SLEEP, DREAMS, & More(Exploring Consciousness)

Activity Assignment # 1
My Sleep Diary (Taken from Malley-Morrison & Yap, 2001) Using the provided hand-out, record your sleep experience for a week. After you have filled it out, search and suggest strategies for improving the quality of sleep.

My Sleep Diary
Mon How long did it take you to fall asleep last night? (in mins.) Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

How often did you wake up last night?

On average, how long did you stay awake each time you woke up? (in mins.) What time did you go to bed? Did you take any medications to help you sleep? (Y/N)

Did you have a nap yesterday during the day? If so, for how long? (in mins.)
What time did you wake up? What time did you get up? Using a scale of 1 to 5 to indicate how you felt when you woke up (1 = tired and groggy, and 5 = well-rested and full of pep). Using a scale of 1 to 5 to indicate the quality of your sleep (1 = slept very poorly or not at all, and 5 = slept extremely well and for an adequate length of time).

Activity Assignment # 2
Recording Daydreams (adapted from Jarvis, Nordstrom, & Williams, 2001, and Singer & Switzer, 1980)
Instructions: - Keep track of your daydreams over the next few days and explain how you might interpret the meaning of such dreams during the next class. - Carry a pad of paper or 3 5 cards and during idle moments of the daybefore class, waiting for the bus, during a coffee break, etc.recall and briefly record your daytime fantasies or what they have been thinking about.

 Consciousness: an organisms subjective awareness of internal and external events in its environment

States of Consciousness
Normal State of Consciousness Alert and aware

Alternative State of Consciousness

Sleep Dream Daydream

Altered State of Consciousness

Hypnosis Meditation Drug-altered Consciousness

Biological Rhythms

Circadian rhythms: occurs every 24 hours

Examples: sleep wake cycle Fluctuation of the body temperature (as a response to dark and light)

Infradian rhythms: occurs less often than once a day

Examples: Birds migration the female menstrual cycle

Ultradian rhythms: occur more often than once a day, frequently on roughly a 90-minute schedule.
Examples: physiological changes and behaviors during sleep (They include stomach contraction, hormone levels, susceptibility of visual illusions, performance on visual and spatial tasks, brain wave responses during specific cognitive tasks, alertness and daydreaming.)

 Sleep is a behavior AND an alternative state of consciousness We spend about a third of our lives in sleep.

Sleep

Sleep Stages
STAGE 1 As we lay with our eyes closed we are in an awake but highly relaxed state characterized by alpha waves (slow waves) being emitted from our brain. As we fall asleep, we have a 50% decrease in alpha wave activitysometimes referred to as drowsy sleep. During Stage 1 sleep, we often experience hallucinations: false sensory experiences. We may feel a sensation of falling or floating. 5 minutes

Sleep Stages
STAGE 2 After about 5 minutes in stage 1 sleep, you sleep into Stage 2 sleep which is characterized by Sleep Spindles: bursts of rapid, rhythmic, brain wave activity. Stage where you are clearly asleep, sleep talking can occur in this stage or any other later stage. 20 minutes

Sleep Stages
STAGE 3 Stage Three begins your descent into slow wave sleep. Delta Waves: (large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep) begin appearing in stage 3 but are increasingly apparent in Stage 4.

Sleep Stages
STAGE 4 Stage of deep sleep characterized by Delta Waves. Stage when you are hard to awakenbut still aware of stimuli around you. Stage at which children may wet the bed or sleep walk. Also experience night terrors.

Sleep Stages
R.E.M. Sleep (Paradoxical Sleep) After stage 4, your bodies cycles back to stage 3, stage 2, and into REM sleep. A Normal Sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes.

R.E.M. Sleep (Paradoxical Sleep)

R.E.M.: rapid eye movement sleep, stage where vivid dreams occur. Known as Paradoxical because muscles are relaxed yet body is highly active. Heart rate increases, Breathing more rapid, eyes dart behind lids. Genitals become aroused during R.E.M. sleep even when dreams are not sexual in nature. As sleep cycle continues, R.E.M. sleep gets longer and longer.

Brain Waves and Stages of Sleep

Myths of Sleep
Everyone needs 8 hrs of sleep per night to maintain good health Learning of complicated subjects such as calculus can be done during sleep Some people never dream Dreams last only a few seconds Genital arousal during sleep reflects dream content
It is unrelated to sexual content May be a useful index of physical versus psychological causes of impotence in males

Theories of Sleep
Repair/Restoration
Sleep allows for recuperation from physical, emotional, and intellectual fatigue

Survival Value
Sleep evolved to conserve energy and protect our ancestors from predators

Wish Fulfillment

Freuds DreamTheory
A.K.A.

Sometimes,a cigar is just a cigar.

- Freud, on the meaning of dreams

Psychoanalytic theory: Dreams represent disguised symbols of repressed desires and anxieties Manifest Content: symbols used to disguise true meaning of dream Latent Content: true unconscious meaning of a dream

WHY DO WE DREAM!?
Activation-synthesis hypothesis:
Dreams represent random activation of brain cells during REM sleep

Problem Solving
Dreams focus on the problems we have in an attempt to find a solution

Threat simulation
Dreams evolved to help us practice skills we need to avoid threats.

Sleep and Dream Disorders

1. Insomnia:
is a common sleep problem; it is the inability to sleep. Insomnia may involve a problem falling asleep, waking up during the night, or waking up too early.

Sleep and Dream Disorders

2. Somnambulism
is a formal term for sleep walking; it occurs during the deepest level of sleep. It occurs during stage 3 or 4 of sleep, a time when a person usually does not dream. more common among children. there is nothing abnormal about sleep walking.

Night Terrors Sleep and Dream Disorders

3. Night Terrors
Occur during late stage 4 sleep and are characterized by high arousal and an appearance of terror but are seldom remembered.

Sleep and Dream Disorders

4. Sleep Apnea:
sleep disorder characterized by a temporary stoppage of breathing during sleep and consequent momentary awakenings. Often complained about as snoring. Often interrupts deep sleep stages leaving person feeling exhausted.

Sleep and Dream Disorders

4. Nightmare is a frightening dream that awakens the sleeper from REM sleep.
Nightmares are common.

Hypnosis
Hypnosis- a social interaction in which one person ( the hypnotist) suggests to another ( the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts or behaviors will occur

Hypnosis

Can anyone Experience Hypnosis?

It depends on the subjects openness to suggestion

Hypnosis
Can Hypnosis Enhance Recall of Forgotten Events? Hypnosis does not help us recover accurate memories as far back as birth Highly hypnotizable ppl are especially venerable to false memory suggestions

Hypnosis Can hypnosis force people to act against their will? An authoritative person in a legitimate context can induce people- hypnotized or not- to perform some unlikely acts

Can Hypnosis Alleviate Pain

YES 10% of us can become so deeply hypnotized that even major surgery can be performed without anesthesia Dissociation- a split between levels of consciousness. Dissociate the sensation of the pain from the emotional suffering Selective Attention

Is Hypnosis an Altered State of Consciousness

Hypnosis as a social phenomenon Behaviors produced through hypnotic procedures can also be produced without them PPl. do what is expected of them

Hypnosis
Unhypnotized persons can also do this

Is Hypnosis an Altered State of Consciousness

Hypnosis As A Divided Consciousness Explains hypnosis not as a unique trance state where the subconscious is under control by the hypnotist but rather as a split in awareness caused by the subjective experience of hypnosis. Hilgards Experiment

Perspectives On Dissociation

Hilgards Hidden Observer

Hidden Observer: describes hypnotized subjects awareness of experiences, such as pain, that go unreported during hypnosis. Is a part of the person that has the experience.

Hypnosis Concepts: Can Hypnosis Have an Effect After The Session?

Posthypnotic Amnesia: supposed inability to recall what one experienced during hypnosis; induced by the hypnotists suggestion. You will no longer remember anything you experienced today. Posthypnotic Suggestion: a suggestion made during a hypnosis session that will be carried out after hypnosis session is over. You will no longer feel the need to smoke after this session is over.

Classroom Activity: Hypnotic Suggestibility

Instruction: Listen to the following vivid scenarios: Record your responses to each of the scenario on the hand-out provided for the activity:

1. Object Weight. Close your eyes, listen and respond to the following scenario: Close your eyes and hold both arms out in front of you, about a foot apart, with your palms facing up. Imagine now that you have your Psychology textbook in your right hand. Feel the weight of the bookyouve carried it before you know how heavy it is. It wasnt too heavy to start with but now you are noticing that your muscles in your right arm are really having to strain to hold the book at that level. It sure has a lot of pages in it. Its getting heavier and heavier. The muscles in your right arm are really beginning to quiver. Boy, are they tense. Its starting to feel like more than one book. It feels like three maybe fourall hardback books. The weight is forcing your hand lower and lower. Still, you try to keep it level. Its getting heavier and heavier. It feels like more and more weight is being placed on your right hand. You continue to feel your muscles quiver and shake in an attempt to balance the weight of what seems like a ton of books. Dont move your hands yet - just open your eyes. Take a look at both of your hands. Are they at the same height? Or is the right hand higher than the left one? How much difference is there between your hands? Indicate your responses on the handout.

Cont.Classroom Activity: Hypnotic Suggestibility

2. Lemon Taste. Close your eyes and visualize the following scenario: Imagine that it is a hot sultry day in August. You have just come in from outside. You are hot and your throat is parched. You reach into the refrigerator and pull out a lemon. The lemon is bright yellow, plump and almost bursting with juice. You cut a wedge off of the lemon and bite into it. The acidic juices of the lemon flood your mouth. Some of the juices escape, trickling down your chin. The sourness of the lemon almost takes your breath away. Your cheeks pucker and your eyes begin to water due to the tartness. The juices of the lemon mingle with the saliva coating your mouth. You swallow convulsively trying to rid your mouth of the sour taste. Open your eyes and indicate on the handout whether or not you begin to salivate.

Cont.Classroom Activity: Hypnotic Suggestibility

3. Sleepiness. Keep your eyes open and resist the impulse to close your eyes while I read the following: Open your eyes and stare at the focal point depicted on the screen in front of you. Keep both eyes open. I know you are getting tired and your eyelids are beginning to drop. Try to keep them open. Dont let them close. It feels like weights are attached to them, trying to pull them closed. The muscles around your eyes are getting tighter and tenser as they try to keep your eyes open. You can feel this incredible force that wants to close them. It feels like someone has tied strings on your eyelids and attached huge weights to them. They are pulling down down down. You try to keep them open to stay alert, but the force is overwhelming. The weights on the eyelids are so heavy. The eyelids are beginning to quiver under all of the weight. Theyve never had so much weight on them. The muscles around the eyes are shaking as you try to keep them open. The force is overwhelming. You dont know how long you can take it without closing your eyes. Fortunately, this task is now over. Did you feel your eyes close? Indicate your response by circling the appropriate box on the handout.

Cont.Classroom Activity: Hypnotic Suggestibility

4. Muscle Activity. Interlock your fingers, with fingers inward. Then, expose your two index fingers and point them straight up. Record on the handout how many inches the two fingertips are apart. Then, listen to the following: Now, interlock your fingers and expose the two index fingers the way you just had them...watch your two index fingers... imagine there is a magnet inside each fingertip... notice they are pulling together as they attract one another. They are really starting to pull together. You are doing everything you can to keep them straight and parallel, but the tips of your fingers keep pulling together. You can feel the magnetic force. Its getting stronger and stronger. You dont know how long you will be able to resist just letting the fingers spring toward one another. Feel the tension, resist it with all your effort. Its getting harder... you can feel the force of the magnetism. It seems to be increasing pulling your fingertips together closer and closer and closer! It feels like there is nothing you can do to keep them apart. Its like the entire gravitational pull of the world is pulling them together. The magnetic force is incredible. The muscles in your hands are getting tighter and tighter in their attempt to resist the power of the magnets in the fingertips. Now, estimate the distance between your two fingers again. Separate your hands and record your response on the handout.

Hypnotic Suggestion
Demonstration 1: Object Weight Estimated number of inches apart: Juice Increased salivation? Demonstration 2:

YES

NO

Demonstration 3:

Sleepiness Eye blink?

Muscle Activity

YES

NO

Demonstration 4:

Estimated distance between index fingers at start ________ Estimated distance between index fingers at end ________