| Term | Definition |
|---|
| construct | concept requiring belief in something that cannot be seen or touched, but that seems to exist |
| consciousness | the awareness of what is happening in and around an organism |
| subconscious | thoughts and memories that are just below our level of awareness and that can be easily accessed with attention |
| unconscious | thoughts and memories and desires about which we have no direct knowledge or access |
| chronobiology | study of forces that control the body based on time of day, month, year, etc. |
| biological clocks | internal chemical units that control regular cycles in parts of the body (there's one for temperature, menstruation, etc.) |
| free-running cycles | cycles run by biological clocks that are under their own control and not affected by the environment |
| entrainment | the process of altering free-runing cycles to fit a different rhythm |
| circadian rhythm | sequences of behavioral and body changes that occur every 24 hours |
| twilight state | relaxed state just before we fall asleep where the mind wanders |
| REM sleep | rapid eye movement occurs during this stage and we dream and experience cataplexy |
| beta waves | rapid brain waves appearing when a person is awake |
| alpha waves | failry relaxed brain waves that occur as we fall asleep (stage 1 sleep) |
| delta waves | slow , lazy, deep-waves occuring during stage 4 sleep |
| NREM sleep | sleep involving partial thoughts & images, deep restorative sleep, no paralysis |
| nightmare | disturbing dream during REM sleep |
| incubus attack | also called a night terror , a horrible dream that occurs during NREM sleep and therefore feels real |
| insomnia | inability to get to sleep or stay asleep |
| narcolepsy | disorder in which a person fall instantly into REM sleep regardless of their environment or the time |
| sleep apnea | breathing stopages during sleep, leads to excessive tiredness and in extreme cases, death |
| hypnosis | a trance state in which attention is highly focused on certain things (brought about by a professional who often asks questions) |
| meditation | trance state brought on by oneself in which you cut off the outside world from consciousness, has been shown to have health benefits |
| latent content | according to Freud, this is the true unconscious meaning behind what goes in your dreams |
| manifest content | the actual description of what happens in your dreams |
| wish fulfllment | Freud's main contention of the purpose of dreams |
| activation-synthesis theory | theory of dream interpretation that argues that dreams are simply a random collection of thoughts and memories and your brain automatically strings them together in a story: holds that these stories have no real significance |
Combine with other sets
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