PSYC 101 Ch. 5 - Consciousness - SLEEP, DREAMS & ALTERNATE FORMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Melatonin

Hormone triggering sleepiness, increased production after dark & regulates circadian rhythm

Beta waves

- When awake/REM

- 8-12waves/sec

Stage 1 sleep

- NREM

- Lightest

- Only 5-10mins

- brain power down 50%

- 4-7 theta waves/sec -> slower than beta waves

- hypnagogic imagery

- myoclonic jerks

- EEG similar to REM

Stage 2 sleep

- NREM

- theta waves

- decrease HR, breathing rate & body temperature

- make up 65% of sleep

- sleep spindles - sudden bursts of electrical activity, 12-14 cycles/sec

- K complexes - occasional rising and falling waves

- eye movements cease

Stage 3 sleep

- NREM

- Slow-wave sleep (SWS)

- further decrease HR, breathing & body temperature

- Deep

- after 10-30mins of light sleep

- delta waves 1-2 cycles/sec -> 20-50% of stage 3, >50% of stage 4

- When sleepwalking occurs

Stage 4 sleep

- REM

- beta waves

- high frequency low amplitude waves, EEG similar to awake & stage 1

- brain active similar to awake levels

- loss of muscle tone, pons paralyzes limbs

- increase autonomic nervous system (increase HR, BR)

- Some muscle twitching

- Genital erection

- most vivid dreams

- make up 20-25% of sleep

- 5-6 times a night

- 10-20 mins throughout night, 30mins or more as we get more awake

Recuperation theories of sleep

- Awake = disrupt homeostasis

- Sleep = restore homeostasis

> repair injuries

> energy levels

> fight infections

Adaptation theories of sleep

- Sleep around same time regardless of daily activities

- No physiological purpose

- Based on 24hour timing mechanism -> light/dark cycle

- Protection from accidents & predation

- Conserve energy

Circadian rhythm

- Changes in biological processes across a 24 hour period

- Scheduled by zeitgebers (social, environmental cues)

Free running rhythm

- Rhythm of the body's own devising in the absence of all external cues

- Still 24 hours

- Existence proof that it's genetically coded into organisms

Biological clock

20k neurons in suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in hypothalamus

Makes us drowsy

Comparative Analysis (with animals) of Sleep

1. Serve physiological purpose beyond protection from predators -> Support recuperation theory, e.g. gazelles and dolphins

2. Sleep not only higher order human functioning e.g. emotional regulation

3. Sleep is required for survival but not in great amounts. e.g. less during mating season, migration & short supply of food -> support recuperation theory

4. No strong relationship between sleep length and body size, energy expenditure & body temperature

5. In general: Higher up on food chain = able to sleep more

Total sleep deprivation

Not sleeping for a whole night

Chronic sleep restriction

Less sleep than normal/optimal

Chronic sleep disruption

Sleep length is fine but repeated disruptions (waking)

Physical health consequences of poor sleep

- Impaired immune system

- Increased HR (sympathetic NS activation)

- Hormone dysregulation (incl. appetite)

Mental health consequences of poor sleep

- Cognitive impairment

- Attention deficits

- Memory lapse/loss

- Hallucinations

Emotional health consequences of poor sleep

- Irritability

- General anxiety

- Inability to handle stress

Sleep AFTER sleep DEPRIVATION

- Increased efficiency to achieve SWS (stage 3 sleep)

- Increased proportion of sleep is SWS, including during naps

- Less stage 1 & 2 sleep

- Waking during SWS causes sleepiness

- Waking during REM doesn't

- Microsleeps after 2-3 days of sleeps deprivation

Effects of sleep RESTRICTION (3-4 hours)

- Increase sleepiness -> fall asleep more quickly

- Disturbed mood

- Poor vigilance

- Amount of SWS can adapt when sleep length decreases -> SWS important for system

- SIMILAR cognitive & mood effects as deprivation but LESS SELF-AWARENESS

Effects of sleep disruption

SIMILAR cognitive & mood effects as deprivation if SEVERE & CHRONIC

Confounds to effects of sleep loss

Stress (e.g. from not sleeping in own bed in lab studies)

Sleep Deprivation Animal Studies

- Yoked control rat + experimental rat

- Rats wired to EEG

- Rotating disk floor surrounded by water

- Yoked rat can sleep; exp rat can't

- Exp. rat dies after a few days

Sleep & Mortality

- {x<7hrs U x>8hrs} = greater risk of mortality

- Not controlled for pre-existing health issues

- Newer study w/ control shows same trend; but lower risk of mortality for people with <7hrs than >8hrs

REM Theories

1. Mental health

2. Process memory

- Disproved w/ antidepressants blocking REM with no memory side effects

Default Theory of REM Sleep

1. REM = break between NREM; Continuous NREM = difficult/bad

2. Maintain certain level of alertness during REM

3. Prepare for wakefulness (increasing REM towards end of a night's sleep)

REM Deprivation Studies

- Wake animal whenever they enter REM

- Flower Pot setup

Findings:

1. Increased tendency to initiate REM as deprivation increases

2. Increased amounts of REM in subsequent nights of sleep (REM Rebound)

When dreams occur

Both NREM and REM sleep but more often & more vividly in REM

Middle ear muscle activity

Ears active during REM as if hearing in dream

REM Behavior disorder (RBD)

Body active during REM

Commo Beliefs About Dreams

1. External stimuli is incorporated into dreams

> Most not incorporated or reacted to

> Certain stimuli do: spray water, meaningful words, pressure on limbs

2. Sleepwalking (somnambulism) & sleeptalking occur during dreams

3. Only occur during REM

> Dreams occur less vividly during NREM but still occur

> Lesion forebrain = no dreams but still have REM

> Lesion brainstem = no REM but still have dreams

REM mysteries

1. How do we benefit

2. Why do drugs suppressing REM have no ill effects

3. Why do babies have more REM

Lucid dream

- Awareness that you're dreaming

- Existence proof: subjects sending researchers signal when in lucid dream (eyes & hand movement) + woman w/ lucid sex dreams

Hypersomnia

- Disorders of excessive sleep/sleepiness

- Narcolepsy

- Klein-Levin Syndrome

Klein Levin Syndrome (KLS)

- 15-21hrs a day

- Typically among adolescent boys

- Last from a week to a month once a year

- Usually grow out of it

- Type of hypersonic

Narcolepsy

- episodes of sleep

- few mins or secs, rarely last a few hours

- hypnagogic hallucinations

- sleep paralysis

- have abnormally few braincells producing orexin

- cataplexy

- Type of hypersomnia

Cataplexy

- Loss of muscle tone when awake

- Symptom of narcolepsy

Insomnia

- ALL disorders of INITIATING or MAINTAINING sleeping

- Mostly IATROGENIC - created by physician

(a) trouble falling asleep (> 30mins)

(b) waking up too early

(c) waking up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep

- 9-20% of people

- treat w/ sleeping pills but may cause dependency

- Sleep apnea

- Periodic limb movement syndrome

- Restless leg syndrome

Sleep apnea

- 9-38% of people

- blocked airway during sleep

- symptoms: loud snoring, gasping & stopping breathing for seconds

- rousing from sleep due to stopped breathing

- cause: night sweats, weight gain, fatigue, hearing loss, irregular heartbeat

- type of insomnia

Periodic limb movement

- Limbs twitching during sleep

- Type of Insomnia

Restless leg syndrome

- Tension/uneasiness in leg interfering with sleep

- Type of insomnia

Night terrors

- Sudden screaming at night in children

- usually harmless

- no recollection of what happened

Sleep Walking

- Acting as if one is awake when they are sleeping

- Sexsomnia - sleep walking but sex

- Almost always occur during NREM -> not dreaming

- Mostly occur during Stage 3 Deep Sleep

Freud's Dream Protection theory

- Ego less able to control id when asleep

- Dreams act as "safe space" for id to act out

- Dreams mostly sexual & wish fulfilment

- Dreams have hidden meanings

- Manifest content = details of dream

- Latent content = hidden meaning

- Uncover latent content with DREAM-WORK

Challenges to Freud's Dream Protection Theory

- Existence of non-wish fulfilment dreams

- Patients with brain injury don't dream

- Many dreams undisguised

- Repetitive nightmares in people who have had traumatic experiences

- Psychotherapy can change nightmares through writing and rehearsing new dreams

Activation-Synthesis Theory (Hobson & McCarley)

- Dreams reflect brain activity during sleep

- Acetylcholine high during REM; norepinephrine & serotonin low

- Pons sends incomplete signal to hypothalamus then forebrain

- Forebrain tries to make sense of incomplete signals through dreams

- Amygdala also ramped up during sleep explaining intense emotions in dreams

- Protoconsciousness

- Cope with every day demands & make sense of world

Protoconsciousness

Primitive or primary state of brain organization that starts to develop even before birth in the uterus and is a building block of consciousness

- Raw emotions dominate

- Explain how brains generate virtual reality to explore new possibilities & hypotheses

Hobson 2009 Virtual Trainer Theory of Dreams

- Virtual trainer

- Early development: stimulation of brain & simulation of IRL -> babies spend most time in REM supporting this

- Later life: simulation & prediction of IRL -> proportion of time spent in REM sleep decreases with age

Foulkes' Theory of Dreams

- Organize unconsciously reactivated memories into a narrative

- Tetris research: More time spent playing = more likely to dream about tetris

- Recurring dreams = existence proof of this theory

Forebrain theory (Solms & Turnball)

- Damage to deep frontal white matter & parietal lobe causes a loss of dreaming -> refuses Activation-Synthesis theory which states the brain stem controls dreaming

- Dreams largely driven by emotional & motivational control centers of brain

Neurocognitive Theory (Domhoff)

- Dreams reflect real life experience & cognitive abilities

- More vivid dreams = developed visual imagination

- Dream Continuity Hypothesis - dreams mirror life circumstances -> falsified: disabled people and those without disabilities don't have different dreams

Alternative forms of consciousness

- Hallucinations

- Out-of-body experiences (OBE)

- Near-death experiences (NDE)

- Mystical experiences

- Hypnosis

Causes of VIsual Hallucinations

- Oxygen or sensory deprivation

- Epilepsy

- Fever

- Dementia

- Migraine headache

Causes of Auditory Hallucinations

- Attribute inner voice & thoughts to external source

- More negative and uncontrollable in psychotic individuals

Out-of-body Experience (OBE)

- Feeling as if one has left their physical body

- People prone to OBE often report other unusual experiences

- No evidence proving they actually left their physical body

- Involves scrambled sense of touch & vision

- Similar to NDE

Near-Death Experience (NDE)

- Similar to OBE but occur when one believes oneself to be in a fatal situation

- Most common report: going through a dark tunnel & experiencing a bright light

- Reports of both positive and negative experiences

- Involves constructed and not actual experience of afterlife

Mystical Experience

- Core features: sense of unity/oneness

transcendence of time & space

feelings of wonder & awe

- Study approaches: 1. case study

2. induce experience then check with fMRI

3. Experimental design using psilocybin

Hypnosis

- interpersonal situation where the "hypnotist" administers imaginative suggestions to produce changes in consciousness in a "client/patient"

- Induction - creating positive expectations to begin hypnosis

Uses of hypnosis

- Cognitive behavioral psychotherapies

- Treat pain

- Medical conditions

- Obesity

- Anxiety

- Habit disorders (e.g. addiction)

Myths of hypnosis

- Produce a trance state

- Unique phenomena

- Sleep-like state

- "Patient" unaware of surroundings

- "Patient" cannot remember process

- Enhance memory

Sociocognitive Theory of Hypnosis

- Hypnosis is NOT a trance or unique state of consciousness

- Response to hypnosis is shaped by: > People's expectations, motivations & beliefs about hypnosis

> Ability to respond to imaginative suggestions

- More positive expectations = more responsive

Dissociation

State of consciousness where attention, effort and planning are carried out without one's awareness

Hidden observer

Metaphor to describe a hypnotized subject's "unhypnotized parts" that can be accessed on cue

Hypnotic analgesia

Inability to experience pain

Dissociation Theory of Hypnosis

- Hidden observer arise due to hypnotist's suggestion & changes based on different instructions

- Hypnosis bypasses ordinary sense of control we exert over our behaviors, instead suggestions directly bring our responses without conscious effort from "patient"