Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

consciousness
The awareness of the sensations, thoughts, and 
feelings being experienced at a given moment. 
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Mike Trevino, 29, slept nine hours in nine days in his quest to win a 3,000-mile, 
cross-country bike race. For the fi rst 38 hrs. and 646 miles, he skipped sleep entirely. 
Later he napped—with no dreams he can remember—for no more than 90 minutes a 
night. Soon he began to imagine that his support crew was part of a bomb plot. “It was 
almost like riding in a movie. I thought it was a complex dream, even though I was 
conscious,” says Trevino, who fi nished second. (Springen, 2004, p. 47)
Trevino’s case is unusual—in part because he was able to function with so little sleep 
for so long—and it raises a host of questions about sleep and dreams. Can we live 
without sleep? What is the meaning of dreams? More generally, what is sleep? 
Although sleeping is a state that we all experience, there are still many unan-
swered questions about sleep that remain, along with a considerable number of myths. 
Test your knowledge of sleep and dreams by answering the questionnaire in Figure 1. 
Key Concepts
What are the diff erent states 
of consciousness? 
What happens when we sleep, 
and what are the meaning 
and function of dreams? 
What are the major sleep 
disorders, and how can they 
be treated? 
How much do we daydream?
M O D U L E 1 4 
 
Sleep and Dreams
FIGURE 1 
There are many unanswered 
questions about sleep. Taking this quiz 
can help you clear up some of the myths.