SLEEP AND DREAMS

Sleep
How many hours a night do you sleep
during the week?
On a weekend?
At what times throughout the day do
you feel most tired?
If you didnt have school what time
would you go to sleep/ wake up?
Do you think most students get enough
sleep why/why not?

SLEEP
Imagine...if on the average, people
sleep 8 hours a day, they are
sleeping away 1/3 of their life.
How much is that?

How much we sleep ??

Well, 8 hours of sleep every day is
the same as 233,600 hours of sleep
by the time you are 80 years old.
That's the same as sleeping 26.67
years!!!

Why we have to sleep?

Revive tired body
Build up resistance to infection
Recovery from stress, consolidation
of memories

Sleep needs
As people age, they decrease sleep time, in
general, although some people begin to sleep
more in old age.
Newborns spend approximately 16 hrs. per day
sleeping, and 50% of the sleep time in RAPID
EYE MOVEMENT (REM).
As children move toward adulthood, less and
less time is spent sleeping, and only 20% of the
sleep time is in REM.

Changes in Sleep Patterns over the

Lifespan

Circadian Rhythms
Much of the bodys activities
including the desire to sleep are
governed by:
Circadian rhythm = biological clock

Circadian Rhythms
Human and some other animals rely
on vision for survival are active
during the day and inactive at night.
Rates, mice and other less visual
animals are active at night and
inactive during the day.
Each species generates a rhythm of
activity an inactivity lasting about
one day

Circadian Rhythms
The rising and setting of the sun
provide a cue to reseat our rhythm
each day and keep it at exactly 24
hours in a normal condition.
In an environment with no cues to
time most people generate a wakingsleeping rhythm lasting between 2425 hours (Moore Ede, Czeisler &
Richardson, 1983)

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus
(SCN)
SCN: area of the hypothalamus that sets
circadian rhythm
if damaged, rhythms are less consistent, not
synchronized to light and dark patterns
neurons produce circadian rhythm in tissue cultures
genes interact with proteins per and tim to generate
rhythm
mutant per gene accelerates biological clock

Pineal gland releases melatonin 2 hrs before

bedtime
pill may help adjust to new time zone but effect of
long term use unknown

Figure: The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of rates and humans. The SCN is located
at the base of the brain, just above the op[tic chiasm. The optic chiasm was torn off when the
brain was sliced to make the slides shown in (a) and (b), which show coronal sections through
the plane of the anterior hypothalamus. Each rat was injected with radioactive 2-deoxyglucose,
which is absorbed by the most active neurons. A high level of absorption of this chemical
produces a dark appearance on the slide. Note that the level of activity in SCN neurons is much
higher in section (a), in which the rat was injected during the day, than in section (b), in which
the rat received the injection at night. (Source: W.J. Schwartz & Gainer, 1977 A sagittal
section through a human brain shows the SCN and the pineal gland.)

Setting and Resetting Biological

Clock
Biological clock is primarily reset by
light, the zeitgeber, or time giver
blind people produce circadian rhythms
longer than 24 hours
under constant bright light, hamsters
developed two periods of wakefulness
and sleep
also affected by noise, meals, exercise
and temperature
marine animals affected by tide

Setting and Resetting Biological

Clock
JET LAG is a physiological condition which results from alterations to the
body's circadian rhythms resulting from rapid long-distance trans
meridian (eastwest or westeast) travel on aircraft. It was previously
classified as one of the circadian rhythm sleep disorders.
The condition of jet lag may last several days until one is fully adjusted to
the new time zone, and a recovery rate of one day per time zone crossed
is a suggested guideline.
The issue of jet lag is especially pronounced for airline pilots, crew, and
frequent travelers. Airlines have regulations aimed at combating pilot
fatigue caused by jet lag.
The common term jet lag is used because before the arrival of passenger
jet aircraft, it was generally uncommon to travel far and fast enough to
cause jet lag. Propeller flights were slower and of more limited distance
than jet flights, and thus did not contribute as widely to the problem.

World Time Different

Figure: Jet Lag

Jet lag. Eastern time is later than western time. People who travel six time zones east must
wake up when their biological clocks say it is the middle of the night, and will try to go to sleep
when their biological clocks say it is just late afternoon.

Symptoms of Jet Lag

Disturbed sleep such as insomnia, early
waking or excessive sleepiness
Daytime fatigue
Difficulty concentrating or functioning at
your usual level
Stomach problems, constipation or diarrhea
A general feeling of not being well
Muscle soreness
Menstrual symptoms in women

Setting and Resetting Biological

Clock
Shift work
many people may not adjust
completely to night work, still feel
groggy and do not sleep well during
day
less light in night environment

Setting and Resetting Biological

Clock
SCN reset by axons in
retinohypothalamic pathway from
retina to hypothalamus
retinal ganglion cells do not
contribute to vision and respond to
overall average amount of light
light still resets biological clock in
mice with few rods and cones
light resets circadian rhythm in blind
mole rats

The Sleep and Waking Cycle

First studies by Eugene Aserinsky and
Nathaniel Kleitman, 1960
Instruments used in research
Electroencephalograph: brain electrical
activity
Electromyograph: muscle activity
Electrooculograph: eye movements
Other bodily functions also observed

Cycling Through the Stages of Sleep

Stage 1: brief, transitional (1-7
minutes)
alpha -> theta

Stage 2: sleep spindles

Stages 3 & 4: slow-wave sleep
Stage 5: REM, EEG similar to awake,
vivid dreaming (initially a few
minutes, progressively longer as
cycle through the stages)

EEG (electroencephalogram) which shows a record of brain activity

EMG (electromyogram) shows muscle activity
EOG (electroculogram) shows eye movements

Stages of sleep

An overview of the cycle of sleep

Slee
p
Cycl
e

The white line charts how a typical person moves through the various stages
of sleep during the course of a night. This diagram also shows how dreams
and rapid eye movements coincide with REM sleep, whereas posture changes
occur in between REM periods (because the body is nearly paralyzed during
REM sleep). Notice how the person cycles into REM four times, as descents
into NREM sleep get shallower and REM periods get longer. Thus, slow-wave
sleep is prominent early in the night, while REM and stage 2 sleep dominate

REM Sleep
Dreaming occurs
Eyes move back and forth rapidly
EEG pattern during REM sleep is similar to
the EEG when you are awake
However, the EMG is very quiet during REM
sleep - one theory is that during REM sleep,
the muscles are inactive so that we will not
act out our dreams. This also means that
sleepwalkers are not in REM sleep and are
not acting out their dreams.

Problems in the Night:

Insomnia
The most common sleep disorder is insomnia.
Insomnia occurs in 3 different patterns:
trouble falling asleep
trouble remaining asleep
persistent early morning awakening.

About 15% of adults have severe or frequent

insomnia, and another 15% have mild or
occasional.

Insomnia
Insomnia can have many different
causes, from anxiety and tension to
drug use, such as caffeine.
The most common approach for
treating insomnia is the use of
sedatives
5-15% of adults use sleep
medications with some regularity this
is a poor long-term solution.

Dream
Dreams are conventionally defined as
mental experiences during REM sleep
that are often based in vivid imagery,
have a story like quality, are often seems
real to the dreamer.
Dreams can be extraordinarily vivid or
very vague; filled with joyful emotions or
frightening imagery; focused and
understandable or unclear and confusing

Why do we dream?
Why do we dream? What purpose
do dreams serve? While many
theories have been proposed, no
single consensus has emerged.
Considering the enormous amount of
time we spend in a dreaming state,
the fact that researchers do not yet
understand the purpose of dreams
may seem baffling.

Dream Content
Research shows that the content of dreams is
usually familiar. Common themes in dreams include
things like falling, being pursued, trying repeatedly
to do something, school, sex, being late, eating,
being frightened, etc.
Sigmund Freuds theory of dreams suggested that
dreams were a representation of unconscious
desires, thoughts and motivations. According to
Freuds psychoanalytic view of personality, people
are driven by aggressive and sexual instincts that
are repressed from conscious awareness.

 People in Western cultures pay little

attention to dreams as meaningful
messages in their lives, while people from
many non-Western cultures are likely to
view dreams as important information
about oneself, the future, or the spiritual
world.