The Continuity Hypothesis of dreaming states that waking life is continuous with dreams (e. g. Schredl and Hoffman, 2003), but the ways in which it has been defined lack coherence and agreement (e. g. Domhoff, 2011; Hobson and Schredl, 2011), and many of the factors postulated to influence the continuity of waking life into dreams (e. g. Schredl, 2002a) have rarely been studied. The present thesis addressed these issues by researching the meaning of `continuity', the ways in which waking life is continued into dreams, the factors that influence continuity, and the implications the findings have on the potential function(s) of continuity. Because of the disparate perspectives on continuity, the thesis approached the empirical investigation of it from a broad, inclusive perspective, and utilised a diverse range of methodologies. Two theoretical chapters (a literature review and a methodological review) and five empirical chapters are presented, as well as one final chapter to bring the findings together in relation to continuity function. A dream diary study, an interview study, a questionnaire study, a longitudinal case study, and a systematic-awakenings study were all conducted in the pursuit of the research aims. Continuity was found to be influenced by the type of waking-life experience, emotionality but not stressfulness, individual differences, the time gap between the waking-life experience and dreaming, and time of night; it was also found that an individual's experience with continuity may be considered a type of trait of dreaming. The findings were interpreted in light of a number of functional theories and nonfunctional theories of continuity, most prominently an emotional memory assimilation theory. The thesis also contributed novel methodologies for the study of continuity, including the development of the Continuity Questionnaire and a systematic method of conducting and analysing interviews.

This thesis begins with a literature review investigating the relationship between childhood medical conditions related to sleep disturbance and cognitive impairment. Three categories of medical conditions associated with sleep disturbance and cognitive problems are identified: Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB), Primary Sleep Disorders and Childhood Epilepsies. Findings suggest widespread evidence of a relationship between cognitive problems in SDB and childhood epilepsies. Potential mechanisms for these associations include the relatively recent theory that consolidation of learning (CoL) taking place during sleep may be disrupted. Evidence that CoL occurs during sleep is mainly restricted to adult populations. This study aimed to replicate this research with both a sample of adults and a sample of children. Measures of CoL were adapted for children, and performance improvements overnight (CoL-N) were compared with those over an equivalent daytime period (CoL-D). Measures of IQ and self-reported sleep quality were included. Differences between CoL-N and CoL-D were not significant in either sample. However, post-hoc explorations revealed interesting observations regarding the modified measures and these will be informative to future research. The possibility of an association between sleep latency in adults and bedtime difficulties in children is also raised. Future research is recommended to increase understanding of CoL as this may have important implications for children at risk of learning disorders associated with sleep disruption. The thesis concludes with a critical appraisal addressing professional learning, methodological limitations and implications for future research.

Objective: There is an ever growing body of literature which endorses the view that sleep evolves with normal aging and also modified by being either a man or woman. Changes in sleep patterns have been consistently described from childhood, through adolescence, adulthood and into old age, with sleep continuity measures seen to decline with aging and to a greater extent in men compared to women. However, when sleep is evaluated using subjective means, elderly women are more likely to report poor quality sleep compared to men. We evaluated the subjective (self-reported) and objective (polysomnographic and EEG power spectra) of 181 healthy subjects under normal and experimental challenge by traffic noise with three defined aims; firstly, to describe the nature of aging and sex-related effects upon sleep. Secondly, to evaluate the inter-relationship between objective (PSG & spectral) and subjective (self-reported) measures of sleep. Finally, to assess the influence of these age and sex upon sleep propensity when sleep is experimentally challenged (ESF).

Introduction Working life can bring exposure to stresses which in turn can impact on health. Recovery from work stressors is thought to be essential in preventing fatigue and eventually burnout. Sleep and Vacation are important types of recovery. One mechanism thought to interfere with recovery is Work-Related Rumination, in particular its subtype: Affective Rumination. This concept appears to be conceptually similar to the Depressive Rumination concept of Brooding, which is thought to be predictive of depression. The study aims to look at the effect of affective rumination over a naturally occurring vacation period. Participants Teachers were recruited for the study as teaching is a high stress profession and it also has a naturally occurring break from work in the form of half term. A total of 1344 teachers participated in phase I and a total of 57 in phase 2. In the latter phase participants were recruited on the basis of their Work-Related Rumination Scores to create two groups. Method In Phase 1 teachers were invited to complete a number of online self-report measures looking at Teacher Stress, Work-related rumination and Sleep Quality. In Phase 2 Teachers were asked to wear an Actiwatch and complete a sleep diary over 18 nights; including 2 work weeks with a vacation in the middle. They were asked to complete a measure of Work-related rumination at four different time points. Results Whilst objective sleep measures did show a change over the vacation period, there were no differences between Low and High Affective Ruminators. On subjective measures, vacation was associated with an increase in sleep quality for the High Affective Ruminator and for both groups for Feelings of Refreshment. Evidence for a mediating role of rumination was found. Conclusion Work-related rumination affects perception of sleep quality but not objective measures. Possible reasons for this are discussed.

This thesis sets out that 'sleep-deprivation' cannot be used as synonym for 'vigil' and 'sleep abstinence', Sleep-deprivation, when partial, needs to be defined in relation to a sleep optimum against which is measured the amount of sleep the individual gets per 24 hours. Considering the varying lengths of vigil and the fact that the Byzantines slept habitually throughout the night, it is obvious that while vigil and sleep-abstinence might refer to any amount of sleep-loss. sleep deprivation refers only to the loss of necessary sleep. The thesis argues for the need to combine sleep medicine with textual research; the flrst provides a definition of the sleep optimum; the second the amount of sleep the Byzantines might have got. Then, it is possible to discern between practices which are different as to their length, fortitude, motives, aims and consequences. Following the definitions, a chapter on the mechanics of sleep establishes from the evidence the sleep optimum to be 7 hours per 24-hour period. The research then focuses on the practice of sleeploss in the Bible and Hellenism. I argue that both cultures practised sleep-abstinence; however their motives were different as they had opposing views on sleep. The reasons for sleep-abstinence among the Byzantines are presented next, and an explanation is given on how those might have led to sleep-deprivation. I recognise that the Byzantines were heirs to both the Biblical and Hellenic cultures, but I insist that their practice of both sleep-abstinence and sleep-deprivation was firmly rooted in the Bible. The monastic vigil is presented after this, and I determine how fervently sleep-loss was practised by establishing its difficulty, evaluating the methods used to achieve it, and scrutinising the accounts of sleepless saints. Sleep-deprivation appears more common among solitaries and lavriotes rather than coenobires. In this section, I also investigate possible pathological causes of sleep-deprivation. The vigil of the laity is dealt with in the last two chapters. The first examines vigils at home. It rejects the Ekirch-Wehr theory, according to which in pre-industrial times people had a nantral break in their sleep at midnight The theory purports that the church vigil simply colonised the period of wakefulness, so there was no sleep-abstinence. It is proven in this thesis that the breaking of sleep was artificial, an implementation of the Christian command to watch and pray at night. The last chapter presents vigils at church. While the Byzantines did not distinguish between private and public forms of piety, they preferred public vigils for reasons unconnected with theology. It was mostly during the church vigils that the Byzantine laity practised sleep-abstinence and occasionally either slumbered or became sleep-deprived. The thesis concludes that the Byzantines, inspired by the Bible, practised both sleep-deprivation and sleep-abstinence. Sleep-deprivation was sometimes consciously pursued, at other times it was the result of environmental, physical, or even pathological factors. Sleep-deprivation was a sign of religious fervour par excellence, but this did not diminish the value of sleep-abstinence, which for the Byzantines was a time of thanksgiving and repentance, of approaching God, fighting demons, and avoiding retribution.

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Thousands of pamphlets on dreams appeared in England in the period from 1500 to 1760. Many of them were concerned with the issue of determining the kinds of categories to which particular dreams belonged. For instance, the Kentish gentleman Reginald Scot who famously attributed supposed acts of witchcraft to the delusions of dreams also wrote on the "folly" of contemporary belief in divine dreams, and deferred to the expertise of physicians in distinguishing between natural and supernatural categories of dream. Similarly, the sixteenth-century dream-interpreter Thomas Hill argued that the "difference of true dreames from the vayn" including those arising from natural or demonic influences "ought diligently to be noted. "' Clearly, for these contemporaries the issues covered by discussions of dreams spanned a wide range of intellectual divisions from witchcraft to prophecy and medicine. Historians, on the other hand, have considered early modem dreams primarily in relation to their own narrow disciplinary divisions, separating topics that contemporaries saw as intimately linked. This study centres on the connections contemporaries themselves made among dream discourses; how medics viewed their role in distinguishing between natural and supernatural categories of dream; how theologians viewed medical interpretations of false prophecy and demonic dreaming; and the extent to which the arguments of philosophers grew out of political and religious concerns over imposture. It was these issues that shaped the ways in which accounts of dreams were understood, established the view of dreams as imaginations during sleep, and, because of their unique role in debates on authenticity, helped to determine the boundaries of verifiable knowledge.

No description available.

In the first chapter I compare and contrast the extant literature on sleep loss and insomnia, including theories as to how insomnia develops and the role of the circadian and homeostatic systems. In Chapter 2 I summarize the extant literature on sleep, emotion perception, and social task performance, and review the relevant emotion literature. I then critically appraise this literature and suggest future directions for this field. In Chapter 3 I pilot an emotion recognition task among students, including measures of sleep and empathy. Results suggest that the previous nights’ sleep, as well as depression scores, are significant predictors of happiness recognition. In Chapter 4 I assess emotion recognition in insomnia using dynamic stimuli, and results suggest that insomnia disorder impairs the categorization accuracy of high intensity expressions of sadness and low intensity expressions of surprise. Sleep diary parameters were also found to be significant predictors of happiness recognition on both accuracy and reaction time measures. I then assess how normal sleepers perform with these stimuli in Chapter 5, testing subjects at different times since waking. Chapter 5 Experiment One suggests that the early group are more sensitive towards several temporal parameters, with no effects on emotion recognition. Chapter 5 Experiment Two suggests that normal sleepers tested early are less sensitive towards mid-intensity expressions of anger and sadness, with effects on intensity recognition. These results are interpreted in the context of differences with the two late-tested groups. Chapter 6 extends these results to static stimuli, with results suggesting that the early group tend to make more errors when categorizing happy faces. Chapter 7 returns to the daytime impairments in insomnia disorder, suggesting that theory of mind task performance is altered when reaction times are measured. As a result of issues raised in this thesis Chapter 8 systematically reviews the literature on how normal sleepers are screened for participation in research studies, suggesting future criteria. Chapter 9 summarizes these results in the context of hyperarousal and the etiology of insomnia disorder.

Nightmares, a common sleep disturbance which provoke fearful awakening, have been found to be a significant predictor of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. The research presented in this thesis aims to firstly examine if nightmares are predictive of self-harm regardless of suicidal intent or motivation, and secondly to explore the psychological mechanism linking the occurrence of nightmares to self-harm. Chapter 2, an online survey, revealed that nightmares were a significant predictor of self-harm regardless of suicidal intent or motivation and that this relationship remained when controlling for the effects of depressive symptoms. High levels of nightmares were also associated with elevated levels of negative affect and defeat. Chapter 3 prospectively examined the direction of the predictive relationship between nightmares and self-injurious thoughts and behaviours (SITBs) through a 5-day diary study of undergraduate students. Nightmares unidirectionally predicted SITBs when controlling for depressive symptoms and negative affect. Mediation analysis revealed negative affect to be a partial mediator between nightmares and post-sleep SITBs. Chapter 4 explored differences in the linguistic content of nightmares in individuals with and without a history of self-harm, using nightmare reports prospectively obtained from participants taking part in the diary study. Contrary to the literature, participants with a history of self-harm did not report more words pertaining to death. Exploratory analysis investigating self-harm recency indicated a higher frequency of perceptual words such as ‘feel’ and body words such as ‘arm’ in participant with current self-harm (< 1 month) compared to those with a history of self-harm (> 1 month) and those without. Chapter 5 modelled the psychological mechanism linking nightmares to increased self-harm risk via structural equation modeling from survey data. This model incorporated negative affect, hyperarousal and a latent variable ‘self-harm cues’ building on our previous findings and the literature. Our retained model indicated that a 1 standard deviation increase in nightmare score increased the probability of participants having recently (< 1 month) engaged in self-harm. Chapter 6 tested the predictions of the model computed in the previous chapter using behavioural and psycho-physiological methodology. Psycho-physiological measures when exposed to negatively valenced stimuli did not reveal any differences between high and low nightmare participants, nor were differences observed in self-harm cue sensitivity. However, a medium effect was observed indicating the high nightmare group to be more sensitive to stressors. These findings are discussed in the context of the literature in Chapter 7. They provide novel insights into the relationship between nightmares and self-harm, and highlight the importance of negative affect and hyperarousal as reducing stress resilience in individuals at risk of deliberate self-injury.