States of Consciousness

Sleep: It is a state of consciousness and that we are less aware of our surroundings

• conscious
• subconscious
• unconscious
  

Why do we daydreams?

• Help prepare for future events
• Nourish our social development
• Substitute for impulsive behavior

Fantansy Prone Personalities: Someone who imagines and recalls experiences with like vivdness and who spend considerate tme fantasizing

Biological Rhythms

• Annual cycles: seasonal variations
• 28 day cycles: menustrual cycle
• 24 hour cycle: our circadian rhythm
• 90 minute cycle: sleep cycles

Circadian Rhythm

• Our 24 hour biological clock
• Our body temperature and awareness changes throughout the day

Sleep of Consciousness

• 90 - 100 minutes to pass through 5 stages
• The brain's waves change according to the sleep stage you are in
• The firsts four stages; it is called NREM sleep
• The fifth stage is called REM sleep

Stage 1

• Kind of awake and kind of asleep
• Only lasts a few minutes, and you usually only experience it once a night
• Your brain produces Theta waves

Stage 2

• Follows stage 1 sleep and is the "baseline" of sleep
• This stage is part of the 90 minute cycle and occupies appromixately, 45 - 60% of sleep
• More Theta waves that get progressively slower

Stage 3-4

• Slow wave sleeo
• You produce Delta waves
• If awoken, you will be very groggy
• Vital for restoring body's growth hormone and good overrall health
• May last 15 - 30 minutes
• It is called "slow wave" sleep because brain activity slows down dramactically from the "theta" rhythm of stage 2 to a much slower rhythm called "delta" and the height of amplitude of the waves increases dramatically
• Contrary to popular belief, it is delta sleep that is the "deepest" stage of sleep (not REM) and the most restorative
• It is delta sleep that a sleep deprived person's brain craves the first and foremost
• In chldren, delta sleep can occupy up to 40% of all sleep time and this is what makes children unawakenable

REM Sleep

• Rapid eye movement
• Brain is very active
• Dreams usually occur in REM
• Body is essentially paralyzed
• Composes 20 - 25% of a normal nights sleep
• Breathing, heart rate and brain wave activity quicken
• Vivid dreams can occur
• From REM, you gback to stage 2

DREAMS

Dreams: a ssequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind

Manifest Content: the remembered storyline of a dream

Latent Content: The underlying meaning of a dream

Why do we dream?

Three Theories

Freud's Wish-Fulfillment Theory

• Dreams are the key to understanding our inner conflicts
• Ideas and thoughts that are hidden in our unconscious
• Manifest and latent content

Information Processing Theory

• Dreams act to sort out and understand the memories that you experience that day
• REM sleep does not increase after stressful events

Activation - Synthesis Theory

• During the night, our brain stem releases random neural activity, dreams may be a way to make sense of that activity