Psychology 3

Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

-Freud believed that sexual and aggressive instincts are the motivating forces that dictate human behavior. Because these instinctual urges are so consciously unacceptable, sexual and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and wishes are pushed into the unconscious, or repressed. However, Freud believed that these repressed urges and wishes could surface in dream imagery. -Dream interpretation played an important role in psychoanalysis, the psychotherapy Freud developed. Freud believed that because psychological defenses are reduced during sleep, frustrated sexual and aggressive wishes are expressed symbolically in dreams. "In every dream an instinctual wish has to be represented as fulfilled," - Freud (1904) believed that dreams have two components: the manifest content, or the dream images themselves, and the latent content, the disguised psychological meaning of the dream. For example, Freud (1911) believed that dream images of swords and other elongated objects were phallic symbols, representing the penis, while cupboards and ovens symbolized the vagina. -Furthermore, research does not support Freud's belief that the dream images themselves—the manifest content of dreams—are symbols that disguise the dream's true psychological meaning

Domhoff's neurocognitive theory.

-In contrast to the activation-synthesis model, the neurocognitive model of dreamingemphasizes the continuity between waking and dreaming cognition. According to William Domhoff (2005a, 2010, 2011), dreams are not a "cognitive mishmash" of random fragments of memories, images, and emotions generated by lower brainstem circuits, as the activation-synthesis model holds. Rather, dreams reflect our interests, personality, and individual worries (Nir & Tononi, 2010). Further, the activation-synthesis model rests on the assumption that dreams result from brain activation during REM sleep. However, as Domhoff and other dream researchers point out, people also dream during NREM sleep, at sleep onset, and even experience dreamlike episodes while awake but drowsy (Foulkes & Domhoff, 2014; Siclari & others, 2017). -Like dreams, Domhoff (2011) notes, waking thought can also be marked by spontaneous mental images, rapid shifts of scene or topic, and unrealistic or fanciful thoughts. Thus, dreams are not as foreign to our waking experience as the activation-synthesis model claims. Instead, dreams mirror our waking concerns, and do so in a way that is remarkably similar to normal thought processes (Foulkes & Domhoff, 2014)

Stage 1 sleep

-Light sleep -The brain emits alpha waves--> consistent with a relaxed state of wakefulness

Hobson's activation-synthesis hypothesis

-Researchers J. Allan Hobson and Robert W. McCarley first proposed a new model of dreaming in 1977. Called the activation-synthesis model of dreaming, this model maintains that dreaming is our subjective awareness of the brain's internally generated signals during sleep. Since it was first proposed, the model has evolved as new findings have been reported -According to the activation-synthesis model, dreams occur when brainstem circuits at the base of the brain activate and trigger higher brain regions, including visual, motor, and auditory pathways. Limbic system structures involved in emotion, such as the amygdala and hippocampus, are also activated during REM sleep. When we're awake, these brain structures and pathways process stimuli from the external world. But rather than responding to the external environment, the dreaming brain is responding to its own internally generated signals. In the absence of external sensory input, the activated brain combines, or synthesizes, these internally generated sensory signals and imposes meaning on them. According to this model, then, dreaming is essentially the brain synthesizing and integrating memory fragments, emotions, and sensations that are internally triggered. - Both emotional salience and the cognitive mishmash of dreams are the undisguised read-out of the dreaming brain's unique chemistry and physiology. This doesn't mean that dreams make no psychological sense. On the contrary, dreams are dripping with emotional salience. Dreams can and should be discussed for their informative messages about the emotional concerns of the dreamer. -According to the activation-synthesis model, dream images are not symbols to be decoded. Rather, the meaning of dreams can be uncovered by understanding the deeply personal way the dreamer, once awake, makes sense of the chaotic progression of dream images.

stage 3 sleep

A sleep characterized by slow brain waves, with greater peaks and valleys in the wave pattern than in stage 2 sleep.

stage 2 sleep

A sleep deeper than that of stage 1, characterized by a slower, more regular wave pattern, along with momentary interruptions of "sleep spindles."

Narcolepsy

A sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times.

Parasomnias

Abnormal behaviors such as nightmares or sleepwalking that occur during sleep.

nightmares

Anxiety-arousing dreams that lead to awakening, usually from REM sleep.

why is it important to understand your own circadian rhythm?

Circadian rhythms are linked to your body's internal clock and your sleep/wake cycle. Circadian rhythms are important in determining your natural sleeping and feeding patterns. Brain wave activity, hormone production, cell regeneration, and other important biological processes are determined by this cycle.

role of EEG in sleep cycle

In the deepest level of sleep, stage IV sleep, the predominant EEG activity consists of low frequency (1-4 Hz), high-amplitude fluctuations called delta waves, the characteristic slow waves for which this phase of sleep is named. The entire sequence from drowsiness to deep stage IV sleep usually takes about an hour.

sleep restriction

Limiting the total sleep time, which creates a temporary, mild state of sleep deprivation and strengthens the sleep homeostatic drive.

stage 5 sleep

REM sleep

REM sleep

Rapid eye movement sleep, a recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur. Also known as paradoxical sleep, because the muscles are relaxed (except for minor twitches) but other body systems are active.

sleep thinking

Repetitive, bland, and uncreative ruminations about real-life events during sleep

connection between sleep and memory

Research suggests that sleep helps learning and memory in two distinct ways. First, a sleep-deprived person cannot focus attention optimally and therefore cannot learn efficiently. Second, sleep itself has a role in the consolidation of memory, which is essential for learning new information.

suprachiasmatic nucleus and sunlight

Sunlight is perhaps the most apparent, controlling our daily sleep-wake schedule. ... As the sunlight decreases at the close of the day, the visual system sends signals to the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Next, the SCN sends signals to the pineal gland to increase the production of the hormone melatonin.

slepe restriction results

The study published in the journal SLEEP in 2003 found that chronic restriction of sleep to six hours or less per night for 14 consecutive days produced cognitive performance deficits equivalent to up to two nights of total sleep deprivation.

suprachiasmatic nucleus

a pair of cell clusters in the hypothalamus that controls circadian rhythm

sleep apnea

a sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings

myoclonic jerk

an involuntary muscle spasm of the whole body that jolts the person completely awake

sleep terrors

frightening dreamlike experiences that occur during the deepest stage of non-REM sleep, shortly after the child has gone to sleep

hypnagogic hallucinations

hallucinations that occur when going to sleep; seen in narcolepsy

consequences of disrupting circadian rhythm?

many common clinical scenarios disrupt our circadian rhythm, such as severe illness, stress, noise, surgery, sepsis, drugs, light at night etc. Based on current literature this could increase the risk for myocardial infarction, stroke, sepsis and obesity.

NREM sleep

non-rapid eye movement sleep; encompasses all sleep stages except for REM sleep

sleepwalking (somnambulism)

occurring during deep sleep, an episode of moving around or walking around in one's sleep

consciousness

our awareness of ourselves and our environment

Dreams

products of an altered state of consciousness in which images and fantasies are confused with reality

insomnia

recurring problems in falling or staying asleep

Dyssomnias

sleep disorders characterized by insomnia or excessive sleepiness

circadian rhythm

the biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle

stage 4 sleep

the deepest stage of sleep, during which we are least responsive to outside stimulation