Consciousness
Waking Consciousness What you are currently
aware of and attending to
Linear (serial) processing
The result of cognitive processing
Consciousness
Subconsciousness That which lies just
below your waking consciousness
Easily accessible Parallel processing
Sleep and Dreams
Sleep periodic, natural, reversible loss of
consciousness
Circadian Rhythm
the biological clock regular bodily rhythms that occur on a
24-hour cycle, such as of wakefulness and body temperature
Sleep and Dreams Stage 1
Lasts up to 5 minutesHallucinationsHypnogogic experience
Stage 220 minutesSleep spindlesSleep talking may occur
Sleep and Dreams Stage 3
Transitional stageLasts only a few minutes
Stage 4Brain emits delta wavesLasts 30 minutesSleep walking, bed wetting may occurYou can still process the outside world
Brain Waves and Sleep Stages
Alpha Waves slow waves of a
relaxed, awake brain
Delta Waves large, slow waves
of deep sleep
Stages in a Typical Night’s Sleep
Hours of sleep
Minutesof Stage 4 and REM
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80
10
15
20
25
5
Decreasing Stage 4
Increasing REM
Sleep and Dreams REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep
recurring sleep stage vivid dreams “paradoxical sleep”
muscles are generally relaxed, but other body systems are active
Sleep Deprivation
Effects of Sleep Loss fatigue impaired
concentration depressed immune
system greater vulnerability
to accidents
Sleep Disorders Insomnia
persistent problems in falling or staying asleep
Narcolepsy uncontrollable sleep attacks
Sleep Apnea temporary cessation of breathing momentary reawakenings
Night Terrors and Nightmares
Night Terrors occur within 2 or
3 hours of falling asleep, usually during Stage 4
high arousal-- appearance of being terrified0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
4
3
2
1
Sleepstages
Awake
Hours of sleep
REM
Dreams: Freud Sigmund Freud--The Interpretation of
Dreams (1900) wish fulfillment discharge otherwise unacceptable
feelings Manifest Content
remembered story line Latent Content
underlying meaning
Dreams: Freud Dreams
Dream is a safe outlet for the mind Deals with unacceptable thoughts and
emotions Manifest content is the “dressed up”
symbolic version of the unconscious Most adult dreams have strong sexual
undertones Dream interpenetration is the “royal road
to the unconscious”
Dreams: Information processing
As Information Processing Dreams serve to sift and sort
memories of our daily experiences Helps us to better process and store
memories and learning from the previous day
Dreams: Information processing Support for theory
REM sleep increases following a stressful experience and intense learning experiences
People will perform worse on a memory test if kept from dreaming the night before
Dreams: Activation-synthesis
Neural activity is random and dreams are your brain’s attempt to make sense of it
Your brain tries to impose meaning on meaningless stimuli
Dreams: Activation-synthesis
SupportEye movement of REM sleep coincides with
bursts of neural activity in the visual cortexWould account for random and bizarre
occurrences in dreams
Dreams: Physiological Function
Dreams serve to provide neural stimulation for a sleeping brain
Stimulation of the neural pathways strengthens connections and makes processing faster and more efficient
Dreams: Physiological Function
Support Infants and children experience longer
periods of REM sleep than adults. REM sleep periods decrease as we age