Sleep, Dreams, and States of Consciousness: Understanding the Importance and Impact of Sleep

1. Topic: Sleep, Dreams, and States of Consciousness • Aim: For what reasons do we sleep and dream? • Do Now: • How good or bad of a sleeper are you? • Have you always been this way? • How is your day impacted if you get too much or too little sleep?

2. Think of our conscious mind as things we’re aware of and our unconscious mind as things that are more automatic

3. Waking consciousness • Our awareness of ourselves and our environment • Thoughts, feelings, and perceptions that occur when we are awake and alert • Allows us to reflect and plan Altered States of Consciousness • A mental state that differs noticeably from normal waking consciousness (sleep, meditation, drug induced states, hallucinations, hypnosis, sensory deprivation)

4. Forms of Altered-Consciousness: Sleep

5. Sleep Discussion: • Why do you think we need sleep? • How much sleep does the average person need? • What happens when people do not get enough sleep? • How does the amount of sleep we need change through stages of development?

6. Daydreaming and Fantasy • Spontaneous shifts attention away from the here and now into a make-believe world • Urge to daydream peaks about every 90 minutes and is highest between 12:00 and 2:00pm • Daydreams may provide stress relief and encourage creativity

7. Circadian Rhythm: • Sleep cycle you go through ever 24 hours • Governed by an area of the hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) -Sends a signal to the pineal gland to increase or decrease the sleep-inducing hormone. • Jet lag is the result of desynchronization of the circadian rhythm • The longer we are awake the more adenosine (a chemical that inhibits certain neurons) accumulates. Sleep reduces adenosine – caffeine blocks it.

8. Types of Sleep: • Rapid eye movement sleep (REM): 20–25% of total sleep, normally occurs close to morning • Subjects' vividly recalled dreams mostly occur during REM sleep.

9. Stage One • This is experienced as falling to sleep and is a transition stage between wake and sleep. • It usually lasts between 1 and 5 minutes and occupies approximately 2-5 % of a normal night of sleep. • eyes begin to roll slightly. • consists mostly of theta waves (high amplitude, low frequency (slow)) • brief periods of alpha waves, similar to those present while awake Hallucinations can occur and feeling of falling.

10. Stage Two • This follows Stage 1 sleep and is the "baseline" of sleep. • This stage is part of the 90 minute cycle and occupies approximately 45-60% of sleep.

11. Stage Three & Four • Stages three and four are "Delta" sleep or "slow wave" sleep and may last 15-30 minutes. • It is called "slow wave" sleep because brain activity slows down dramatically from the "theta" rhythm of Stage 2 to a much slower rhythm called "delta" and the height or amplitude of the waves increases dramatically.

12. Stage Three and Four (continued) • Contrary to popular belief, it is delta sleep that is the "deepest" stage of sleep (not REM) and the most restorative. • It is delta sleep that a sleep-deprived person's brain craves the first and foremost. • In children, delta sleep can occupy up to 40% of all sleep time and this is what makes children unawake able or "dead asleep" during most of the night.

13. Stage Five: REM SLEEP • REM: Rapid Eye Movement • This is a very active stage of sleep. • Composes 20-25 % of a normal nights sleep. • Breathing, heart rate and brain wave activity quicken. • Vivid Dreams can occur. • From REM, you go back to Stage 2

14. Why do we sleep? – We spend 1/3 of our lives asleep! Myths: • Everyone needs 8 hours of sleep per night to maintain good health (we need less sleep as we age) • Learning of complicated subjects such as calculus can be done during sleep. • Some people never dream. • Dreams last only a few seconds. Jose Luis Pelaez, Inc./ Corbis

15. What happens if we don’t get enough sleep (whatever our particular sleeping needs are?) What are some psychological/physiological impacts on our bodies? What are some problems that are correlated with a lack of sleep?

16. Sleep Deprivation (lack of sleep): • Fatigue and subsequent death. • Impaired concentration. • Emotional irritability. • Depressed immune system. • After 90 hours awake, begin having perceptual distortions, hallucinations, and delusions.

17. Sleep Theories: • Sleep Protects: Sleeping in the darkness when predators loomed about kept our ancestors out of harm’s way. • Sleep Recuperates: Sleep helps restore and repair brain tissue. • Sleep Helps Remembering: Sleep restores and rebuilds our fading memories. • Sleep and Growth: During sleep, the pituitary gland releases growth hormone. Older people release less of this hormone and sleep less.

18. Dyssomnias: Sleeping disorders that make it difficult to get to sleep, or to remain sleeping. Types include: • Insomnia - difficulty sleeping • Sleep Apnea - abnormal pauses in breathing while sleeping • Sleep paralysis: temporary paralysis of the body shortly before or after sleep. May be accompanied by visual, auditory or tactile hallucinations.

19. Sleep disorders that involve abnormal and unnatural movements, behaviors, emotions, perceptions, and dreams Types Include: sleepwalking teeth grinding restless leg syndrome night eating syndrome sleep sex sleep talking, and night terrors Parasomnias:

20. Sleepwalking: • The sleep walking activity may include simply sitting up and appearing awake while actually asleep, getting up and walking around, or complex activities such as moving furniture, going to the bathroom, dressing and undressing, and similar activities. Some people even drive a car while actually asleep. The episode can be very brief (a few seconds or minutes) or can last for 30 minutes or longer. • One common misconception is that a sleep walker should not be awakened. It is not dangerous to awaken a sleep walker, although it is common for the person to be confused or disoriented for a short time on awakening. Another misconception is that a person cannot be injured when sleep walking. Actually, injuries caused by such things as tripping and loss of balance are common for sleep walkers.

21. Narcolepsy: characterized by excessive sleepiness and sleep attacks at inappropriate times, such as while at work. Person may suddenly fall into REM sleep without warning

23. Dreaming Theories & Interpretations Dream myth: “I never dream” – Yes you do! Every night, in fact. When people say this what they mean to say is “I don’t remember my dreams” Because science has proven that we all enter REM sleep, and that dreams occurs in REM sleep, all data point to us dreaming consistently. Some of us, however, remember more than others. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dream-catcher/201204/people-who-do-not-dream

24. Dreams: Sigmund Freud • Sigmund Freud--The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) • Symbolic expressions of our unconscious conflicts or wish fulfillment • clues to inner thoughts & forbidden impulses • discharge otherwise unacceptable feelings • Manifest Content • remembered story line • Latent Content • underlying meaning

25. Dream Discussion: • What are dreams? • Why do you think the brain dreams? • What do you think some common themes of people’s dreams are? • Do you remember your dreams? • Do you dream in color?

26. Describe your Dreams… 1. Dialogue spoken, or any words? 2. The number of, and types of people (friends, strangers, relatives, etc.)? 3. The mood of the dream (happy, sad, scary, etc)? 4. Setting/location? 5. Themes? 6. Events? 7. Any passage of time in the dream? 8. Perspective (are you in the dream, or watching things happen like in a movie)?

27. Theories about why we dream 1. Information Processing Perspective- dreams help us sort out the day’s experiences and fix them in memory. (way of dealing with stress) 2. Activation-synthesis explanationstates that REM sleep triggers impulses in the visual cortex, evoking random visual images that our brain tries to weave into a storyline. (explains why dreams sometimes make no sense)

28. 3. The brain-maturation/cognitive development perspective believes dreams represent the dreamer’s level of development, knowledge & understanding (for example, how do you think children dream differently than adults? How do you think other cultures dream differently than Americans?)

29. Dream Analysis Project: 1. Were there any common threads, common ideas, running through the journal? 2. Are your dreams bizarre? Mundane? Repetitive from night to night? 3. Which dreams are most disturbing? Why? What do they mean to you? 4. What common symbols or objects did you record? What do you think these symbols mean? 5. Were you able to control your dreams as you remembered more and more of them? 6. How are your dreams relevant to your waking life? Did you dream about everyday events like being in school, or dream of having superpowers and flying? 7. Was the content of both journals identical on any days? What does this tell you? 8. What seems to be the main function of your dreams?

30. Common Dream Themes: • Dying (you or someone you know) • Flying • Being chased • Falling, sinking, or drowning • Dreams involving missing or damaged teeth • Public nudity • Dreams involving bodies of water • Sexual dreams What do you think each of the following common dreams things could represent?

31. Nightmares:Fear-inducing dreams during sleep Vivid and disturbing. Causes: our experience Watching horror movies can cause nightmares Stress -Drugs and alcohol

32. Dream Findings: • Negative Emotional Content: 8 out of 10 dreams have negative emotional content. • Failure Dreams:People commonly dream about failure, being attacked, pursued, rejected, or struck with misfortune. • Sexual Dreams:Contrary to our thinking, sexual dreams are sparse. Sexual dreams in men are 1 in 10; and in women 1 in 30. • Dreams of Gender:Women dream of men and women equally; men dream more about men than women.

34. Topic: Drugs, Addiction, & TreatmentsAim: How do psychologists diagnose and treat addiction?

35. Drug Discussion: • What are drugs? What are some examples of drugs? • What effect do drugs have on the body? • What are some different types of drugs? • What is the psychology behind taking certain drugs?

36. Drugs: • Drugs are chemicals that have biological effects within the body. Psychoactive drugs are chemicals that change conscious awareness or perception.4 main groupings • Depressants • Stimulants • Opiates relieve pain. • Hallucinogens

37. Drugs and Consciousness • Psychoactive Drug • a chemical substance that alters perceptions and mood,changes the chemistry of the brain • Changes our perceptions, mood or behavior • Molecules pass through the blood-brain barrier • Lead to Physical Dependence • physiological need for a drug, to take more • marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms • Psychological Dependence • a psychological need to use a drug • for example, to relieve negative emotions

38. Addiction: Physical and/or psychological dependence on a substance • Psychological dependence: when a person feels nervous and anxious without substance • Tolerance: when your body adapts to a substance so that more of it is needed for the original effect • Withdrawal: symptoms that occur after a person discontinues use of a substance

39. Big effect Response to first exposure Drug effect After repeated exposure, more drug is needed to produce same effect Little effect Large Small Drug dose Dependence and Addiction • Tolerance • diminishing effect with regular use • Withdrawal • discomfort and distress that follow discontinued use

40. The Psychology of Drugs & Culture: • How does our society treat drugs? • In what ways do we treat certain drugs differently than we treat others? • Do you think this has changed over time? • How do we deal with people addicted to drugs? • How are drugs parts of other cultures?

45. Depressants: • Reduce neural activity and slow body functions. They include: • Common depressants are • Alcohol • Barbiturates

46. Opiates: • Derived from poppy plant. • Morphine, heroin, methadone and codeine. Opiates resemble endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers • Causes euphoria followed by clouded mental functioning

47. Alcohol: • Most used psychoactive drug in Western societies. Highly physically and psychologically addictive - addiction strongly linked to age at which drinking began. • Even moderate amounts can affect: • Perception • Motor processes • Memory • Judgment • Visual acuity • Depth perception • Cognitive functioning

48. Alcoholism • Compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing. • It is medically considered a disease, specifically a neurological disorder

49. Alcohol Discussion: • What are some reasons people drink? • Why do most people start drinking at younger ages? • What do you think about the drinking age? Should it be raised/lowered? • Why do you think binge drinking is such a problem on college campuses?

50. 60 Minutes - Drinking Age Debate: 13 minutes • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA-91_LoKIw