UNIT 4 psych - sleep

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8 Terms

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Sleep

a reversible behavioural state of perceptual disengagement from and unresponsiveness to the environment.

  • Reversible → sleeper can always be woken up with a strong enough stimulus

  • Perceptual disengagement → no awareness of sights, sounds, smells and other sensory stimuli

  • Unresponsive – sleeper not responsive to external environment

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Sleep is a psychological construct

a concept that is ‘constructed’ (created/made) to describe specific ‘psychological’ activity (thoughts/feelings/behaviour), or a pattern of activity, that is BELIEVED to occur or exist but cannot be directly observed.

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Biological rhythms

refer to naturally occurring patterns of cyclic changes in bodily functions or activities that repeat themselves through time in the same order.

  • body temperature

  • blood pressure

  • sleep-wake cycle

  • secretion of certain hormones

3 TYPES

Circadian rhythms, Ultradian rhythms, Infradian rhythms

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Circadian Rhythm

cycle with a duration of approximately 24 hours e.g. sleep-wake cycle

Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) small part in hypothalamus → regulates the timing and activity of sleep-wake cycle & other circadian rhythms

SCN - has a pair of pinhead sized structures containing 20,000 neurons

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Circadian Rhythm - The Sleep-Wake Cycle

SCN receives info about amount of incoming light from eyes → adjusts sleep-wake cycle accordingly

  • light is the MAIN environmental cue that influences the cycle

→ sends neuronal messages to pineal gland to produce less or more melatonin hormone (LESS light = MORE melatonin, MORE light = LESS melatonin)

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Melatonin

Higher melatonin levels = greater drowsiness

Lower melatonin levels = greater alertness

  • only comes out at night → from PINEAL GLAND

  • artificial lighting can be bright enough to impede the release of melatonin.

  • synthetic melatonin is sometimes prescribed to treat some types of sleep disorders.

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Ultradian rhythms

cycle that is shorter than 24 hours e.g. REM/NREM cycle

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Infradian rhythms

cycle that is longer than 24 hours e.g. menstrual cycle