Sleep and Dreaming

• We go through the sleep cycle about once every 90 minutes
• NREM3 gets shorter throughout the night, while REM gets longer through out the night
• NREM1


  Super light sleep with alpha waves. Lasts 5-10 minutes
• NREM2


  Theta waves, 10-20 minutes, transitional stage of sleep between stages. Harder to get awakened and you get half-baked dreams but you're still relatively easy to wake up
• NREM3


  The deepest sleep, your internal systems get slowed. Delta waves (super low activity, hard to respond). Can't really get woken up easily. When you release growth hormone
• REM


  Rapid eye movement
• REM


  When you're externally paralyzed but internally very active, where dreams and memory synthesis happen most during sleep. Beta waves, like when you are awake
• In REM you can have nightmares, but in NREM3 you can have night terrors, sleep talking, or sleepwalking
• REM is the essential sleep for the mind, and NREM is essential for the body
• Restoration theory


  Sleep theory saying that sleep helps bring back the resources (energy and wear and tear) that are depleted when we are awake
• Adaptive theory


  Idea that sleep protects us because we suck at moving around at night, which could have gotten us killed when you walked into a tree or heard by predators, while you are more awake when your predators are and more likely to successfully hunt
• Cognitive and information processing theory


  Sleep theory that says it helps you think. REM helps us build up memory consolidation. All kinds of evidence that we do not work great when sleep deprived
• Sigmund freud


  Wrote "the interpretation of dreams" as an explanation for our psyche, and dreams are the road to our unconscious psyche
• Freud said dreams have 2 parts:

  • Manifest content = what we remember, the storyline
  • Latent content = hidden symbolic underlying meaning of dreams
• Biological and information processing approach


  Idea that our body has to sleep to form connections from the day's events. REM helps create and preserve neural connections. When the brain is randomly activated in REM, we come up with storylines, like dreams
• Insomnia


  1/3 of adults experience it at any given time. Inability to fall and/or stay alseep
• Insomnia causes:

  • Stress (might be a vicious cycle causing more stress from sleep deprivation)
  • Irregular sleep schedule
  • Underlying illness or pain
  • Medication or diet
• Insomnia treatment depends on the cause, but is mostly just fixing bad habits
• Sleep apnea


  Cessation of breathing while sleeping. Breathing stops repeatedly throughout the night, depriving them of entering the sleep stages they really need to get benefits of sleep. Symptoms are like snoring, gasping, and never feeling well rested
• Obstructive apnea


  When there is something blocking air from reaching you during the night, leading to constant waking up
• Central apnea


  When something in the brain is triggering the stopping of breathing throughout the night
• Complex apnea


  Mix of obstructive and central sleep apnea
• Risk factors for sleep apnea

  • being a man
  • smoking
  • being overweight
  • Being older
  • Having a thick neck
  • Having a narrow airway
  • Nasal obstruction
• Treatment for sleep apnea depends on the cause, but is usually either losing weight or a CPAP
• CPAP (continuous positive air pressure)


  Mask hooked to a machine that forces oxygen into your lungs that you wear on your face while you're alseep to help with sleep apnea
• Norcolepsy


  Falling into uncontrollable REM sleep attacks during the day. Might be cataplexy or drowsiness. Could be triggered by emotions or things like eating. Can be dangerous. Genetic condition that is treated with meds and support because it's tough
• Cataplexy


  Muscle paralysis