Ultradian Rythms

Question 1

What are Ultradian Rhythms?

Answer 1

They are Biological rhythms that occur in less than 24 hours

Question 2

What ultradian rhythms do we have?

Answer 2

• The sleep cycle

- appetite

Question 3

Describe the sleep cycle

Answer 3

• This cycle alternates between rapid eye movement (REM) and non rapid eye movement (NREM) and contains 5 stages and the first 4 stages involve NREM sleep before entering REM sleep in stage 5.
• It usually occurs 5 times a night for 90 minutes each
• Stages 1 and 2 are the light sleep stages. During these stages brainwave patterns become slower and the frequency of the brainwaves are reduced. Alpha waves start to progress into theta waves.
• Stages 3 and 4 are the deep sleep stages. During these stages it is difficult to wake someone up and this stage delta waves are the most predominant in the brain.
• Stage 5 is when REM sleep occurs and the most predominant brainwave are Beta waves which are the fastest brainwave. Brain activity during this stage resembles brain activity of an awake person. the body is paralysed during this stage to stop the person acting out their dreams.

Question 4

Identify AO3 paragraphs for Ultradian rythms

Answer 4

• Individual differences/Tucker
• control (Innate biological)
• Lacks ecological validity
• Randy gardener

Question 5

Outline Tucker aim, method, findings and conclusion

Answer 5

Aim: To investigate the duration of stages in the sleep cycle.

Method: He recorded how long each stage in the sleep cycle of participants lasted for using electroencephalogram.

Findings: He found stages 3 and 4 varied in duration between different people.

Conclusion: This shows us there might be innate individual differences in ultradian rhythms.

Question 6

Outline how tuckers research being controlled means we can establish that differences in sleep patterns are determined our biological make up.

Answer 6

-The study’s was conducted under controlled conditions, which means the differences in sleep patterns could not be attributed to situational or environmental factors but only to biological differences between the participants. However this might provide convincing evidence for the role of innate biological factors regulating Ultradian rhythm activity psychologists still should take into account external environment when investigating the sleep cycle such as diet as it could also play a role.

Question 7

Outline how investigating ultradian rhythms lacks ecological validity

Answer 7

P: Ultradian rhythm research may give us very limited amount of research to how our sleeping patterns are regulated in real life.

E: This is a result of Electrodes being attached to an individuals head and the studies having to be taken under controlled conditions which are not representative of how an individual will sleep.

E: Therefore the brain wave patterns being produced under these conditions might not be identical to the brainwaves that are produced during the sleep cycle in a normal familiar environment to the participant.

L:This means research into the sleep cycle lacks ecological validity and this could lead to false conclusions being drawn.

Question 8

Outline Kleitman’s research aim, method, findings and conclusion

Answer 8

Aim: To Investigate the different stages within the sleep cycle

method: Kleitman recorded the brainwave patterns of the participants and woke them up either during NREM sleep or REM sleep and asked them to report their feelings, experiences and emotions
findings: Kleitman found that people who were awaken during REM sleep 80%-90% of the time could recall dreams in accurate detail while those awakened during NREM sleep only 7% of participants could recall a dream.

Conclusion: There are different stages within the sleep cycle and dreaming occurs during REM sleep when brain activities is at the highest level during the sleep cycle.