Sleep Objectives: 1.To introduce sleep as a topic in psychological science 2.To raise awareness that sleep occupies about a third of the lives of adult humans, even more of infants’ – yet no clear and compelling explanation exists for why we sleep. 3.To illustrate the kinds of processes occurring during sleep of interest to psychologists

Cognitive: As we all know, a poor night’s sleep has consequences for how well we think during the day. Psychologists have long been interested in how sleep affects our perceptions, memory, and decision-making. One popular approach to studying this issue is to keep animals from sleeping and see how sleep deprivation affects their ability to remember previously learned information. Neuroscience: Neuroscientists are interested in the brain and how it functions. Sleep entails many fascinating and complex changes in brain activity, so neuroscientists are studying which parts of the brain are activated and inhibited during sleep. They have developed techniques for monitoring how brain activity changes during sleep. A major goal of this research is to map out the “neural circuitry” for sleep, just as an electrician might try to determine the wiring in your house.

Developmental: Because infant mammals sleep so much, sleep’s purpose (whatever it is) might be most important during early development. Understanding how and why sleep changes during development is therefore a central question among those interested in identifying the functions of sleep. Clinical: Psychoanalysts, beginning with Sigmund Freud, have used dreams to explore the workings of the mind (with varying degrees of success). Many sleep disorders also are of interest to psychologists, including the so- called “night terrors” of childhood and narcolepsy, a disorder in which people appear to fall asleep suddenly during the day.

Hobson, J. A. (1995). Sleep. New York: W. H. Freeman & Company. Kryger, M. H., Roth, T., & Dement, W. C. (2000). Principles and practice of sleep medicine. New York: W. B. Saunders. Scientific American articles: “Narcolepsy,” 2000 “Why we sleep,” 2003 Related Readings