Basic Psyche of Sleep
psychology jabber without the blabber
Key: Bold: Vocabulary
Consciousness can be described as a continuum that ranges from full awareness to deep sleep.
A biological rhythm is a are internal cycles of biological activities.
A circadian rhythm are biological rhythms that take place of 24 hours.
EX: light - dark wake-sleep rhythm.
Suprachiasmatic nucleus is located in the hypothalamus and has light sensitive axons connected to the retina that absorb amounts of light present to allow the internal clock to synchronize.
The pineal gland located inside the brain, part of the endocrine system releases the chemical melatonin for sleep when dark is detected.
As you may have already suspected, some people don't sleep during the night and that is due to chronotype and sleep regulations.
Chronotypes are natural inclination for the times of which one sleep or is alert.
Sleep regulations refers to the control the brain has in switching from wakefulness and sleep.
Sleep rebound refers to the fact that a sleep deprived individual will fall sleep faster during periods on inactivity.
Sleep-wake cycles are controlled by the thalamus, hypothalamus, scn, and pons.
Sleep is associated with secretion of melatonin, follicle stimulating hormones' FSH, luteinizing hormones' and growth hormones'.
Stages of Sleep
1. Stage 1 sleep - you are drifting off to sleep and your EEG (electroencephalography) will read a even tempo high amp electrical activity. Alpha
2. Stage 2 Sleep - the body goes into a relaxation where the body may have bursts of high frequenices or K complex frequencies that are high bursts of electrical energy either due to external stimuli or internal learning and memory. Theta
3. Stage 3 Deep Sleep; usually one doesn't feel refreshed after sleeping no matter how long they have sleep. Delta waves. You have low frequency (occuring between longer intervals) high amplitude (stronger electrical pulse) readings on your EEG.
4. REM Sleep is defined as Rapid eye movement sleep because the eyes dart around during this stage and your bodie electrical activity is shown to be as if you are awake, but muslce movemnt is restricted except to those of breathing and ciruclation.
Watch this short 2minute Video that describe the sleep cycle.
Neuroscientifically Challenged, 2018, youtube.com
Dreams are still being researched.
Manifest content are they storylines of our dreams. Latent content are the "meaning" behind our dreams. Lucid dreams are dreams where we are aware and can control.
Dreams are said to be a virtual environment created by the brain to enact certain bodily processes, or reflexes that could only happen if we were awake.
Documented Problem/Disorders
Insomnia - the inability to fall asleep for a period 3 days per week within a one month period.
Parasomnia - including sleepwalking, restless leg syndrome and night terrors.
Sleepwalking(parasomnia) - aka somnambulism; where a sleeper engages in complex physical activity with their eyes open but with no ability to respond.
Restless leg syndrome - linked to diabetes and other diseases and is usually alleviated by moving around, but becomes a problem because you cant sleep if your still moving around.
Sleep Apnea - Obstructive Sleep apnea is when something is blocking your airway and you can't breathe when your sleeping, central sleep apnea is when their is a disconnection between your brain signals and your other systems and you stop breathing.
Sudden infant death syndrome - related to infants dying during sleep but has been reduced due to environmental changes such as not smoking when an infant sleeps, and not having things in the crib. Boys are more likely to die from this than girls.
Narcolepsy - falling asleep at inopportune times due to muscle weakness.
There is a wide range of illegal and abusive drugs that alter the state of consciousness that we will not discuss here.
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Everything you need to know about sleep basics in psychology. Contact me if you have an questions, or always when in doubt, Google it!
About the Creator
EZ College Notes
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