Psychology — S&D

• EEG machines


  Sure brain activity
• Stages of sleep


  1. Go through repeatedly

  2. At different times in the sleep cycle
• REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep


  • Dreaming takes place
  • Occurs about 4 or 5 times a night
• Sensory blockade


  Occurs during sleep
• Prolonged periods without REM sleep

  Can cause difficulty concentrating and paranoia
• Ultradian rhythms


  Periods of peaks and valleys in patterns of behaviours like sleep
• Circadian rhythms


  Cycles that occur once daily, such as the sleep-wake cycle
• Photoreceptive clock cells


  Help control circadian rhythms
• Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)


  Responsible for controlling circadian rhythm and triggering the release of hormones to regulate the body's natural cycle
• Stress (CRH)


  Can interfere with SCN
• External influences


  • Light-sensitive cells in the retina help us govern when it's day/night
  • Time cues (Zeitgebers) such as light, meals
• Sleep disorders are not related to any other problem but are problems in themselves, such as insomnia
• Secondary sleep disturbances


  Stem from another problem e.g. panic attacks
• Common sleep disorders


  • Insomnia (inability to go to/stay asleep)
  • Hypersomnia (excessive daytime sleepiness)
  • Parasomnias (abnormal behaviours during sleep)
• Parasomnias


  Happen when the brain and body become partially activated during sleep, such as sleepwalking
• REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD)

  Muscle paralysis is not reinstated during REM sleep
• Cataplexy


  Causes people to experience sudden, uncontrollable episodes of muscle weakness or paralysis triggered by strong emotions
• Type 1 narcolepsy


  Involves excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy
• Type 2 narcolepsy


  Involves excessive daytime sleepiness, but usually not cataplexy, and no hypocretin deficiency
• Hypocretin


  Promotes wakefulness and regulates REM sleep
• Secondary narcolepsy


  Can result from an injury to the hypothalamus
• Sleep disorder clinics


  Use polysomnography, blood testing and temperature monitoring to assess and diagnose sleep problems
• EEG


  Can be used to study a person's sleep cycle
• CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)

  For insomnia, helps identify and replace thoughts and behaviours that worsen sleep problems with habits that promote sound sleep
• Dreams are a large part of the mind that is inaccessible and some of what is held in the unconscious is helpful for not dealing with certain things
• Dreams represent the activity of the mind when we are dreaming - processing the day's events
• Condensation


  When one symbol represents many thoughts and converts from the unconscious
• Displacement


  When something in the dream that appears unimportant becomes more central, indifferent
• Secondary elaboration


  How a dream builds arguments selling this dreams, with funded and change rationally clips more difficulty
• Freud's case study of Little Hans - a 3 year old with a phobia of horses
• Freud believed Little Hans' dreams were linked to the Oedipus complex - attraction to mother, jealousy of father
• Hobson and McCarley's activation-synthesis model - dreams are a result of random neural activity in the brain during REM sleep
• Hobson and McCarley's model explains why dreams seem to have meaning - they come from neural activations that have specific purposes when the person is awake