AP psych Unit 1 - consciousness

Reasons why we sleep (two theories) 

• 2 theories

1. Restorative theory of sleep - we sleep to restore mental function, restore our immune system, and restore our bodies after the toll that living has taken on us 

2. Adaptive theory of sleep: result of evolution, we sleep at night as a protective measure from the “monsters” and harms of being awake at night

Sleep Disorders (8)

• Insomnia - the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep. 

  • Brought on by stress, genetics, changing life-style patterns

  • Doctors treat it with medication and therapy

• Narcolepsy - symptoms: opposite of insomnia 

  • Sleep attacks, cataplexy which is the weakening of muscles, treated with stimulant drugs

• Sleep Apnea - breathing related sleep disorder

Ex. short periods when a person stops breathing when they are sleeping

• Treatment: breathing machine, weight loss

• Parasomnias 

  • Abnormal experiences during dreams 

• Nightmare disorders

  • frequent nightmares, about threats to your survival, security, or self-esteem, wake up quickly remembering your dreams

• Sleep terrors

  • Waking up screaming, moving, but you don’t remember what the dream was about and in the morning, you don’t remember the incident

• REM sleep behavior disorder

  • Muscles don’t become paralyzed during REM sleep and people will act out their dreams

• Sleep-walking disorders

  • Causes people to walk around while being asleep

Dreams

• What happens in the brain while we dream?

  • When we are dreaming,, the primary visual cortex and frontal lobe are off which prevents logical thought

  • A lot of activity is seen in the amygdala and hippocampus. - ex. emotion and memory. This explains the powerful emotion content of dreams

• Freudian Analysis 

  •  He believed that dreams are forms of a wish fulfillment, meaning dreams are repressed memories and desires which come to the surface literally as symbols

    • really hard to research Freud’s ideas but some psychologists apply his methods

• Biological Approach

  • Activation - synthesis hypothesis: dreams arise when the cerebral cortex tries to make sense of random patterns of neural activation during REM sleep 

  • Random which means that it has no meaning

Hypnosis (2 theories) 

1. Role theory: some people like to take on a new persona so they choose to be hypnotized

2. State theory: a change in mental processes. It’s like zoning out, watching tv, meditation

Psychoactive Drugs

• Stimulants: 

1. increases CNS activity 

2. Increase alertness and wakefulness 

3. biochemically increases dopamine in the brain’s reward centers

• Depressants:

  • decrease brain activity since it causes drowsiness and produces mid euphoria. It can alleviate anxiety symptoms

• Opiates:

  • Derived from the opium poppy

  • Most common: heroine and morphine. Used to treat severe pain and works by blocking pain receptors. 

  • Highly addictive and produces euphoria