Wednesday September 11 Chapter 5 Consciousness awareness of self and surrounding through internal thoughts and self who you consider yourself to be and external stimuli o Internal Stimuli your thoughts and self who you consider yourself to be o External Stimuli anything occurring around you that provokes thought Biological Rhythm periodic fluctuations in physiological functioning o Circadian Rhythm The bodies 24 hour biological rhythm Physiological Pathway the bodies biological clock o Light levels hit your retina to the SCN of the hypothalamus to the pineal glands that secrete melatonin More melatonin more likely to sleep Easier to sleep in complete darkness o Ascending Reticular Activating System pathway that lets you know if it s day or night out If ARAS is damaged we could sleep for days If ARAS is stimulated electric pulse we couldn t sleep at all Physiological Aspects of Sleep o Body temperature goes down when we sleep and goes up when we wake up o Breathing and skeletal activity slows down EEG patterns EEG Patterns Waves Beta Typical States of consciousness Normal waking thought alert Alpha problem solving Deep relaxation blank mind Theta Delta mediation Light sleep Deep sleep Sleep stages o Stage 1 brief transition stage lasting anywhere from 4 7 minutes Experience hypnic jerks brief muscular contractions Brain activity resembles theta waves o Stage 2 lasts anywhere from 10 25 minutes Experience sleep spindles brief bursts of higher frequency brain waves Brain activity is between theta waves and delta waves o Stage 3 4 combined and known as Slow Wave Sleep SWS Last about 30 minutes Brain activity resembles delta waves high amplitude and low frequency brain waves have delta waves It is very difficult to wake someone in SWS o After stage 3 4 you start to come out of sleep but go into REM Rapid Eye Movement sleep stage in which you experience the most vivid dreams REM sleep is also called paradoxical sleep because the body is sound asleep while our brain is wide awake Our muscles are the most relaxed almost paralyzed but our heart rate and blood pressure go up Young adults spend about 20 25 of the night in REM sleep REM cycles occur every 90 minutes see chart in book Nightmare vs Night Terror o Nightmare merely a bad dream experience during REM sleep o Night Terror waking from stage 3 4 sleep in a sheer terror Benefits of Sleep o Better immune functioning o Helps psychologically and hormonally fight obesity and resulting problems o Memory consolidation makes recently stored memories more durable and more stable o Improves problem solving and creativity Benefits of REM and Slow wave sleep o Our body needs both REM sleep and SWS 8 hours of interrupted sleep does not equal 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep REM Rebound Our body will get to REM sleep faster and spend a longer time there if it is deprived of it SWS Rebound SWS rebounds after REM sleep Sleep Aging starting from age 20 o Proportion of SWS goes down but REM stays the same as age increases o Older people can tolerate sleep deprivation better than younger people o Older people are worse with jet lag or any kind of shift in sleep patterns Test hint Don t need to know key term dissociation or table 5 3