psychology sleep and dreaming

stages of sleep

stage 1: light sleep, easily woken up, slow eye movements (alpha waves)

stage 2: eye movements stop, relatively easy to wake up, heart rate slows (theta waves)

stage 3: between light and deep sleep, body repairs itself, difficult to wake up (some slow delta waves)

stage 4: hard to wake up, cataplexy, no eye movements (all slow delta waves)

REM sleep

REM sleep

deepest stages of sleep (irregular breathing, eyes jerking, movement inhibition, sensory blockade)

circadian rhythm

daily rhythm that lasts up to 24 hours (eg. sleep wake cycle and body temperature)

ultradian rhythm

cycle lasting less than 24 hours (eg. sleep cycle, appitite)

factors affecting how rhythms work

1) internal endogenous pacemakers

2) external exogenous zeitgerbers

internal endogenous pacemakers

SCN → responsible for controlling our circadian rhythm (releases melatonin)

external exogenous zeitgebers

environmental cues such as light, food, time cues that help synchronize our biological rhythms with the external environment.

evaluating factors affecting bodily rhythm (internal)

1. animal support: if you remove SCN from rats this can affect their sleepwake cycle

2. human research: blind man’s circadian rhythm was 25 hours

3. difficult to use animal research to genderalise findings to humans

evaluating factors affecting bodily rhythms (external)

1. many practical applications (jetlag)

2. many differences in findings

3. there is experimental support

siffre (1975) aim

1. to see how people would get on when travelling through space where they could be isolated and would not have external zeitgerbers

2. to see what his natural sleep wake cycle would be if he was deprived of external cues

siffre procedure

went into cave 14 feb 1972, he had enough food and a table and chair, everyday he woke up he would do a series of different tasks:

• hone his team of researchers to turn the lights on

• took his blood pressure

• went through memory and physical tasks such as riding a bike

• when he felt like it was night he would tell the researchers to turn the light off

siffre findings

1. became depressed and upset about lack of freedom

2. became suicidal + worsened eyesight and mental health

3. short term memory affected

4. sleep cycle varied from 18 - 52 hours

siffre conclusion

body clock may be manageable without external zeitgebers however the period of time alone in a confined space was not manageable

strengths of siffre

G: standardized procedure

R: repeated tests

A: useful for astronaut and sleep disorder research

V: controlled environment, controlled variables

weakness of siffre

G: single participant, limits generalisability

V: artificial light affects cycle

E:psychological and physical harm to participant

sleep disorders

can be primary or secondary

primary: sleep is the main problem

secondary: sleep being a symptom of another issue

insomnia

difficulty falling asleep (keep waking up)

insomnia explanation

lifestyle: jetlag, long shift

health: depression, heart conditions

medication, food/drink: neurotransmitters, caffeine, diet pills, smoking

narcolepsy

no control over sleep-wake cycle, can fall asleep suddenly

symptoms: excessive sleepiness, hallucinations, cataplexy, sleep paralysis

explaining narcolepsy

brain chemicals, genes, stress

Freud’s theory of dreaming

Dreams, according to Freud, involve symbols that mean something to the dreamer and need to be analysed by a professional (psychoanalyst) to uncover that meaning.

Freud’s theory of dreaming (iceberg model)

The conscious mind is what we are already aware of; the unconscious mind accounts for about 90 per cent of our thinking and holds all thoughts and wishes not in the conscious or preconscious.

ID: i want

Ego: tries to balance the ID and superego

Superego: the moral principle (eg. what would society think)

Freud’s theory of dreaming (content of dreams) manifest and latent content

different aspects of dreams which can reveal unconscious thoughts

manifest content: what happens in the dream

latent content: deeper meaning of what is in the dream

dreamwork

• the transformation of unconscious thoughts into dream content.→ to protect individuals and keep them asleep by disguising repressed thoughts and ideas

• consists of condensation, displacement,t and secondary elaboration

condensation

using multiple ideas to build a whole story

displacement

transforming the object or person the dreaming individual is really concerned about into something else.

secondary elaboration

many ideas appear as one idea

Little Hans (analysis of phobia) background

A case study by Sigmund Freud that examined a child's fear of horses, illustrating the Oedipus complex and the role of unconscious processes in phobias.

Little Hans (analysis of phobia) aims

1. help little hans

2. build evidence for his theory (psychosexual stages)

Little Hans (analysis of phobia) prodcedure

parents logged little hans development since 3 years old

focused on 3 features:

1. studying little han’s dream (unconscious thoughts causing phobia

2. what hans said

3. han’s phobia of horses

Little Hans (analysis of phobia) findings of phobia of horse

afraid of horses falling and dying in front of him (it was an experience) → Freud believed that the horse represented Han’s father and the black bits around the horse’s mouth represented the father’s mustache

evidence for Oedipus complex: shows that Hans has anxiety because of his father because he desired his mother

Little Hans (analysis of phobia) findings of little han’s early dream

Giraffe dream: (has had a dream that a large giraffe shouted at Hans for taking away the crumpled giraffe) → The large giraffe represented Hans father and the crumpled giraffe represented Han’s mother (evidence as Hans was anxious that his father would tell him off for taking away his mother that he desired)

Little Hans (analysis of phobia) conclusion

supported freud’s theory (oedipus complex)

strengths of Little han’s study

V: qualitative data collected, rich in detail and provides indepth information

A: can be applied to real life settings

weakness of little hans study

G: not generalisable as its a case study

Validity: data collected was interpreted by Freud and Han’s father which could be biased

E: Little Hans may have suffered psychological harm when talking about phobias

psychosexual stages

Freud's (1905) theory of child development (the oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital stages).

Hobson and McCarley’s activation synthesis theory

explanation of why people dream

sugested that the neuros are randomly firing which releases neurochemicals through neurons and our brain generates ‘nonsense’ and we automatically try to make sense of it

strength of activation synthesis theory

R: Supported by consistent REM sleep data

A: Informs therapies and neuroscience research

weaknesses of activation synthesis theory

V: does not explain meaningful dream content