Assertive Communication 🗣

Why do I cheat on my partner so easily in a dream?

Have you ever noticed in a dream you can cheat on your partner without having even a shadow of a doubt it’s the right decision? Well, it is definitely not your unfaithful nature; it is all about our brain’s workings, especially some parts of it which we are going to examine here.

The Frontal Cortex

The Frontal Cortex is located at the very front of the brain and is responsible for not only long-term planning, decision making, knowledge analysis and regulation of emotions, but also for social behavior control. This means that the frontal cortex prevents different types of inappropriate behavior, such as aggression, desires to steal, compulsivity and sexually assaultive behavior. As a result, damage to this lobe might cause, for example, a complete lack of interest in sex or, contrastively, more active sexual behavior. So why does this matter in terms of sleeping?

The Sleep Cycle

Our sleep cycle consists of two main stages: non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. During the latter stage, our body experiences temporal muscle paralysis and, more interestingly, — dreams (if you don’t have any brain damage that could lead to dream loss). The question about the purpose of dreams is still in dispute, but there is a clear answer at why they are ridiculously illogical sometimes:

during REM sleep, the frontal lobe is “turned-off” affecting our social behavior in a dream

There is also a range of research supporting this statement. For example, in one experiment, scientists activated the frontal lobe of the participants during REM sleep and noticed that such stimulation “induces self-reflective awareness in dreams”. In other words, you act more appropriately and logically as your frontal cortex is stimulated while sleeping:

Recent findings link fronto-temporal gamma electroencephalographic (EEG) activity to conscious awareness in dreams, but a causal relationship has not yet been established. We found that current stimulation in the lower gamma band during REM sleep influences ongoing brain activity and induces self-reflective awareness in dreams. Other stimulation frequencies were not effective, suggesting that higher order consciousness is indeed related to synchronous oscillations around 25 and 40 Hz.

Noticeable effects on dreams

As you can imagine, this temporal “shutdown” of the frontal cortex has a huge impact on our social behavior in a dream: from aggressive conversations to having sex with your partner’s best friend. Don’t feel guilty; it’s just your brain! What about moments when you act consciously in a dream and do things with full awareness of your actions?

Lucid Sleep

Lucid sleep is a sleep during which you are aware of dreaming while dreaming (apologies for the tautology). Recent studies suggest that this phenomenon occurs due to “increased brain activity over frontal regions during REM sleep”. However, other researchers analyze it through the states of consciousness theory. These two points of view are not interchangeable but complementary.

Now let’s look more closely at different states of consciousness:

- Primary states of consciousness — states in which dreams “are concerned with the immediate present, with only uncontrolled access to the past or the anticipated future”

- Secondary states of consciousness — states in which people are able to manipulate with “higher order cognitive functions such as self-reflective awareness, abstract thinking, volition and metacognition”. In the case of sleeping, this mode is “turned-on” after awaking

So, when both states coexist together, a person experiences a lucid dream. It is like being simultaneously asleep and awake! What is more, humans are most likely the only species able to experience such a thing.

Source: Anastasiia (Medium). Image: Katherine Streeter for NPR.

  “I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.”    ― George Gordon Byron  

“Decide what it is that you care about deeply, and then put everything you have into doing that.  If you’re interested in social media and you want to start a company, then focus on that.  And if you’re interested in health care for people in villages around Vietnam, focus on that. And if you get good at that, naturally you’ll end up being a leader and you’ll have opportunities to do great things in the future.” —President Obama giving advice to young Southeast Asian leaders during a town hall in Ho Chi Minh

Psychology Book Recommendations

Foundational Authors & Works

Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person

B. F. Skinner,  Beyond Freedom and Dignity and About Behaviorism and Walden Two

Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents

John Norcross (editor), Evidence-Based Practices in Mental Health

Psychopathology & Diagnosis 

David Barlow (editor), Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders

Oliver Saks, Hallucinations

Kelly Lambert, Clinical Neuroscience

Criticisms & Controversial Topics

Stephen Hinshaw, The ADHD Explosion

Robert Whitaker, Mad in America and Anatomy of an Epidemic

Ronald Miller, Not So Abnormal Psychology

Allen Frances, Saving Normal

Bruce Wampold, The Great Psychotherapy Debate

Therapy Theories 

Carl Rogers, Client-Centered Therapy

Irvin Yalom, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy

Aaron Beck, Cognitive Therapy of Depression

Steven Hayes, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Judith Beck, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Danny Wedding, Current Psychotherapies

William Miller, Motivational Interviewing

Jacqueline Person, Cognitive Therapy in Practice

Evidence-Based Therapy Manuals 

Marsha Linehan, DBT Skills Training Manual and Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

Michelle Craske, Mastery of Your Anxiety and Panic

David Burns, Feeling Good

Richard Zinbarg, Mastery of Your Anxiety and Worry

Martha Davis, The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook

Lisa Najavitis, Seeking Safety

Expert Therapist Perspectives

Irvin Yalom, The Gift of Therapy and Love’s Executioner

First Person Perspectives

Kay Jamison, An Unquiet Mind

Elyn Saks, The Center Cannot Hold

William Styron, Darkness Visible

Carolyn Spiro and Pamela Spiro Wagner, Divided Minds

Research Design & Analysis

Alan Kazdin, Research Design in Clinical Psychology and Single-Case Research Designs

John Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design

Culture & Diversity

Derald Wing Sue, Counseling the Culturally Diverse and Case Studies in Multicultural Counseling and Therapy

Stigma

Stephen Hinshaw, Breaking the Silence and  The Mark of Shame

Grad School and Careers in Psychology

Peggy Hawley, Being Bright is Not Enough

Adam Ruben, Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School

Peter Feibelman, A PhD is Not Enough

Paul Silva, How to Write A Lot

Karen Kelsky, The Professor Is In 

Are animals conscious?

Imagine for a second that you own a boat. You give small tours for a living.

One night, things are slow, you get a phone call from a local fisherman.

He’s come across something. A very large whale that is trapped.

It’s been ensnared in some type of wires. It appears to have been trapped for some time. It is exhausted and struggling to breathe.

Keep reading

A fertilized human egg

Lmao

(Leave me alone omg)