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Sleep: The Continual Unconscious Journey

Taylor Moulton

Psychology 1010
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Psychology

Psychology is the study of behavior and the mind. Psychology is a vast field of different

specialties and studies. This is a field that is very important, because it essentially studies

humans and the behaviors behind their minds. The behavior and mind correlates so greatly

making this field an important one in psychology. In Psychology there are many different

subspecialties within this study, ranging from memory to learning to personality to mental

disorders and to many more. This field encompasses so much and is necessary in our lives.

Without psychology how would we come to understand mental disorders or development of

young children and the surrounding elements that mold them. We need psychology as it unlocks

the key to many different things about us humans and isn’t that the greatest gift to us. The gift of

further understanding of ourselves.

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The Continual Unconscious Journey

Sleep is the driving force to keeping our body recharged and refreshed. Without sleep our

bodies literally break down and begin to lose consciousness. Sleep maintains homeostasis and

our biological rhythms without it, death is only in times reach. The need for sleep is fascinating

and the many different proposed theories behind it. Some scientists believed it was an

evolutionary trait to adapt. Another believed it is to restore function and restorative properties. A

last and highly suggested proposal is that sleep is necessary to make those connections in our

brain through synaptic connections and with our neurons this amplifies such functions like

memory or skills retention. (Diekelmann, Wilhelm, & Born, 2009). Sleep is a fascinating

function and the state of consciousness it contributes too.

State Of consciousness/Sleep Cycles

The mind is a powerful too when awake but what happens when you fall asleep? Does

your brain shut off and just recharge or is a level consciousness that your brain achieves? As you

start the routine of sleep your body goes through 4 cycles. Sleep stage one is the cycle where you

are starting to fall asleep. You start to experience myoclonic jerks and start to relax as you are

getting drowsy and beginning your sleep routine. Stage two is when you are no longer conscious,

as this is one of the beginning stages to getting deep restful sleep. Stage three and four is the

deepest sleep stages, where you are experiencing delta sleep the person is no longer conscious

and has entered the deep sleep, when awaken the person is no longer coherent and aware of their

consciousness. After the four stages the mind enters a sleep called REM. This state is when your

mind enters dreaming, the unconscious state of wishes and desires. (King, 2016, pp. 133,136-

137)
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As Freud put, dreaming is a state of mind where we see our unfulfilled desires and needs

being fulfilled.

Dreams

Dreams are the fascinating and crucial tool to understanding our subconscious. This

being our desires, needs, and fears. As scientists are studying dreams they are approaching

differently to further understand their purpose, if any. Dreams have been a focus in my life and

to try to figure out what they subconsciously mean, according to the Cognitive Theory of

Dreaming. This theory states that we subconsciously developing and processing from our state of

awake. We comprehend and evaluate it during our dreams, though we never solve our solutions

during our dreams. As we dream our subconscious helps bring the issue or desire to our

awareness and during our state of being awake we comprehend and try to solve those

unconscious issues or desires. That’s what makes dreaming a useful tool, allowing us to bring

our attention to those things on the back of our mind. We can slowly push them forward and

work to solve or achieve those issues and desires. According to Freud the power of dreams can

recollect facts and help us understand the meaning or help the cognitive function that our brains

don’t experience while awake. The concepts of recollection is used during hypermnesic dreams

and walks our brain into problem solving through imagination and dreaming. (Freud & Brill,

2016, p. 30)

Conclusion

Sleep is an amazing tool for psychologists and many other scientists. This topic of study

or field is underrated and deserves more research and effort. Sleep unlocks the keys to many

mind and behavior issues and the roles it plays to enhancing us as humans. As we understand it

more we might be able to discover new concepts and functions of our unconscious mind. The
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sleep cycle we experience every night does a lot for our bodies and our minds. We become

refresh and rebooted every time we experience good deep sleep. When our body receives that

rest we can continue to strive every day in our wake life. During our sleep we experience dreams

which unlock many secrets to our desires and issues that are repressed. Working to achieve those

circumstances we can begin to move forward in our lives and begin to understand why sleep is

very important for ourselves and other humans. Through research we can cure diseases and

disorders that are only affected during sleep. Could you imagine unlocking the unconscious mind

to solve issues from people sleep walking or wetting the bed. These things are issues that baffle

psychologists and scientists and by understand the brain while in this state can help achieve

advancement in medicine and psychology.

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References

King, L. A. (2016). Experience psychology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Freud, S., & Brill, A. A. (2016). The interpretation of dreams. Place of publication not identified:
FAB.