PSYC 208 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Shift Work, Voltmeter, Narcolepsy
Document Summary
Belief was that sleep was the work of gods. Hypnos (greek) often seen with twin brother, god of death. Somnus (roman) god of sleep, insomnia. Morpheus (greek and roman) god of dreams. 450 bc alcmaeon: earliest documented theory of sleep, loss of consciousness as blood retreats from surface of body. 350 bc aristotle: sleep is due to warm vapours rising from the heart during digestion, time of renewal improvement after sleep, sleep only occurs in perceiving creatures (not plants) Psyc 208 lecture 2: history of sleep research: blood depletes during wakefulness. 162 bc galen, physician: consciousness is in the brain, not the heart, sleep is important for thinking. 1830 robert mcnish wrote philosophy of sleep, sleep is temporary of metaphysical death. On the temperature of man body temp and sleep patterns are not dependent on the external environment internally driven snake-like cold blooded when sleep. 1875 richard caton, english biologist found spontaneous electrical activity in animal (dog brains, used voltmeter)
