs about dreaming?
Different cultures see dreams in different ways. For example here in Australia we don’t really have a set belief about dreaming, but what we do is we can look up what our dreams could mean. In china though, they believe dreams show if we have good or bad fortunes.
What is lucid dreaming?
Lucid dreaming is when you are aware that you are dreaming in a dream, and can control what you are doing in the dream.
What is daydreaming?
Daydreaming is a short-term detachment from your immediate surroundings, during which a person’s contact with reality is blurred and partially substituted by a visionary fantasy.
What are biorhythms?
Biorythyms are the biological functioning of our organisms, for example our wake and sleep cycle.
