BRS Lesson 4

Ultradian Rhythms

Starter

Objective to investigate the different stages of sleep.

Outcomes
Describe the sleep cycle in detail. (ultradian rhythm);
Apply relevant research investigating the different
stages of sleep;
Select relevant IDA to the research evidence.

This is what patterns

are shown on an EEG
(electroenchalograph)

sleep

Ultradian Rhythm -

Activity 10 minutes
Using the sleep cycle diagram develop an acronym to
remember what happens during each stage of sleep. For
example, stage 1 could be BELS, Brain activity decrease,
Eye/muscles slow, Light sleep, Sudden muscle
contractions.

Ethic
s

Dement and Kleitman (1957)

Jouvet (1972)

The first researchers to demonstrate the link between REM sleep

and dreaming. They woke pps up at times when their brain
waves showed characteristics of REM sleep and found pps were
highly likely to report dreaming. They did find though that
dreams were also reported outside of REM sleep and that some
pps when awoken from REM sleep did not report dreaming so
this shows individual differences.

Found that destruction of an are just below the locus coeruleus

in the brain stem of cats permanently destroyed their REM sleep.
Newer technological advancements have shown that certain
neurons are particularly critical for REM sleep specially
cholingeric cells. Research has shown the loss of REM
corresponds directly with the reduction of cholingeric cells.

Overall evaluation for research into

sleep
Objective evidence EEG, EOG and EMG provide objective measures of sleep this means they
are less subject to bias. Self-report is vulnerable to bias and distortion, due to researcher effects
and participant reactivity, therefore it may lack validity.
Artificiality of sleep laboratory- The sleep lab is an artificial condition and people are wired up
to machines. The sleep lab is reductionist as it does not reflect many factors that can influence
sleep in real life. The research lacks mundane realism and this means that the findings lack
generalisability and ecological validity may be lacking.
Universality There are some universal characteristics of sleep as stages 3 and 4 occur only in
the 1st two cycles and REM sleep always increases in duration with each successive cycle.
Individual differences Most people have 5 sleep cycles and sleep for around 8 hours. But many
people sleep much less than this and much more. Patterns of sleep vary from each individual
Weakness of the self-report method The self-report method yields subjective data compared to
the objective measurements of EEG, EOG and EMG.

Ultradian rhythm in urine flow.

Mandell et al (1966) found evidence of an ultradian
rhythm in urine flow. They catheterised seven male pps
and measured urine flow over 11 nights. All periods of
REM sleep were associated with change in urine flow.
Within 2 minutes of REM urine flow decreases
significantly and at the end of REM sleep urine flow
increases once more.
The findings may not be replicated though as the change
in urine flow in males could be due to penile erection
during periods of REM sleep, this is known to slow urine

Exam focus
Outline and evaluate research investigating ultradian
rhythms. 24 marks
Use your course handbook to find the mark schemes for
this 24 marker and use a s a guide for the level of detail
you need to include.
If you require sentence starters to get you going please
collect a help sheet. (see whiteboard)

Plenary
Research methods focus designing an investigation
Design a questionnaire which ask questions on sleep
patterns, how any questions would you ask, what style of
question, how would you obtain your sample etc.