THE EFFECTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS (COGNITION, CONCENTRATION AND MOOD) / SLEEP DEPRIVATION / SLEEP / CIRCADIAN RHYTHM / ULTRADIAN RHYTHM (REM +NREM) / STAGES 1-4 Flashcards
SLEEP DEPRIVATION
PARTIAL SLEEP DEPRIVATION
- Some sleep but NOT the recommended amount in 24 hours
TOTAL SLEEP DEPRIVATION
- No sleep in 24 hours
SLEEP DEPRIVATION EFFECTS
- COGNITION
- CONCENTRATION
- MOOD
COGNITION
- Slows frontal lobe activity
- Long-term memory is also affected (Especially processing declarative memories)
- Interferes with working memory and attention:
= Poorer vigilance
= Poorer auditory and visuospatial attention
= Poorer serial addiction and subtraction tasks
CONCENTRATION
- Poor concentration, attention and accuracy
- Mistakes are made on simple tasks more than complex one (so long it is relatively short)
MOOD
- > Irritability
- > Short temperedness
- > impatience
- > anger, hostility and argumentativeness
- STRONGER emotional responses
LEGAL BAC
= Blood-alcohol concentration
= The percentage of alcohol in the bloodstream
- 17-19 hours without sleep: equivalent to having a BAC reading of 0.05
- 24-28 hours of sleep deprivation: equivalent of a BAC reading of 0.10 = drivers are 7 times more likely to have an accident on the road;
COGNITION
- Minor inability to solve problems
- Minor inability to make decisions
- impaired logic and reasoning
CONCENTRATION
- Lowered alertness
MOOD
- Emotions may be exaggerated or intensified
BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS - CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS
- Internal Body clock = SCN
- SCN = Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (Located in the hypothalamus)
- SCN = Regulates the release of hormones: cortisol and melatonin
BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS
- Biological processes that roughly follows a 24 hour cycle
- Controlled by an internal biological body clock
- What is largely influenced by this clock:
= Levels of arousal
= Hormone secretions
= Metabolism
= Heart rate
= Body temperature
CIRCADIAN RHYTHM
- Sleep-wake cycle
MELATONIN
- SCN = regulates the release of hormones: cortisol and melatonin
- Powerpoint Page 29 (The internal body clock)
- Linked with sleepiness
- Pineal gland secretes melatonin (mostly at night)
- Melatonin = triggered by darkness and inhibited by the light
- Peaks in the middle of the night and gradually decreases towards morning
CORTISOL
- SCN = regulates the release of hormones: cortisol and melatonin
- Powerpoint Page 29 (The internal body clock)
- Linked with alertness
- Released in the morning at high levels
BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS - ULTRADIAN RHYTHMS
- Powerpoint (Page 30: Summary Tables)
- Biological processes that follow a cycle of less than 24 hours
- Sleep patterns (1 cycle lasts 90 minutes so roughly 5 ULTRADIAN sleep cycles per night)
SLEEP CYCLE AS AN ULTRADIAN RHYTHM
- During a night of sleep, we experience two distinct types of sleep
- NREM (Non rapid eye movement sleep)
- REM (Rapid eye movement sleep)
= Occur in continuous cycles, one following the other
= We go through 4-5 cycles every 8 hours of sleep
NREM AND REM SLEEP
- 80% of adult sleep is spent in NREM
- 20% in REM
- NREM sleep = brain is active
- Rem sleep = Brain is not as active
HYPNOGOGIC STATE / FALLING ASLEEP
- It is a brief transitional stage of falling asleep
- This will show BETA and ALPHA waves
- There will be slow rolling eye movements (EOG)
- May experience hypnogogic images / hallucinations
= Vivid mental images or flashes of light / colour
NREM CYCLE
- STAGE 1
- = Key points / EEG / Body / Body / Characteristic feature
- = If woken
- = People
- Light sleep (After we “dose off”)
- EEG = Alpha brain waves and theta becoming DOMINANT
- Body = Relaxes, heart rate slows down, body temperature drops slightly
- Body = Breathing can become irregular
- Characteristic feature = Hypnic jerk
- If woken = Say they were not fully asleep
- People are still aware of external stimuli
NREM CYCLE
- STAGE 2
- = Key points / EEG / Body / Body / Characteristic feature
- = If woken
- = People
- The ‘true’ stage of sleep
- A deeper sleep, but is STILL a light sleep
- Approximately 50% of time in stage 2
- EEG = Shows mostly theta brainwaves
- Body = Heart rate reduces further
- Body = A noticeable drop in body temperature
- Characteristic feature = Sleep spindles (short burst of high frequency brainwaves), Irregular pattern of brain wave activity
- Many report that were not fully asleep
- People can still react to LOUD or DISRUPTIVE external stimuli
NREM CYCLE
- STAGE 3
- = Key points / EEG / Body / Body / Characteristic feature
- = If woken
- = People
- This is a deeper sleep / brief transitional stage of sleep
- EEG = A mixture of theta and delta brain waves
- Body = Heart rate and breathing tend to be slow
- Body = Regular and relaxed
- Characteristic feature = The beginning of slow wave sleep (SWS) with the appearance of DELTA waves = Deep sleep
- If woken = Report being sleep
- People = less likely to be affected by EXTERNAL stimuli
NREM CYCLE
- STAGE 4
- = Key points / EEG / Body / Characteristic feature
- = If woken
- = People
- The DEEPEST stage of SLEEP
- EEG = shows over 50% of delta waves
- Body = A lower body temperature and slower heart rate
- Characteristic feature = Sleep DRUNKENNESS. The person is disorientated if woken
- If woken = Very disorientated and confused
- People = They are very difficult to wake in this stage of sleep
REM SLEEP (NREM moves into REM sleep) - It is a deep sleep = hard to wake people up at this time
- Period of RAPID eye movement
- Occurs after a cycle of NREM sleep
- Occurs = Longer periods of time later in the sleep, TOWARDS morning
- 4-5 cycles of REM sleep
