Topics

Details

Suggested Activities

Hours Spent

Assessing sleepiness

To assist physicians in their recognition of daytime sleepiness, Dr. Murray Johns of Melbourne, Australia designed and validated the Epworth Sleepiness Scale.

It asks a patient to rate the chance of dozing during various daytime activities.

A score of 10 or better is considered problematic

Fill out questionnaires -

Epworh Sleepiness Scale

Johns MW. A new method for measuring daytime sleepiness: The Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Sleep 1991; 14(6):540-5

Available on http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/epworth.html

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Theories of Dreams

Details discussion on various dream theories

Neurophysiological model

Hobson and McCarley (1977)

"reverse-learning" theory of dreaming

Crick and Mitchison (1983)

Available on

Stephen LaBerge, (1985). Lucid Dreaming. New York: Ballantine.

(http://www.lucidity.com/LD8DFM.html)

Matching

Post various theories on the board

Distribute index cards listing various experimental results

Students post each card under the theory that the research best supports

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Dream walk

Discuss exactly how dreams are different from waking experience

Do a Dream Walk to surprise the class by being a few minutes late or not speaking at all.

Motioning for them to follow you through a walk outdoors, doing jumping jacks, whatever else you can think of to make it "dream like"

Returning to the classroom and challenging the students to discuss the evidence that the immediately preceding activity was not actually a dream.

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Dream diary

Discuss on the content analysis on dream and the problem of application

Students need to keep their own dream diary for a week

Students are required to do a content analysis of their own dreams

Students are to present their analysis of the difficulties faced when they work out the content analysis.

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Dream Sharing

Students using the Montague Ullman's structure and guidelines in a dream sharing group.

reference: http://www.dreamtree.com/

Each group member imagines the dream as their own dream, and then tries to "interpret" its message FOR THEM, rather than for the dreamer

It is a 4-phase process: 1) A dreamer volunteers and tells a dream in details. Others may only interrupt by asking clarifying (non-interpretive) questions.

2) Others take the dream as their own, speaking of it as if they had actually dreamed it. They suggest what the dream might mean for them. The dreamer listens without participating.

3) The dream is officially returned to its original creator. The dreamer may respond to everyone else's input, and may share her/his own insights.

4) The dreamer thinks further about the dream, and reports (at a later time) any additional insights.

It may be possible to join a dream group in your area -- or you can start your own, if you can't locate a pre-existing one. These groups are often leaderless peer groups without professional participation.

There are also some on-line dream-groups that follow a similar format. Look for the notices of "Dream Wheels" which are frequently posted in the newsgroup alt.dreams.

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Dream Experiment

Actual experiment on dream

Arrange an overnight session

Activity 1: Students test their reaction time, thinking skills, mood, etc. hourly as sleep deprivation continuous

Activity 2: Assign one students to sleep and classmates would awaken them at different times during the night to ask about dream recall

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Effects of drugs and food on dreams

Laboratory studies suggest that depressants such as alcohol, marijuana, sleeping pills, and sedatives tend to reduce REM sleep and therefore reduce dream recall.

Some drugs, such as certain anti-depressants, greatly increase dream recall. Some people enjoy these strong, vivid dreams; to others, they may be upsetting or disturbing.

People should discuss such drug side-effects with their doctors. Some people say that products such as Ginko, Choline, B vitamins, and/or Zinc may increase dream recall. Others have no success at all with such products.

Some substances may be toxic when ingested in large enough quantities. Certain foods, such as milk and turkey, contain a substance which may increase drowsiness.

Students keep a sleep log, denoting exactly when they sleep, med. and food (especially caffeine, etc)

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Sleep Disorders

Discuss the causes and consequences of sleep disorders

Present case studies for students to analyze in small group

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Neurophysiological model

Indepth discussion on the Neurophysiological model

The application of the theory

Students bring to class one day, one noun, one adjective and one verb each on a separate slip of paper

Place these in a fishbowl and mix them up.

Generate a list of about 20 words, randomly selected

Let the students try to write a fictitious dream narrative, incorporating the words in order.

Discuss the activity in light of the theory.

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Dream Theory

Discuss various theories and student create their own

Project

Students present all the major questions about dreams

Write a paper describing their own opinions – basically developing their own theory of dreams.

It must be backing up their opinions with available evidence

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