Course overview
Students will critically examine the interactions of biology, behaviour, and social factors that affect and regulate sleep and wakefulness, applying this information to themselves through a number of assigned exercises and to a broader context through a final project. Students will develop an advanced understanding of the basics of sleep and circadian rhythms, including measurement, bioregulation (brain mechanisms, theory of sleep regulation), ontogeny, phylogeny, physiology, psychology (including learning, memory and dreaming), and sleep disorders. Students will develop an advanced understanding of the application of methods of studying behaviour using modes of analysis common to experimental psychology, the interactions of sleep and society as well as sleep disorders. Students will also be introduced to sleep measurement tools.
Course learning outcomes
- Understand how sleep is defined and measured.
- Apply concepts of sleep measurement in describing the phylogeny and ontogeny of sleep
- Describe the processes in the brain and the rest of the body during sleep
- Understand the major theories of sleep regulation and biological rhythms.
- Critically examine how sleep affects learning, memory, health and safety
- Critically examine the process of dreaming
- Describe common sleep disorders and evaluate their consequences