Disorders of Sleep & Dreams

narcolepsy

• a neurological disorder characterized by sleep at inappropriate times as a result of neuronal degeneration of orexin neurons in the hypothalamus

• sleep attacks

• cataplexy

• sleep paralysis

sleep attacks

• associated with narcolepsy

• primary symptom, overwhelming urge to sleep, most often under monotonous, boring conditions

• lasts about 2-5 mins

cataplexy

• associated with narcolepsy

• mass inhibition of motor neurons in the spinal cord, muscle weakness, or paralysis

• much like REM sleep, heartbeats, breathing, and eye movements still occur

sleep paralysis

• associated with narcolepsy

• paralysis occurring right at the onset of sleep or upon waking

• dream-like hypnagogic hallucination (often negatively valenced) can occur

Dr. Cartwright study

• women came in, all going through divorce → women characterized as depressed or not depressed → sleep and once in REM, Cartwright would wake them up to ask what emotions they felt and a year later, depressed women came back for a follow-up

• women w/o depression reported overall more positively valenced dreams compared to negatively valenced (this was consistent across the night of sleep)

• women who had depression at time of study and a year later had an equal number of positively and negatively valenced dreams in the first half of night but in second half, they reported more negatively valenced dreams

• women who had depression at time of study and then a year later were no longer depressed reported the greatest percentage of negatively valenced dreams in the first half of the night but this percentage substantially dropped in the second half of the night

• processing the divorce in sleep