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GEK 1064 Psychology in Everyday Life

Copyright 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2
Announcement & Reminder:
Quiz info
Date/Venue: 2014-3-21 (LT8)
Time: 10am
Duration: 1 hour
Format:

Things to note about the Quiz
Please be punctual. Quiz will start at 10am. Late-comers
will not be given extra time.
Know who your tutor is, and which tutorial group you are
in (e.g., D1-D5. E1 E7). Failure to fill in the info will be
penalized.
Please note the answering format for Section B.

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Fill-in-the-blank answer format:
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41. lateralization
42. serotonnin??
43. supercaiismatic nucleus???
44. transduction
45.
46. self-esteem
.
.
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50. geez dont know


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Sleep & Dreams
Our body clock: the suprachiasmatic
nucleus.
Circadian rhythm: How it affects us?
Sleep: Functions and benefits
Sleep: Stages of sleep
Sleep: How to ensure that you sleep well
Sleep disorders
Dreams: Functions and Meaning
Copyright 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 6
Sleep: An innate biological rhythm
How strong is our need to sleep?
A glimpse from sleep deprivation experience
Death could result from sleep deprivation.
Circadian Rhythms:
biological processes that occur repeatedly on
approximately a twenty-four hour cycle:
sleep-wake cycle.
body temperature
blood pressure
heart rate
hormonal secretions


Copyright 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 7
Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)
Our internal body clock
A small part of the
hypothalamus just
above the optic
chiasm.
Works by responding
to light that impinge
on the retina and in
turn stimulates the
pineal gland to
regulate the
production of
melatonin.
Copyright 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 8
When our circadian rhythm gets
disrupted
Being out of sync with circadian rhythm is one
reason for the unpleasant nature of shift-work (or
jetlag).

Doing shift-work is bad for your health:
Common complaints of sleepiness and sleeping difficulties.
Associated with heightened risk of stroke and heart attack
In 2007, WHO declared shift work as a probable ________.
Also associated with higher level of personal and family
stress, more mood problems, higher divorce rates.


Copyright 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 9
We are a sleep deprived society
People these days sleep about two hours less than their
counterparts 50 years ago.
A 2008 survey by the US National Sleep Foundation show that
adult gets 6 hours and 40 minutes of sleep on weekdays and 7
hours and 25 minutes on weekends.

When allowed to sleep unhindered, most people will sleep
around 9 hours and wake up feeling invigorated.

What happens if we are unable to pay our sleep debt?
We pay back in other forms, such as day-time drowsiness, lack of
focused attention and impaired learning and memory.
Research shows that losing two hours of sleep out of a possible
8hrs is equivalent to the sedative effect of drinking 2-3 beers.




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We sleep to conserve energy
To restore the body:
Prevent depletion of neurotransmitters and
allow them to build up (e.g., serotonin)
Return neurons to optimal level of sensitivity.
Makes our body more sensitive to
norepinephrine.
Bolster immune system.

The function of sleep
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Sleep consolidates our memories.
Sleep strengthens our memories.
Sleep helps to enhance our mood.
Through dreaming during our sleep, our brain
helps to find hidden relations among memories
and help to solve problems we were working on
while we were awake.
More recent research on the
function of sleep
PET scan of brain during REM sleep
Brain is just as active during REM sleep (left) as when we
are awake (right). Color indicates the level of activity, with
red indicating the most active areas and blue the least).
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The forces that pull you to
slumberland
What happens to your body just before
bedtime:
Body temperature plummets almost half a
degree from its mid-evening peak.
A surge in the production of melatonin
Adenosine has been building up in your brain.
You feel increasingly fatigue zzzzzzz
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The stages of sleepzzz
Four stages of sleep, progressing from light
to deep sleep.
Each stage of sleep characterized by unique
brain-wave patterns with different
amplitude and frequency.
Brain-wave measured by EEG
(electroencephalograph), using electrodes
attached to scalp to record tiny electrical
signals.
Stages of sleepzzz
Stage 3 and 4 sleep becomes less frequent as
the night progresses
REM Sleep
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
occupies 20% of an adults sleeping time
characterized by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and
eye movements
Dreaming mostly occurs in REM sleep. NREM sleep is
dream-free 90% of the time.
During REM sleep, our muscles are paralyzed
Therefore also known as paradoxical sleep because our brain
is most active but our muscles are paralyzed.
REM sleep behavior disorder
Copyright 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 18
Sleep Disturbances
Insomnia
Is insomnia only about the inability to fall asleep?
Sleep apnea
Person stops breathing hundreds of times in a night
without knowing.
It can be easily detected
It is usually worse during REM sleep
More commonly occurred among the obese.
Use of alcohol and sedative increase the chance of
developing sleep apnea.
Copyright 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 19
Sleep Disturbances
Narcolepsy: sudden attacks of extreme sleepiness
in the middle of the day.
Probably stem from a loss of neurons in the
hypothalamus that produce a neurotransmitter called
hypocretin.
Sleepwalking
Occurs during the NREM stage of sleep.
Often are unresponsive to people but condition varies.
Tendency to sleepwalk may be inherited, though stress
can increase its occurrence.
Should you awaken someone who is sleepwalking?
Are sleepwalkers acting out their dreams?

Getting a good nights sleep
Practical tips
Make your room conducive for sleeping.
Avoid physical exercise within 1-2 hour of your
bedtime because it stimulates you.
If you cant sleep after trying for 15 minutes, get
up and do something that you think will make
yourself tired enough to get to sleep.
Wind down and do something relaxing 30
minutes before bedtime.

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Copyright 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 21
The Function of Dreams
REM sleep serves to stimulate the brain during sleep to
promote its growth and development.
REM sleep constitutes 50% of newborn infants sleep.
Dreams allow consolidation of new information learned in
the day, by reprocessing them during sleep.
Research shows that the more REM sleep subjects get after
learning, the better they recall emotionally charged material.
Dreams help to repair our mood.
People experience more negative dreams at the beginning of the
night and progressively fewer in the later part of the sleep. Such
individuals usually wake up feeling better.


Copyright 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 22
The Function of Dreams
Dreams help us work through the problems that
we encounter in life.

Copyright 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 23
The Meaning of Dreams
Some see dreams as meaningful event
Unconscious wish fulfillment theory (Freud)
dreams represent unconscious desires
most of us surely dreamt about being naked in public.
-a gal writing in forum
Manifest vs. latent content of dreams
Dreams reflect events that are important to the dreamer.

Others see dreams as not meaningful
Activation-Synthesis theory (Hobson & colleagues)
the brain produces random electrical energy during REM sleep
that stimulates various portions of the brain, causing the
sleeper to experience sensation, memory, emotion, movement,
etc. The brain seeks to make sense of these experiences.



What do we dream about?
Are dreams mostly happy or sad?
Most of our dreams contain negative content.
Most common dream themes include falling, being attacked or
pusued, and guess what?
Are most dreams bizarre and strange?
Preteens seldom dream about opposite sex, but teenagers do.
Pregnant women have dreams with pregnancy theme.
Blind people often dream about difficulties in transportation.
Do men and womens dream differ?
Do we dream in color?
Do blind people have visual dreams?

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Copyright 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 25
The End