The Sleep Instinct

The Sleep Instinct PDF Author: Ray Meddis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315312875
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
Most of us believe that we sleep in order to rest our tired bodies and minds. Originally published in 1977, this centuries-old common-sense view is challenged by Ray Meddis, who describes and argues for a controversial new theory of the nature and function of sleep. The theory seeks to replace the old view with the idea that sleep may no longer serve any important function in modern man. Whereas the sleep instinct helps animals to survive by driving them to hide away for as long as possible each day, this is no longer a valuable asset in civilised surroundings. Nevertheless, as the author explains, we still feel driven by a primeval urge beyond conscious control to crawl away every evening to the security of our beds to wait out the dangerous hours of darkness which were such a threat to our ancestors. Contrary to contemporary wisdom, he also argues that dreaming is a primitive and particularly valueless kind of sleep – a crude a dangerous heritage from our reptilian ancestors which is kept to a bare minimum in most adult warm-blooded creatures. Ray Meddis writes in a non-technical style and succeeds admirably in making the science of sleep and intensive research studies on sleep accessible and even exciting for the general reader as well as for the scientist. He shows that not everyone is bound by a felt need for sleep; in fact, some human beings discussed at length in the book thrive on less than two hours sleep a night without any ill effects. The implications of the research described are little short of sensational; in particular, Dr Meddis believes that it is well within the bounds of possibility that future research will show us how changes can be brought about in normal people to free them from the bondage of their sleep instincts. This new perspective also leads directly into a radical reappraisal of the nature of insomnia and new possibilities for treatment.

The Sleep Instinct

The Sleep Instinct PDF Author: Ray Meddis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315312875
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
Most of us believe that we sleep in order to rest our tired bodies and minds. Originally published in 1977, this centuries-old common-sense view is challenged by Ray Meddis, who describes and argues for a controversial new theory of the nature and function of sleep. The theory seeks to replace the old view with the idea that sleep may no longer serve any important function in modern man. Whereas the sleep instinct helps animals to survive by driving them to hide away for as long as possible each day, this is no longer a valuable asset in civilised surroundings. Nevertheless, as the author explains, we still feel driven by a primeval urge beyond conscious control to crawl away every evening to the security of our beds to wait out the dangerous hours of darkness which were such a threat to our ancestors. Contrary to contemporary wisdom, he also argues that dreaming is a primitive and particularly valueless kind of sleep – a crude a dangerous heritage from our reptilian ancestors which is kept to a bare minimum in most adult warm-blooded creatures. Ray Meddis writes in a non-technical style and succeeds admirably in making the science of sleep and intensive research studies on sleep accessible and even exciting for the general reader as well as for the scientist. He shows that not everyone is bound by a felt need for sleep; in fact, some human beings discussed at length in the book thrive on less than two hours sleep a night without any ill effects. The implications of the research described are little short of sensational; in particular, Dr Meddis believes that it is well within the bounds of possibility that future research will show us how changes can be brought about in normal people to free them from the bondage of their sleep instincts. This new perspective also leads directly into a radical reappraisal of the nature of insomnia and new possibilities for treatment.

The Journal of Neurology and Psychopathology

The Journal of Neurology and Psychopathology PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Neurology
Languages : en
Pages : 846

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Book Description


Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution

Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution PDF Author: Smithsonian Institution. Board of Regents
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 798

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Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution

Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution PDF Author: Smithsonian Institution
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Discoveries in science
Languages : en
Pages : 826

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Report of the Board of Regents

Report of the Board of Regents PDF Author: Smithsonian Institution. Board of Regents
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Discoveries in science
Languages : en
Pages : 828

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Book Description
Reports for 1884-1886/87 issued in 2 pts., pt. 2 being the Report of the National Museum.

The Functions of Sleep

The Functions of Sleep PDF Author: Rene Drucker-Colin
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0323156401
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
The Functions of Sleep is the result of a symposium held in New Mexico in 1977. The objective of the said symposium is to clarify and ultimately answer questions regarding the functions of sleep. Many perspectives are presented in the attempt to answer the main question of the function of sleep, including the examination of the developmental, neurophysiological, metabolic, behavioral, and clinical correlates of normal and disturbed sleep. The first two chapters focus on the previous studies done regarding the functions of sleep, specifically the methodological issues and clinical implications of the theories. This book also emphasizes the study of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and its different aspects such as reticular formation activity, motivational function, regulation, and growth hormone secretion. Other topics covered in this book include the interrelations of human sleep in terms of neuroendocrine and neuropharmacologic; ontogenetic and clinical studies; sleep pathologies; and brain state and memory. Sleep can be studied in a wide range of scientific fields. Students and researchers in the fields of biology, psychology, neurology, psychobiology, and medicine will find this book very useful.

PSYCHOTHERAPY

PSYCHOTHERAPY PDF Author: HUGO MÜNSTERBERG
Publisher: BEYOND BOOKS HUB
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
This volume on psychotherapy belongs to a series of books which I am writing to discuss for a wider public the practical applications of modern psychology. The first book, called "On the Witness Stand," studied the relations of scientific psychology to crime and the law courts. This new book deals with the relations of psychology to medicine. Others discussing its relations to education, to social problems, to commerce and industry will follow soon. For popular treatment I divide applied psychology into such various, separated books because they naturally address very different audiences. That which interests the lawyer does not concern the physician, and again the school-teacher has his own sphere of interests. Moreover the different subjects demand a different treatment. The problems of psychology and law were almost entirely neglected. I was anxious to draw wide attention to this promising field and therefore I chose the form of loose popular essays without any aim towards systematic presentation of the subject. As to psychology and medicine almost the opposite situation prevails. There is perhaps too much talk afloat about psychotherapy, the widest circles cultivate the discussion, the magazines[Pg viii] overflow with it. The duty of the scientific psychologist is accordingly not to stir up interest in this topic but to help in bringing this interest from mere gossip, vague mysticism, and medical amateurishness to a clear understanding of principles. What is needed in this time of faith cures of a hundred types is to deal with the whole circle of problems in a serious, systematic way and to emphasize the aspect of scientific psychological theory. Hence the whole first part of this book is an abstract discussion and its first chapters have not even any direct relation to disease. I am convinced that both physicians and ministers and all who are in practical contact with these important questions ought to be brought to such painstaking and perhaps fatiguing inquiry into principles before the facts are reached. To those who seek a discussion of life facts alone, the whole first part will of course appear to be a tedious way around; they may turn directly to the second and third parts. One word for my personal right to deal with these questions, as too much illegitimate psychotherapeutics is heard to-day. For me, the relation between psychology and medicine is not a chance chapter of my science to which I have turned simply in following up the various sides of applied psychology. And still less have I turned to it because it has become the fashion in recent years. On the contrary, it has been an important factor in all my work since my student days. I have been through five years of regular medical studies, three years in Leipzig and two years[Pg ix] in Heidelberg; I have an M.D. degree from the University of Heidelberg. In my first year as docent in a German university twenty years ago, I gave throughout the winter semester before several hundred students a course in hypnotism and its medical application. It was probably the first university course on hypnotism given anywhere. Since that time I have never ceased to work psychotherapeutically in the psychological laboratory. Yet that must not be misunderstood. I have no clinic, and while by principle I have never hypnotized anyone for mere experiment's sake but always only for medical purposes, yet I adjust my practical work entirely to the interests of my scientific study. The limitations of my time force me to refuse the psychotherapeutic treatment of any case which has not a certain scientific interest for me, and of the many hundreds whom I have helped in the laboratory, no one ever had to pay anything. Thus my practical work has strictly the character of laboratory research. The chief aim of this book is twofold. It is a negative one: I want to counteract the misunderstandings which overflood the whole field, especially by the careless mixing of mental and moral influence. And a positive one: I want to strengthen the public feeling that the time has come when every physician should systematically study psychology, the normal in the college years and the abnormal in the medical school. This demand of medical education cannot be postponed any longer. The aim of the book is not to fight the Emmanuel Church Movement, or[Pg x] even Christian Science or any other psychotherapeutic tendency outside of the field of scientific medicine. I see the element of truth in all of them, but they ought to be symptoms of transition. Scientific medicine should take hold of psychotherapeutics now or a most deplorable disorganization will set in, the symptoms of which no one ought to overlook to-day.

The Journal of Abnormal Psychology

The Journal of Abnormal Psychology PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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The Child

The Child PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Child care
Languages : en
Pages : 1180

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The Consciousness Instinct

The Consciousness Instinct PDF Author: Michael S. Gazzaniga
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0374128766
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
“The father of cognitive neuroscience” illuminates the past, present, and future of the mind-brain problem How do neurons turn into minds? How does physical “stuff”—atoms, molecules, chemicals, and cells—create the vivid and various worlds inside our heads? The problem of consciousness has gnawed at us for millennia. In the last century there have been massive breakthroughs that have rewritten the science of the brain, and yet the puzzles faced by the ancient Greeks are still present. In The Consciousness Instinct, the neuroscience pioneer Michael S. Gazzaniga puts the latest research in conversation with the history of human thinking about the mind, giving a big-picture view of what science has revealed about consciousness. The idea of the brain as a machine, first proposed centuries ago, has led to assumptions about the relationship between mind and brain that dog scientists and philosophers to this day. Gazzaniga asserts that this model has it backward—brains make machines, but they cannot be reduced to one. New research suggests the brain is actually a confederation of independent modules working together. Understanding how consciousness could emanate from such an organization will help define the future of brain science and artificial intelligence, and close the gap between brain and mind. Captivating and accessible, with insights drawn from a lifetime at the forefront of the field, The Consciousness Instinct sets the course for the neuroscience of tomorrow.