The 4 Stages Of Sleep

Question 1

The 4 Stages of Sleep

Answer 1

Start with wakefulness move into alpha waves (8-12 cps) are relatively large, slow brain waves characteristic of relaxed wakefulness. (eyes closed) . RAS is involved in sleep regulation

Question 2

n-REM1

Answer 2

(Stage 1) Brainwaves become small & irregular, breathing slows - drifting off into light sleep - may have a few visual images, or myoclonic jerks - (eg. when leg jolts your body)

Question 3

n-REM2.

Answer 3

Occasional bursts or “sleep spindles” are emitted and are not stirred by minor noises. This is the stage for half of all sleep.

Question 4

n-REM3.

Answer 4

Mix of stage 2 sleep waves and the slow delta waves of deeper sleep emerge. Hard to arouse, breathing and pulse are slowed muscles are relaxed. Body releases growth hormones and builds body.

Question 5

n-REM3

Answer 5

(Stage 4) Delta wave have taken over now in “Deep Sleep” need vigorous shaking, loud noise to be awakened. Sleep walking and sleep talking usually occur here - quite common, especially among children. Some dreams, but not vivid.

It usually takes about 30 - 45 minutes to go down through these stages and another 45 to come back up (90 minute cycles). S1 S3

Changes in sleeps patterns across human development

Go back through entire sleep cycle several times throughout a regular night, where stages 3 & 4 diminish or disappear and REM increases in time to 30-60 minutes.

Question 6

REM sleep

Answer 6

involves rapid bursts of brain waves, Heart Rate increases with blood pressure, breathing becomes faster and more irregular, may have twitches in face and hands, genitals engorged.

Question 7

Paradoxical sleep

Answer 7

because brain is very active and most of body is paralyzed
Dreaming is most common here

Dreams are carried out over a period of time roughly equivalent to real time, if awaken during REM early in night get short reports, late get long reports

Purpose of REM sleep? unknown, but get a rebound if REM is deprived and is common among mammals in cats, dogs, dolphins, porpoises, anteaters. Learning and memory Consolidation

Question 8

Lucid Dreams -

Answer 8

dreams in which one is aware of dreaming.

-Consciousness of the dream and often able to control or change the nature or the dream or what happens next.

-Skilled lucid dreamers can move eyes with actions.
(suggests that eyes follow actions for other dreamers)

Question 9

Libido

Answer 9

psychosexual energy is expressed in dreams creating events that are unacceptable to the normal conscious mind.
Classically the oedipus complex is at the root of libido repression and dream transformation (ie., penis is symbolised as umbrella, snake, cigar and vagina as a tunnel, cave, door) .

The emergence of the super-ego occurs as result of the resolution of the oedipus complex.

Question 10

Latent Content

Answer 10

the deep unconscious wishes that are the sources of dreams, such as the oedipus(or electra) complex.

The interactions of the id, ego and super-ego lead to the dynamics of the latent content which is then filtered into the manifest content.

Question 11

Manifest content-

Answer 11

expressed dreams as we experience them consciously or semi-consciously.

Scientifically minded “Causal Theory” - suggesting universal, biologically based dream symbols.

Question 12

Final Theory

Answer 12

working out problems of everyday life - emotional etc.
During crisis or stress may have more vivid / ‘wild’ dreams

Dream Symbolism is also due to the constellationing of the unconscious mind by conscious situation.

Dreams may involve: 1) Compensatory 2) Prospective 3) Reductive 4) Reactive types.

Dreams are expressions of our personal complexes of thought and emotion in the psyche as well as the archetypes of the collective unconscious which are present in myths

Question 13

Sleep disorders
.

Answer 13

Sleep disorders

Insomnia - A condition where people have recurring problems falling or staying asleep. Insomniacs tend to underestimate the amount of sleep they actually get. Development might precede mood disorder.

Narcolepsy - is a condition where people uncontrollably fall asleep, tend to fall directly into REM sleep (involving sleep paralysis). A neurotransmitter orexin appears to be involved, as also in alertness.

Sleep Apnea - is a condition where the sleeper stops breathing, usually waking up abruptly with a feeling of choking. Usually associate with loud snoring, and often have troubles keeping alert in the day time.

Night Terrors - a stage four sleep event that involves higher arousal and feelings of terror, sometimes involving sensation of the incubus (cat) on their chest. Sleep waling and sleep talking also tend to appear during the “deeper” stage of sleep.

Question 14

Consciousness

Answer 14

Awareness of the environment and one’s own existence, sensations, and thoughts. Seen as the source intelligence, a form of soul or simply a property of organized matter.

Question 15

Artificial Intelligence -

Answer 15

Cognitive scientists and philosophers of Mind ponder the possibility of creating consciousness in robots or machines

Question 16

The Turing test

Answer 16

is one orientation for considering the test of consciousness . If a human cannot determine whether a robot is a machine or human being then it has pass the test. See Daniel Dennett (video)

Question 17

States of Consciousness

Answer 17

• Distinctive and discrete patterns in the functioning of consciousness, characterized by particular modes of perception, thought, memory, or feeling

Question 18

Altered States of Consciousness

Answer 18

• A state of consciousness that differs from ordinary wakefulness or sleep. Changes in consciousness can occur through dancing, sweat lodges, starvation, drugs, …
  [see Fischer, 1967 for diagrams of self ] Jill Bolte Taylor

Siegel (1989) the motive to alter consciousness is the 4th drive next to thirst, hunger and sex.

Question 19

Classifying Drugs

Answer 19

Psychoactive Drugs - are chemicals that are capable of influencing perception, mood, cognition & behaviour

-Often difficult to classify them as many (most) drugs have different effects which overlap the boundaries that we use to describe them. E.g., Alcohol in small doses appears like a stimulant, but in larger doses is clearly a depressant (is a disinhibitor). “Main” and “side effects” are not always easy to differentiate.

Stimulants- uppers - cocaine, (met) amphetamine, nicotine, caffeine. Speed up the CNS. Small doses - feelings of excitement, confidence, well-being, euphoria; LARGER doses - anxious, jittery, hyper-alert, VERY LARGE DOSES - convulsions, heart failure, death

Sedative Hypnotics -downers or depressives - alcohol, tranquillizers, barbiturates. Slow down the CNS activity feel calm, drowsy, may reduce anxiety & guilt.

Barbituates & alcohol share a site, along with a benzodiazepam (anti-anxiety) site on a GABA activated chloride channels (inhibition) of nerve cells. All fit different receptors on the same neurons. The combined use of these drugs can be fatal.

Opiates - Drugs derived from Opium Poppy that relive pain and produce euphoria, eg., Morphine, Heroin, and synthetic forms like Methadone. Mimic endorphins nature pain relieving chemicals of the brain. Anandamine.

Some bad synthetic heroin has produced total paralysis something like serve Parkinson’s disease. Depletion of dopamine.

Psychedelic Drugs - Consciousness altering (expanding) drugs that produce hallucinations, change thought processes or disrupt the normal perception of time and space. E.g., LSD, Mescaline, Psilocybin.

Marijuana - Cannabis Sativa a mild psychedelic ?- mild stimulant, increasing heart rate, tastes, sounds, colours, more intense. Affects serotonin systems in perception and limbic acting as a neuro-modulator regulating other neuro-transmitter and a mood enhancer. CPA Psynopsis special issue Summary

Anandamine
Moderate doses - relaxation or sleepiness -may impair co-ordination, concentration, reaction times. LARGE doses hallucinations, sense of unreality & dissociation

Question 20

The physiology of Drug Effects

Answer 20

A variety of actions: block re-absorption, increase release, bind (replace) receptor sites. E.g., Ecstacy - (MDMA) has been suggested that it causes permanent damage to serotonin producers (although not certain). Analogous to synthetic heroin - “coma.”
See Dancesafe.org/slideshow for what happens to your brain on ecstacy. SS

Tolerance- increased resistance to drugs effects accompanying continued use; as tolerance develops, larger doses are required to produce the same effects that were previously brought about by a lesser amount.

Addiction is usually associated with tolerance, however the Rat Park Studies at SFU by Bruce K. Alexander have shown that addiction is not an automatic consequence of expossure to drugs, even morphine.

Withdrawal Symptoms -Physical and psychological symptoms that occur when some one addicted to a drug stops taking it.

The Psychology of Drug Effects
Drug responses depend on a person’s physical condition, mental set, environmental setting, experience with the drug.

1) Physical condition - body weight, metabolism, initial state of emotional arousal & individual tolerance.
2) Experience with the Drug - Number of times used and levels of past usage
3) Environmental Setting - Party or Home, friendly or scary place, with friends or alone
4) Mental Set - expectations about the drug’s affect. Reasons for taking the drug. (placebo studies)

Question 21

Hypnosis: What it is and what it’s not…

Answer 21

H
Using a monotonous or relaxed voice, a person is lead to relaxation, a feeling of sleepiness. . . . sinking deeper . . . focusing of attention is central to any form of hypnosis (self or other induced).

1) Hypnosis is not sleep

2) Hypnotic responsiveness depends more on the effects and qualities of person being hypnotized rather than the hypnotist. hst CISDissociative Experiences Scale (and others)

3) Hypnotized people cannot be forced to do things against their will, they choose to ‘under control’ of suggestions

4) Hypnotic induction increases a person’s suggestibility but only a modest degree; people will accept suggestions with and without hypnosis.

5) Hypnosis does not increase the accuracy of memory
often boosts errors - confabulation and reconstruction

6) Hypnosis does not produce a literal re-experiencing of long ago events e.g., hypnotic age or life regression act like adult trying to be a child or someone else without accurate perceptions or judgments of the events.

7) Hypnotic suggestions are not just placebos; they have been used effectively for many medical and psychological purposes - Relax and be more healthy (meditation) get rid of headaches, anaesthetize, change habits (behaviours)

Theories of Hypnosis
Hilgard (1962, 1977, 1988) involves dissociation - a split in consciousness in which one part of the mind operates independently of another (like lucid dreams & simple distraction).

Question 22

Cold Presser Test

Answer 22

Report feeling no pain - but free hand pressed keys to signal pain!

Question 23

Socio-cultural explanations

Answer 23

-behaviour as part of continuum of normal social & cognitive processes
- playing a role - submitting self to suggestions.