Chapter 5.3 DREAMS & SLEEP DISORDER

Dreams

- mental experiences during REM sleep
- story like quality
- vivid visual imagery
- perceptually real
- muscle Antonia (prevents from acting out dreams)

Dreams contents

- mundane (familiar settings & people)
- more tolerant of lapses of logic
- 1st person perspective

Freud Dream Interpretation

- intent is driven by our unconscious wishes
- LATENT CONTENT (unconscious wish)
- MANIFEST CONTENT (actual images, thoughts & content within the dream)

Jung dream interpretation

- dreams are revelations
- future oriented
- recurring

Lucid dreaming

- awareness that you’re dreaming
- can be treatment for nightmares

Reasons for dreaming

- problem solving (creative thinking & not bound by logic or inhibitions)
- information processing (process the day’s events)
- physiological function (neural development)
- activation synthesis (brain is firing & any interpretation/narrative is incidental)

Sleep movement disorder

Somnambulism (sleep walking) & REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder

Somnambulism

-Sleepwalking
-occurs during NREM sleep
- unaware of perception & NOT acting out dreams

REM Sleep behaviour disorder

-often violent or aggressive
- occurs during REM sleep
- acting out dreams
-very aware of the perception
- precursor to tremors in Parkinson’s disease

Nightmares vs Night Terrors SIMILARITIES

- fear response
- can wake the sleeper
- more common in children
- associated with stress

Nightmares & Night Terrors DIFFERENCES

- Nightmares more common
- relationship to dreams
- sleep cycle (night terrors happen in early stages of sleep)

Onset insomnia

Difficulty falling asleep

Maintenance insomnia

Difficulty staying asleep through the night

Terminal insomnia

Wake up early & can’t fall back asleep

Rebound insomnia

Having sleep aid removing it

Secondary insomnia

Exist with other mental health conditions

Symptoms of insomnia

-fatigue
-impaired cognitive function
-elevated risk of accidents
- reduced productivity
-depression
-anxiety
-hypertension

Fatal insomnia

- prion disease (rare inherited or spontaneous genetic mutation)
- 4 stages: Increasing insomnia, Hallucinations & panic attack, complete inability to sleep, dementia & unresponsiveness

Narcolepsy

-sudden and irresistible onset of sleep
-abnormal progression through sleep stages (Type 1 have muscle weakness & Type 2 no muscle weakness)
- can be genetic or acquired
-treatment for Type 1: Orexin/Modafinil

restless legs syndrome

- feeling of uneasiness and restlessness in the legs after going to bed; may be relieved temporarily by walking or moving the legs
- dopamine agonists to treat it

Sleep apnea

-when you stop breathing for a period of time
-snoring, gasping for air & tiredness
-treatment: CPAP
-obstructive type: physical orientation
- central type: diseases ex. Kidney disease, stroke