Sleep & Dreaming

• REM sleep


  Part of the sleep cycle with rapid eye movement when dreaming occurs
• Sleep cycle


  A nightly pattern of deep sleep, light sleep, and dreaming
• NREM sleep


  Non-rapid eye movement sleep (sleep stages 1-4)
• Sensory blockade


  During REM sleep, all incoming sensory information is stopped
• Neuron


  A nerve cell that transmits information
• Movement inhibition


  During REM sleep, when movement is prevented
• Sleep deprivation


  Not having enough sleep; this can affect physical functioning such as weight and brain functioning
• Circadian rhythms


  Human body rhythms that have a daily, 24 hour cycle, such as the sleep-wake cycle
• Sleep-wake cycle


  A circadian/daily rhythm generally triggered by the day-night cycle
• Ultradian rhythms


  Rhythms that occur in a period of less than 24 hours, such as a sleep cycle
• Endogenous


  Internal pacemakers; our biological clock
• Hormones


  Chemical messengers that take messages through the bloodstream
• Melatonin


  A hormone involved in setting circadian rhythms, including the sleep-wake cycle and blood pressure
• Pineal gland


  A small endocrine gland that produces melatonin. An endocrine gland produces a hormone that is secreted into the bloodstream
• Exogenous 


  External cues in the environment that affect our biological clock
• Zeitgebers


  External cues that synchronise our biological rhythms; for example, to a 24 hour clock
• Entrainment


  When biological rhythms are matched to their environmental triggers, such as circadian rhythms being set in response to external (light) cues
• Insomnia


  Problems with sleeping at night that cause difficulties during the day
• Narcolepsy


  The inability to control sleeping and waking, so experiencing involuntary daytime sleeping
• Symptoms of insomnia

  • Difficulty falling asleep
  • Waking during the night
  • Not feeling refreshed on waking
  • Feeling irritable and unable to concentrate
• Symptoms of narcolepsy

  • Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS)
  • Hallucinations & vivid dreams
  • Cataplexy
  • Sleep paralysis & abnormal REM sleep
• Cataplexy 


  Loss of muscle tone, triggered by an onset of strong emotions such as laughter
• Unconscious mind


  An inaccessible part of the mind that affects behaviour and feelings
• Id 'I want'


  The part of Freud's personality theory that is demanding
• Superego 'you can't have'


  The part of Freud's personality theory that is the conscience
• Ego


  The part of Freud's personality theory that is reasoning, to balance demands of the id and superego
• Manifest content


  The story the dreamer tells of what happens in a dream
• Latent content


  The deeper meaning behind what it is said the dream is about
• Dreamwork


  The transformation of unconscious thoughts into dream content
• Condensation (Freud's theory)


  Many ideas appear as one idea in a dream. These separate elements are important in uncovering repressed material, so the one idea needs to be unpicked
• Displacement (Freud's theory)


  In a dream, something unimportant seems to be important, shifting attention away from the important thing.
• Secondary elaboration (Freud's theory)


  Using muddled ideas from dreamwork to build a whole story. The mind will add bits to the dream in order for it to make sense.
• Psychosexual stages


  Freud's (1905) theory of child development
• Phallic stage


  The third stage of Freud's stages during which the Oedipus complex is worked through
• Oedipus complex


  Part of Freud's phallic stage; a boy has unconscious feelings for his mother and hates his father, who he sees as a rival and hears will castrate him
• Freud's psychosexual stages

  • Oral stage : 0-1, erogenous zone - mouth
  • Anal stage : 1-3, erogenous zone - bowel and bladder control
  • Phallic stage : 3-6, erogenous zone - genitals
  • Latent stage : 6-puberty, libido inactive
• Ergenous zone


  An area of the body that is particularly sensitive to stimulation