Awareness of ourselves and our environment Much of

• Awareness of ourselves and our environment • Much of what we process is outside of our conscious awareness

CIRCADIAN RHYTHM • • • 24 (actually 25 hour) cycle Biological Rhythm Morning Types/Evening Types Explain: 2 nd wind after all-nighter Explain: Monday morning blues

Stages of Sleep • Stage 1 (1 st 5 minutes of sleep) – The stage of transition between wakefulness and sleep that is characterized by relatively rapid, lowvoltage brain waves (“hypnogogic” sensations) Alpha waves n Stage 2 – Characterized by a slower, more regular wave pattern and momentary interruptions of sharply pointed spiky waves called sleep spindles

Stages of Sleep • Stage 3 – Brain waves become slower with an appearance of higher peaks and lower valleys in the wave pattern (delta waves) Delta waves, or slow wave sleep • Stage 4 – Deepest stage of sleep where people are least responsive to outside stimuli and the wave patterns are slower and more regular. (Sleep walking, bed wetting, night terrors) After about an hour you ascend to stages 3 then 2 and then REM sleep.

Paradoxical Sleep Body is more aroused than during Stage 1

Sleep Stages During a Night

We spend about 1/3 of our lives asleep!!

Treating the Rhythm of Sleep. Melatonin • Secreted in pineal gland • Darkness Increase Melatonin • Light Decrease Melatonin • Small Doses Brings on sleep within 30 minutes, any time of day. Alters circadian rhythms and melatonin secretion • Helpful for nightshift, jetlag, Insomniarelated diseases, aspirin/ibuprofen users • Long-term deficient sex hormones • NOT RECOMMENDED DURING PUBERTY

Insomnia • 35 -50% of Americans have trouble falling asleep • Why? Stress and Aging Population • Successful & Healthy Sleep Patterns-possible to do both? • Drug-dependent Insomnia-addiction/tolerance to sleep medications • Pseudo-Insomnia: ½ of those who claim insomnia actually get enough sleep

Sleep Terrors/Sleep Walking • • • Primarily in children Occur in Stage 4 sleep No known cause Night Terror: blood-curdling scream Go away with time

SLEEP APNEA • Apnea-cessation of respiration • Potentially life-threatening • Central Sleep Apnea-brain stops telling diaphragm to move • Upper Sleep Apnea-breathing is blocked by loss of muscle tone in tongue, throat, and larynx • Mixed Sleep Apnea-combo special • Symptoms: snoring, high blood pressure, up to 500 apneas throughout the night • Possibly linked to SIDS • Treated with surgery, weight loss, c-pap machines

S. I. D. S • Leading cause of death between 1 month and 1 year. • 6, 000 -7, 000 deaths per year in the United States • 2 -4 months most dangerous period • 50% of infants have cold/infection prior to death

NARCOLEPSY • Sleep Attack • Strange Cases: Scuba Diving, Fireman climbing a ladder of a burning home. • More common: During intercourse. • Common trigger: intense emotion associated with stress, laughter, anger, surprise. • Typically 5 min or less in length

DREAMS • R. E. M. -identifying feature of dream state • Common Dreams • Dream Theories (4) • Hypnogogic State (stage 1 sleep) • Remembering Dreams

Common Dreams • Ordinary Events • Often relate to everyday experiences • More frequently involve anxiety or misfortune than triumphant achievement • Dreams many of us experience: falling, being attacked, school, sex, being late, eating, being frozen with fright • Less common dreams: killing someone, seeing oneself as dead, failing a test, fire, being nude, being smothered • Cultural/Regional Influences on dreams

DREAM THEORIES Information Processing / Memory Physiological function Activation. Synthesis Manifest Content – remembered storyline Fixing Memories Stimulation and Preservation of Neural Pathways Brain’s need to organize Latent Content – underlying meaning Problem Solving Infants and REMup to 8 hours/day Hallucinations from stimulation of sensory cortex Freudian Theory Gratification of unconscious wishes REM occurs at the same time as visual cortex activity Meaning is imposed on sudden random changes Amygdala is also active giving emotion to the random scene

Theories of Dreaming • Psychoanalytic: Dreams represent disguised symbols of repressed desires and anxieties. – Manifest content – what we remember – Latent content – underlying meaning • Biological: Dreams represent random activation of brain cells in order to stimulate and preserve neurological growth • Cognitive: Dreams help to sift and sort the events of the day. – Problem solving

The Function and Meaning of Dreaming • Dreams-for-survival theory – Dreams permit information that is critical for our daily survival to be reconsidered and reprocessed during sleep

The Function and Meaning of Dreaming • Activation-synthesis theory – The brain produces random electrical energy that stimulates memories lodged in various portions of the brain which are put together to make a logical story line.

Hypnogogic State • Hallucinations (sensory experiences) that occur in Stage 1 • Vivid images • Falling and floating are common • Catching the hypnogogic state—the Dali Method Activity: Falling asleep with a book in your hand. When book falls record the content of your experience