Psychology 459 March 16, 2006

Altered States of Consciousness during Sleep

Crystal Bulda

40 ST Pages 41-63, Hock, Roger R.  Forty Studies that Changed Psychology, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005, 41-63.

Instructions for this activity are found at:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/g24-oral1.htm

Instructor: Dr. Leon James

I.  To Sleep, No Doubt to Dream

A.  Regularly occurring periods of eye mobility and concomitant phenomena during sleep.

1.   Aerinsky studied 20 normal individual adult patterns of sleep correlations with dreaming.

a.  Data reveals during REM sleep, dreams are remembered when awakened.

b.  Data reveals during periods not in REM, dreams are not vividly remembered.

          B.  The Effect of Dream Deprivation

1.   Demen studied the basic function and significance of dreaming.

2.  Theoretical Propositions

a.  “Would it be possible for humans to continue to function normally if their dream life were completely or partially suppressed?”

b.  “Should dreaming be considered necessary in a psychological sense or a physiological sense or both?”

3.  Method

a.  8 male subjects ranging from 23 through 32 participated.

b.  Brain waves and eye movements were observed through small electrodes attached to scalp.

c.  Dream deprivation began the experiment to recovery nights called control recovery.

              4.  Results

a.  Amount of dreaming was similar across subjects, more or less 7 minutes.

b.  Twice as many attempts to dream at the end of deprivation nights.

c.  Increase in dreaming time after subjects were prevented from dreaming for several nights.

d.  Subjects developed minor symptoms of anxiety, increase of appetite, irritability, or difficulty concentrating.

              5.  Significance of the findings and subsequent Research

a.  Appears to be something basic in our need to dream.

b.  There is greater synthesis of proteins in the brain during REM sleep than during NREM sleep.

II. Unromancing the Dream

A. The brain as a dream-state generator: An activation-synthesis hypothesis of the dream process.

B. Theoretical Proposition

1.   Hobson and McCarley propose that REM sleep causes dreaming.

C.  Method

     1.   Studied and reviewed previous work by many researchers.

     2.  Research on sleep and dreaming patterns of animals.

D.  Research

1.   Brain is capable of sending motor signals but body is not able to express them.  

2.  REM occurs during D state, and visual images are triggered during dreaming.

3.  Brain enters REM sleep at regular and predictable intervals during each nights sleep.

4.  Sleep cycle, which all mammals acquire, varies according to the body size.

5.  Pontine brain stem triggers the power supply and the clock of the “dream state generator” in brain.

6.  Synthesis of the past 5 results of activations is what produces the experience of dreaming.

          E.  Implications

1.   Dreams are nor devoid of meaning, but should be interpreted in more straightforward ways.

2.  Foulkes, imply that the way your cognitive system places form and sense onto the random impulses in your brain, reveals information about the importance of certain of your memories and provides insight into your thinking process.

          F.  Conclusion

1.   Hobson and McCarley’s theory took a new look at the specific regions of the brain that are active during REM.

2.  Psychologist of Freudian analysis view dreams as messages of the unconscious mind.

3.  Psychologists and Scientist must be open to new possibilities even when order has been existent. 

Related Links:

Link #1: http://psych.colorado.edu/~biopsych/grant/Dream.html

Dreams- Scholars from Sigmund Freud believe in the psychoanalysis of dreams.  Within this specific study, dreams are considered to be the unconscious deep thoughts that fill our mind.  Within this site, two theories are briefly explained towards the original beliefs of dreams.  The first theory mentioned is the Ancient Hedons, involving the soul leaving the body during dreams, or the dreamer being visited by Spirits and Demons during sleep.  The second theory mentioned is Freud’s sub-conscious analysis of dreams, where the id controlled dreams.

Link #2: http://skepdic.com/dreams.html

The Skeptics Dream Analysis- Robert Todd Carroll introduces the website by explaining the scientific processes of the dream cycle.  Then he entails in an explanation in which our dreams are a gate to a paranormal universe, studied by parapsychologists.  Parapsychologists believe that dreams take the human into an altered state of consciousness.  Carroll provides an argument between our actual brain processes that occur during sleep and the prophetic dream analysis that is perceived from the parapsychologist point of view.

Link #3: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro99/web3/Berman.html

The Nature and Function of Dreams- From a physiological point of view the Activation-Synthesis is the basic process of our dreams.  This site dismisses the notion of Freud’s psychoanalysis of dreams.  Within this site the neurological functions are explained to understand how our dreams are composed.

My Home Page:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/459s2006/bulda/bulda-home.htm

Class Home Page:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/classhome-g24.htm