SLEEPING AND DREAMING

• Sleep


  A condition of body and mind which typically recurs for several hours every night, in which the nervous system is inactive, the eyes closed, the postural muscles relaxed, and consciousness practically suspended
• Stages of sleep

  • NREM Sleep
  • REM Sleep
• Stage 1 (NREM)

  • Light sleep, can be easily woken up. Muscles are less active, slow eye movements. Sense of falling is common or sudden muscle jerk. Alpha brain activity is resting and theta shows periods between wake and sleep
• Stage 2 (NREM)

  • Eye movements stop, Body temperature drops and heart rates slows. Relatively easy to wake up. Theta brainwaves slow down but bursts of brain activity (spindles)
• Stage 3 (NREM)

  • Stage is between light and deep sleep. Body repairs itself. Heart and breathing rate continue to fall. Difficult to wake up. Slow delta and some faster waves
• Stage 4 (NREM)

  • Hard to wake up (Cataplesy). No eye movements. Can experience sleepwalking or night terrors. All delta waves are slow
• REM sleep

  • Deepest stage of sleep, people spend approx. 2 hours dreaming. Irregular breathing, Eyes jerking, Movement inhibition (paralysed muscles), an increase in heart rate and blood pressure and dreaming. Sensory blockade (all incoming sensory information is stopped). Adults spend approx 20% of sleep in this stage compared to Infants who spend approx 50%
• Dement and Kleitman (1957) found that people report dreams when woken during REM so dreaming takes place during however others reported dreams when woken during NREM
• Other effects of having too little sleep

  • Memory & attention problems
  • A weakening of your immune system
  • Increased risk of motor vehicle accidents
  • Increase in BMI (increased risk of obesity due to increased appetite)
  • Increased risk for depression & substance abuse
• Circadian rhythm

  Around a day rhythm up to 24 hours E.g. Sleep wake cycle (period of being asleep and awake) and Body temperature
• Ultradian rhythm

  Lasting less than 24 hours E.g. The sleep cycle (period of being asleep approx 8 hours), Appetite, Blood circulation
• Internal Endogenous Pacemakers

  • Your suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) is responsible for controlling your circadian rhythm. It releases melatonin which helps your body realise its natural cycle. Your hormones can affect this cycle. When we are under stress, a hormone called adrenocortiotropic hormone (ACTH) is released from your pituitary gland which makes you feel more alert and releases cortisol. This interferes with your SCN trying to make its circadian rhythm. Melatonin can also affect your SCN, in a good way. This is released by the pineal gland when it's dark. It helps to synchronise your circadian rhythm
• External Exogenous Zeitgebers

  • The main influence is light. When light shines into our eyes, our sensitive cells in our retina help us govern whether it is day or night. Light helps us to know when to get up. External factors consist of cues such as food, light and time cues. Time cues help too, lunch and dinner times help our body to understand what the time is
• Jet lag and shift work interfere with this!
• Study 1: Siffre (1975)


  • Aims: 1) To see how people would get on when travelling through space where they could be isolated and would not have external zeitgebers. 2) To see what his natural sleep wake cycle was when deprived of external cues. Procedure: Siffre went into a cave in USA on 14th February 1972. He had a tent on a wooden platform, with a bed, a table and a chair. He had frozen food to eat and enough water to sustain him. Siffre completed different task such as: Every time Siffre woke he phone his team of researchers to put the lights on, He took his blood pressure, Siffre went through memory and physical tasks such as riding a bicycle and did target practice with a gun, He called 'night' the period he felt tired and the researchers would turn off the lights. Findings: Siffre became depressed and upset at his lack of freedom. He became desperate for companionship; Siffre trapped a mouse to end his loneliness. His record player was broke and his books became damaged by damp and he became to think about suicide. His eyesight became worse similar to his mental health. During the experiment he wanted to leave and his short-term memory was affected. A similar effect was reported by astronauts when in space. He did not get the 'days and nights' right. His periods of sleep-wake were longer than 24 hours. At first his sleep-wake cycle was longer than 24 hours. The cycle became varied as the study went on. His sleep-cycle would vary from 18-52 hours. Conclusions: Siffre's body clock might be manageable without external zeitgebers. However the period of confined space was not manageable. Astronauts would need companionship
• Strengths of Siffre (1975)

  • Qualitative data was collected which is in depth and provides lots of detail
  • The study was longitudinal (conducted over a long period of time) so he can collect lots of information about his sleep-wake cycle
• Weaknesses of Siffre (1975)

  • The lights would have affected Siffre's internal body clock, acting as cues
  • This was a case study and can not be generalised to the wider population
  • Siffre suffered from psychological and physical harm
• Primary sleep disorders

  Sleep being the main problem
• Secondary sleep disorders

  Sleep being the symptom of another issue
• Insomnia

  • 1/3 people are affected, Difficulty falling asleep/ keep waking up, Chronic insomnia last around 3 months
• Explaining Insomnia

  • Lifestyle: Jet lag, shift work
  • Health conditions: Depression, heart conditions
  • Medication, food and drink: Neurotransmitters and hormones, Caffeine, diet pills, smoking and alcohol
• Narcolepsy

  • A person has NO control over their sleep – wake cycle, Can fall asleep suddenly, 1/2000 people, It is neurological, Symptoms include: Excessive sleepiness, Hallucinations, Cataplexy and Sleep paralysis
• Explaining Narcolepsy

  • Brain chemicals: Lack of Hypocretin (AKA Orexin) lead to excessive sleepiness
  • Genes: 10% have other family members with it. Variations in chromosome 6 called HLA complex
  • Stress: Barker (1948) found a link between stress and narcolepsy
  • Evolution: Muscle paralysis is a survival characteristic
• Freud's theory of dreaming

  Sigmund Freud was a medical doctor in the early 1900's, Freud believed that mental health issues could be anxieties, which, through talking about them, could be 'released', Anxieties are repressed in the unconscious mind (an inaccessible part of the brain that holds hidden wishes and desires). This is different to the conscious (being consciously aware) and the pre-conscious/subconscious (being made consciously aware through thinking)
• Iceberg model

  ID: Pleasure principle 'I want', Ego: Reality principle – tries to balance the drives of the ID and the superego, Superego: The moral principle 'what will society think?'
• Manifest content

  The story that is told in a dream
• Latent content

  The deeper meaning behind what has been said in a dream
• Dreamwork

  • Condensation: Using muddled ideas to build a whole story, Displacement: Something unimportant seems important, Secondary elaboration: Many ideas appear as one idea
• Symbols

  Freud interpreted dreams using symbols. The same feature could have different symbolic meaning for different people. A psychoanalyst (someone who analyses dreams) has to know a person's history and situation to interpret dreams
• Study 2: Freud Little Hans: Analysis of a phobia in a young boy

  • Background: Freud believed that by analysing underlying thoughts an individual's mental health issues can be cured. Freud wanted to find evidence for the psychosexual stages whereby in the Phallic stage (3-5 years) gender behaviours are shown such as the Oedipus complex and the only way to resolve these anxieties is through identification with a same sex parent. Aims: 1. Help the individual (Little Hans) 2. Build evidence for his theory (Psychosexual stages). Procedure: Hans's Parents logged Little Hans's development since 3 years old. Freud met Hans a few times so Little Hans was aware that he was being studied and sent messages through his parents. Freud focused on three features: 1.Studying Hans's dreams (unconscious thoughts causing phobia) 2.What Hans said 3.Hans's phobia of horses. From this information Freud would listen to his dreams and consider how the issues and symbols uncover his desires (psychoanalysis). Findings: Little Hans's phobia of horses: Freud was interested in why Hans's had a phobia of horses. Hans was afraid that horses would fall down and die in front of him. Freud later found out that this was an experience of Little Hans. The horse in Little Hans's dreams had black bits around their mouth. Freud believed that the horse represented Hans's father and the black bits around the horses mouth represented Han's father's mustache. Freud believed that this is evidence for the oedipus complex because it shows that Hans has anxiety because of his father possible because Hans desired his mother. Little Hans's early dream: Hans had a dream that he did not have a mother. This made Hans anxious as he was worried he would lose his mother. Freud believed that this supported the oedipus complex as he was anxious about losing his mother who he unconsciously desired. The giraffe dream: Hans had a dream that a large giraffe shouted at Hans for taking away the crumpled giraffe. Freud and Han's father interpreted the large giraffe as a large penis because of their long neck however he then decided that the large giraffe represented Hans's father and the crumpled giraffe was Hans's mother. So, Hans's father shouted at Hans for taking away his mother from his father. Freud believed that this is evidence for the oedipus complex because Hans was anxious that he would be told off by his father for taking away his mother who he unconsciously desired. Conclusion: The findings show support for Freud's theory (the Oedipus complex in the phallic stages was supported) Freud believed that the horse represented Hans's father and fear showed the Oedipus complex in action
• Strengths of Freud's Little Hans study

  • Validiity: Qualitative data was collected which is rich in detail and provides indepth information about Little Hans's dreams and phobias. This increases the validity of the results
  • Real world application: The results can be applied to real life settings for example psychoanalysis can be used to treat phobias
• Weaknesses of Freud's Little Hans study

  • Generalisability: The study is not generalisable because it is a case study and so the results can not represent the wider population
  • Validity: The data collected was interpreted by Freud and Hans's father which could be biased – this reduces the validity of the results
  • Ethics: Little Hans may have suffered from psychological harm having to talk about this phobias
• Activation Synthesis Theory – Hobson and McCarley


  • During REM sleep (when dreaming occurs) the brain is active and our muscles are paralysed. Sensory information is not coming into our brain either so what are dreams? Hobson and McCarley suggested that the neurons are randomly firing which releases neurochemicals through are neurons. Our brain generates 'nonsense' and then automatically tries to make sense out of it!
• Strengths of Activation Synthesis theory of dreaming

  • There is evidence for activation synthesis theory – PET scans reveal that cats brains are highly active when they sleep demonstrating that the brain is actually active during REM sleep
• Weaknesses of Activation Synthesis theory of dreaming

  • The models is very old and is being built upon – Further investigation has lead to AIM theory (activation, input and output prevention and modulation) instead which examines how conscious our brain actually is!
  • There is other evidence for our dreams – It has been found that 66% of dreams make some sense to what people have experienced that day
  • Using animals means. This means that it is not generalisable to humans…..and there are some ethics involved