states of consciousness

  • Biological rhythms; internal rhythms of biological activity

  • circadian rhythm; a biological rhythm that takes place over a period of about 24 hours.

  • suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN): area in the hypothalamus where the brains clock is located

  • pineal gland: glad that releases melatonin when darkness is perceived

  • chronotype: differences in circadian rhythms such as being a morning person vs a night person

  • sleep deprivation: associated with obesity, increased blood pressure, increased levels of stress hormones, and reduced immune functioning

  • sleep rebound: the fact that a sleep-deprived individual will fall asleep more quickly during subsequent opportunities for sleep.

  • Evolutionary psychology: discipline that studies how universal patterns of behavior and cognitive processes have evolved over time as a result of natural selection.

  • beta waves: high frequency, low amplitude; occur during wakefulness

  • NREM sleep: brain waves have low frequency and high amplitude; happens as you start to fall asleep

  • alpha waves; occur during stage 1 sleep when you are very relaxed but not entirely asleep and have a high amplitude and low frequency

  • theta waves: stage 1 sleep, even lower frequency and higher amplitude than alpha waves

  • sleep spindle: a rapid burst of higher frequency brain waves that may be important for learning and memory

  • k complex: very high amplitude pattern of brain activity that may in some cases occur in response to environmental stimuli.

  • stage 2 sleep: brain is dominated by theta waves with brief interruptions from sleep spindles and k complexes

  • delta waves; have the lowest frequency and highest amplitude of all waves and happen during stage 3 sleep

  • manifest content vs. latent content: manifest content is the story line of dreams, latent content is the hidden meaning. Theory developed by Freud

  • Rosalind Cartwright: only physchologist to have empirical evidence for their theory of dreams; said that dream content reflected what was on the mind of the dreamer

  • parasomnias: group of sleep disorders in which unwanted, disruptive motor activity and/or experiences during sleep play a role.

  • somnambulism: sleep walking disorder

  • REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD): occurs when the muscle paralysis associated with the REM sleep phase does not occur; having disturbing dreams, kicking, screaming, flailing, etc

  • central vs. obstructive sleep apnea: disruption in signals sent from the brain that regulate breathing cause periods of interrupted breathing vs. airways becoming blocked respectively

  • SIDS: an infant stops breathing during sleep and dies.