Secreted during
dark hours and keeps
sleep-wake cycle going...-Melatonin also affects sexual activity cycle in hamsters.
Circadian rhythm - a biological rhythm with a period of about 24 hours - latin 'circa' about 'dies' day and are affected by all sorts of environment cues.
Entrainment occurs where biological rhythms are synchronised with external cues, such as daylight.
-Studies in bunkers or caves (living without time cues) lead to "free-running" rhythms. Usually get 18 to 36 hours.
Cycle is normally controlled
by SCN suprachiasmatic nucleus of hypothalamus-
information from eyes. Leads to changes in levels of melatonin
from pineal gland. Secreted during
dark hours and keeps
sleep-wake cycle going...
-Melatonin
also affects sexual activity cycle in hamsters.
-Blind people often have disrupted sleep-wake cycles, insomnia.
Internal desynchronisation
often
occurs with (jet lag or daylight savings time - where it's easier to shift
west or late)
-affects energy level, mental
skills, motor coordination
-use bright lights
or melatonin to 'reset clock.'
Mistleberger (1991) found genetic
differences
- night owls vs. early birds
-Melatonin supplements - treat insomnia as in older people who have a decline in levels of melatonin and sleep.
Why
Do We Sleep?
Offering "time-out" period
to restore reserves of energy,
eliminate waste, repair cells,
strengthen immune system.
Sleep Deprivation
Can function on sleep
deprivation 
for 1 day, but 4 days is unbearable. Yet, don't need to
make up all of deprived sleep. ?
Mental flexibility, attention,
and creativity are affected by sleep loss. Eg., several days - irritable,
hallucinations, and delusions (car accidents)
Seems to play a role in learning & memory, 'mental housekeeping' and consolidation of memory. Reinforcement of daily activities.
The
various types of sleep
1950's - started to study
electrical activity of the brain during sleep and discovered REM using
EEG
(now several
measures) 
Chart
The 4 Stages of Sleep
Start with wakefulness move
into alpha waves (8-12 cps) are relatively large, slow brain waves characteristic
of relaxed wakefulness. (eyes closed)
. RAS is involved in
sleep regulation
Stage 1) Brainwaves
become
small & irregular - drifting off into light sleep - may have a few
visual images, or myoclonic jerks - (eg. when leg jolts your body)
Stage 2) Occasional
bursts or "sleep spindles"
are emitted and are
not stirred by minor noises
Stage 3) Mix of stage 2 sleep waves and the slow delta waves of deeper sleep emerge. Hard to arouse, breathing and pulse are slowed muscles are relaxed.
Stage 4) Delta wave have taken over now in "Deep Sleep" need vigorous shaking, loud noise to be awakened. Sleep walking and sleep talking usually occur here - quite common, especially among children. Some dreams, but not vivid.
It usually takes about 30 -
45 minutes to go through these stages. Changes in sleeps
patterns
Go back through entire sleep
cycle several times throughout a regular night, where stages 3 & 4
diminish or disappear and REM increases in time to 30-60 minutes.
REM sleep involves
rapid
bursts Paradoxical
sleep because brain is very active and most of body is paralyzed
Dreams are carried out over
a period of time roughly equivalent to real time, if awaken during REM
early in night get short reports, late get long reports
Purpose of REM sleep? unknown,
but get a rebound
across human development
of brain waves, Heart Rate increases with blood pressure, breathing
becomes faster and more irregular, may have twitches in face and hands,
genitals engorged.
Dreaming is most common here
if REM is deprived and is common among mammals in cats,
dogs, dolphins, porpoises, anteaters. Learning
and memory
Consolidation
Dreams and Theories of Dreaming
Dreams vary tremendously across people & across nights in terms of content, structure & actually remembering.
Lucid Dreams - dreams in which one is aware of dreaming. video how to
-Consciousness of the dream and often able to control or change the nature or the dream or what happens next.
-Skilled lucid dreamers can
move eyes with actions.
(suggests that eyes follow
actions for other dreamers)
Theories
of Dreaming
I.
Dreams as Unconscious wishes
Freud (1900) - Interpretation
of Dreams is the "Royal Road to the Unconscious"
Libido - psychosexual energy is expressed in dreams creating events that are unacceptable to the normal conscious mind. (ie., penis is symbolised as umbrella, snake, cigar and vagina as a tunnel, cave, door)
Latent Content - the deep unconscious wishes that are the sources of dreams
Manifest content-
expressed
dreams as we experience them consciously or semi-consciously
II.
Dreams as problem solving
Working out problems of everyday
life - emotional etc.
During crisis or stress may
have more vivid / 'wild' dreams
Carl Gustav
Jung
(1875-1961)
Dreams are expressions of
our personal complexes of thought and emotion in the psyche as well as
the archetypes of the collective unconscious which are present in
myths.
doc 1
doc 2
wisdom of dreams
Transference & Archetypes
cgj1
cgj2
cgj3
Mother - may arise in response to a real 'mother figure' or a "divine" one. Can be positive or negative , light (fairy) or dark (witch), both loving and terrible.
Hero - has opposite (the demon) usually involves some moral victory (often symbolised as slaying a dragon), also needs to suffer before realising 'mission' of helping or saving. Joseph Campbell Star Wars
Shadow - the 'dark half' of personality where 'repressed' desires, motives, ideas, ... are banished. In mythology it is often represented by the demon or devil. {See video} - opposite of persona (mask) sometime revealed through rituals like Halloween
-It is important to accept or recognise these 'weaker' aspects of our self, balancing with the ego rather than leading to its dissociation and the fractionation of the self.
Trickster -Magicians or tricksters are common among American Native mythologies and in Africa and India. Usually joking or playing pranks, the trickster has a dual nature, presenting himself in one forms then another, or half animal half human.
Synchronicity occurs
when events arise simultaneously in a meaningful fashion, such as when
an archetype emerges in the collective unconscious of number of people.
Dream similar images without real contact.
JDB
III.
Dreams as by-product of mental trashing
Process, assimilate &
integrate new information - get rid of unwanted info
Crick & Mitchison (1995) REM is "reverse learning" un-needed associations are broken - where dreams are 'mental garbage'
Appear to have a critical period
for REM to help in memory consolidation (eg.,
Israeli study-wakened during REM have loss of memory, during deep sleep
have no loss)
IV.
Dreams as interpreted "brain activity"
Activation-Synthesis Theory
- The theory that dreaming results from the cortical synthesis and
interpretation of neural signals, triggered by activity in the lower part
of the brain.
Spontaneous firing of giant
cells of the RAS of the pons
- Acetylcholine
(Ach) cells - during REM burst of firing like a machine gun, then stop
and go back through other stages (reloading the gun) - again firing.
Give Ach blockers - reduce REM
While this activity takes place the cortex (interprets) attribute meaning to the events that are being stimulated, although it is just brain activity.
Altered
States of Consciousness
Consciousness - Awareness of the environment and one's own existence, sensations, and thoughts. Seen as the source intelligence, a form of soul or simply a property of organised matter.
States of Consciousness - Distinctive and discrete patterns in the functioning of consciousness, characterised by particular modes of perception, thought, memory, or feeling
Altered States of Consciousness
- A state of consciousness that differs from ordinary wakefulness or
sleep. Changes in consciousness can occur through dancing, sweat lodges,
starvation, drugs, ...
[see Fischer,
1967 for
diagrams
of self ]
Siegel (1989) the motive to alter consciousness is the 4th drive next to thirst, hunger and sex.
Classifying
Drugs
Psychoactive
Drugs 
-
Drugs
(chemicals) that are capable of influencing perception, mood, cognition
& behaviour
-Often difficult to classify them as many (most) drugs have different effects which overlap the boundaries that we use to describe them. E.g., Alcohol in small doses is a stimulant, but in larger doses is a depressant. "Main" and "side effects" are not always easy to differentiate.
Stimulants- uppers - cocaine, (met) amphetamine, nicotine, caffeine. Speed up the CNS. Small doses - feelings of excitement, confidence, well-being, euphoria; LARGER doses - anxious, jittery, hyper-alert, VERY LARGE DOESES - convulsions, heart failure, death
Sedative
Hypnotics
-downers
or depressives - alcohol, tranquillisers, barbiturates. Slow down the CNS
activity feel calm, drowsy, may reduce anxiety & guilt.
Barbituates & alcohol
share a site, along with a benzodiazepam (anti-anxiety) site on a GABA
activated chloride channels (inhibition) of nerve cells. All fit
different receptors on the same neurons. The combined use of these drugs
can be fatal.
Opiates - Drugs derived from Opium Poppy that relive pain and produce euphoria, eg., Morphine, Heroin, and synthetic forms like Methadone. Mimic endorphins nature pain relieving chemicals of the brain. Anandamine.
Some bad synthetic heroin has produced total paralysis something like serve Parkinson's disease. Depletion of dopamine.
Psychedelic Drugs - Consciousness altering (expanding) drugs that produce hallucinations, change thought processes or disrupt the normal perception of time and space. E.g., LSD, Mescaline, Psilocybin.
Marijuana - Cannabis Sativa a mild psychedelic ? THC - mild stimulant, increasing heart rate, tastes, sounds, colours, more intense. Affects serotonin systems in perception and limbic.
Moderate doses - relaxation or sleepiness -may impair co-ordination, concentration, reaction times. LARGE doses hallucinations, sense of unreality & dissociation.
The
physiology of Drug Effects
A variety of actions:
block
re-absorption,
increase release, bind (replace) receptor sites. E.g.,
Ecstacy - (MDMA) has been suggested that it causes permanent damage
to serotonin producers (although not certain) Analogous to synthetic heroin
- "coma."
See
Dancesafe.org/slideshow
for what happens to your brain on e.
Tolerance- increased resistance to drugs effects accompanying continued use; as tolerance develops, larger doses are required to produce the same effects that were previously brought about by a lesser amount.
Withdrawal Symptoms -Physical and psychological symptoms that occur when some one addicted to a drug stops taking it.
The
Psychology of Drug Effects
Drug responses depend on a
person's physical condition, mental set, environmental setting, experience
with the drug.
1) Physical condition
- body weight,
metabolism, initial state of emotional arousal & individual tolerance.
2) Experience with the
Drug - Number of times used and levels of past usage
3) Environmental Setting
- Party or Home, friendly or scary place, with friends or alone
4) Mental Set - expectations
about the drug's affect. Reasons for taking the drug. (placebo studies)
Hypnosis:
What it is and what it's not...
Using a monotonous or relaxed
voice, a person is lead to relaxation, a feeling of sleepiness. . . . sinking
deeper . . . focusing of attention is central to any form of hypnosis (self
or other induced).
1) Hypnosis is not sleep
2) Hypnotic responsiveness depends more on the effects and qualities of person being hypnotized rather than the hypnotist. [exercise for hypnotic susceptibility]
3) Hypnotised people cannot be forced to do things against their will, they choose to 'under control' of suggestions
4) Hypnotic induction increases a person's suggestibility but only a modest degree; people will accept suggestions with and without hypnosis.
5) Hypnosis does not increase
the accuracy of memory
often boosts errors - confabulation
and reconstruction
6) Hypnosis does not produce a literal re-experiencing of long ago events e.g., hypnotic age or life regression act like adult trying to be a child or someone else without accurate perceptions or judgements of the events.
7) Hypnotic suggestions are not just placebos; they have been used effectively for many medical and psychological purposes - Relax and be more healthy (meditation) get rid of headaches, anaesthetise, change habits (behaviours)
Theories
of Hypnosis
Hilgard (1977, 1988) involves
dissociation - a split in consciousness in which one part of the mind operates
independently of another (like lucid dreams & simple distraction).
The other part is the Hidden
Observer watching, not participating - unless given specific instruction,
people are not aware of the 'hidden observer'.
Cold Presser Test Report
feeling no pain - but free hand pressed keys to signal pain!
Socio-cultural explanations
-behaviour as part of continuum
of normal social & cognitive processes
- playing a role - submitting
self to suggestions.