SLEEPING & DREAMING Unit 2C: States of Consciousness

Brain States and Consciousness 1. Consciousness  Awareness of self & environment  Sleeping, daydreaming, hypnosis, drug induced hallucinating, mediation 2. Selective attention  Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus  We are NOT good multi-taskers  Attend well to 1 thing at a time 3. Inattentional blindness  Failure to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere  This happens when we are selectively attending to something in our environment (basketball/gorilla) ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS Yuri Arcurs / INSADCO Photography / Alamy

Clowning Around HARD TO MISS? Would you notice a clown unicycling past you on campus? In this study, most students on cell phones did not notice the clown; students who were off the phone generally did notice. Hyman, et al, 2009

CHANGE BLINDNESS While a man (white hair) provides directions to a construction worker, two experimenters rudely pass between them carrying a door. During this interruption, the original worker switches places with another person wearing different colored clothing. Most people, focused on their direction giving, do not notice the switch. 4. Change Blindness: While focusing your attention on something else you do not notice unimportant changes in stimuli.

READ PAGES AND DEFINE TERMS 5. CIRCADIAN RHYTHM 6. REM 7. REM REBOUND 8. CHART ON PAGE 52 (2.31) HOMEWORK

DIRECTIONS Dream Analysis Report

Explain three attentional principles that magicians may use to fool us. Our selective attention allows us to focus on only a limited portion of our surroundings. Inattentional blindness explains why we don’t perceive some things when we are distracted by others. And change blindness happens when we fail to notice a relatively unimportant change in our environment. All these principles help magicians fool us, as they direct our attention elsewhere to perform their tricks.

Sleep and Dreams 5. Circadian rhythm  Internal biological clock of 24-hour cycle of day and night  Altered by age and experience

6. REM (rapid eye movement)  Recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur  Paradoxical sleep 7. REM rebound  Tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation

Sleep Brain waves and sleep stages  The beta waves of an alert, waking state and the regular alpha waves of an awake, relaxed state differ from the slower, larger delta waves of deep Stage 3&4 sleep  Although the rapid REM sleep waves resemble the near- waking NREM-1 sleep waves, the body is more aroused during REM sleep than during NREM sleep 8.

MEASURING SLEEP ACTIVITY As this man sleeps, attached electrodes are picking up weak electrical signals from his brain, eyes, and facial muscles. (From Dement, 1978.) Hank Morgan / Science Source

9. Sleep  Periodic, natural loss of consciousness—as distinct from unconsciousness resulting from a coma, general anesthesia, or hibernation

10. Sleep Stages (chart) Typical Nights Sleep

Typical Nights Sleep

What are the five sleep stages, and in what order do we normally travel through those stages? Can you match the cognitive experience with the sleep stage? 1. Stage 1a. story-like dreams 2. Stage 3&4b. fleeing images 3. REMc. minimal awareness

11. Sleep Theories Possible reasons why sleep evolved  Sleep protects  Sleep helps us recover  Sleep helps us remember  Sleep feeds creative thinking  Sleep supports growth

What five theories explain our need for sleep?

Sleep Deprivation and Sleep Disorders 12. Effects of sleep loss  Slows reactions  Increases errors on visual attention tasks  Reduced concentration that may lead to “cyber- loafing”  Immune system depression  Risk of depression SLEEPLESS AND SUFFERING These fatigued, sleep-deprived earthquake rescue workers in China may experience a depressed immune system, impaired concentration, and greater vulnerability to accidents. Uriel Sinai/ Getty Images

HOW SLEEP DEPRIVATION AFFECTS US

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS On the Monday after the spring time change, when people lose one hour of sleep, accidents increased, as compared with the Monday before. In the fall, traffic accidents normally increase because of greater snow, ice, and darkness, but they diminished after the time change.

Sleep: Major Disorders 13. Insomnia  Recurring problems in falling or staying asleep 14. Narcolepsy  Sleep disorder in which a person has uncontrollable sleep attacks, sometimes lapsing directly into REM sleep 15. Sleep apnea  Sleep disorder in which a sleeping person repeatedly stops breathing until blood oxygen is so low it awakens the person just long enough to draw a breath

16. Better Night’s Sleep?

Dreams 17. Dream  Sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind 18. Manifest content  According to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream 19. Latent content  According to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream

Dreams 20. Why we dream To satisfy our own wishes To file away memories To develop and preserve neural pathways To make sense of neural static To reflect cognitive development 2-18 What do we dream about, and what are five theories of why we dream?

What five theories explain why we dream?