Psychological and electrophysiological aspects of sleep paralysis

The thesis deals with the sleep paralysis phenomenon characterized by transient inability to move or to speak at sleep onset or on waking from sleep. It is accompanied by unpleasant, often multisensory hallucinations with intense fear and anxiety. The empirical part of this study is divided into four parts, which cover the topics of psychological and electrophysiological aspects of sleep paralysis. The aim is to describe psychological factors affecting the occurrence of sleep paralysis episodes and accompanying phenomena such as hallucination contents and emotional experiences. In the subsequent part we focus on comparisons of macrostructural and microstructural characteristics of sleep between participants with recurrent sleep paralysis episodes and healthy control group, including spectral analysis of EEG brain activity during REM sleep. We found out that personality characteristics such as personality boundaries and absorption may influence sleep paralysis episodes. We confirm the connection between sleep paralysis occurrence and nightmares - nightmares are a significant predictive factor of sleep paralysis frequency. According to emotional experience, sleep paralysis episodes are mostly connected to fear, although we found that in spite of fear presence, the episodes could be experienced as...Souhrn Disertační práce se zabývá fenoménem spánkové obrny, která je charakterizována tranzitorní poruchou volní hybnosti a fonace vázané na přechod spánku a bdění. Bývá doprovázena děsivými, mnohdy multisenzorickými halucinacemi s intenzivním prožitkem strachu a úzkosti. Vlastní empirická práce je rozdělena do čtyř studií, jejichž předmětem jsou psychologické a elektrofyziologické aspekty spánkové obrny. Cílem je popsat psychologické faktory, které ovlivňují výskyt spánkové obrny a doprovodných jevů, jako jsou obsahy halucinací a emoční prožívání. Navazující studie se zaměřuje na porovnání makrostrukturálních a mikrostrukturálních charakteristik spánku jedinců s opakujícími se epizodami spánkové obrny a zdravé kontrolní skupiny, a to včetně výsledků spektrálních analýz EEG aktivity mozku v průběhu REM spánku. Zjistili jsme, že osobnostní vlastnosti (především hranice osobnosti a absorpce osobnosti) mohou ovlivňovat charakter epizod spánkové obrny. Potvrdili jsme souvislost mezi výskytem spánkové obrny a nočními můrami, jejichž přítomnost je signifikantním prediktorem frekvence spánkových obrn. Ačkoliv je tato obrna nejčastěji spojována s intenzivním prožitkem strachu, mohou být její epizody - i přes jeho přítomnost - prožívány jako příjemné. Příjemný prožitek epizod spánkových obrn je spojený s osobnostní...Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology 3FM CU and NIMHKlinika psychiatrie a lékařské psychologie 3. LF UK a NÚDZ3. lékařská fakultaThird Faculty of Medicin

White Paper on the Czech Republic's National Education Development Programme

Bakalářská práce se zabývá charakteristikou Národního programu rozvoje vzdělávání v České republice (Bílé knihy), vymezením jejího hlavního cíle a analýzou rozvoje vzdělávání v rámci implementace doporučení tohoto strategického dokumentu. V závěru práce je provedeno zhodnocení naplnění stanovených kritérií Národního programu rozvoje vzdělávání v České republice.The bachelor thesis deals with a characteristic of the Czech Republic's National Education Development Programme (the White Paper), a definition of its main objective and education development analysis within the scope of implementing recommendations outlined by the strategy document. The thesis concludes with evaluation of how the criteria set by the Czech Republic's National Education Devolopment Programme have been fulfilled.Ústav ekonomických vědStudentka zpracováva bakalářskou práci na téma: "Bílá kniha - národní program rozvoje vzdělávání v České republice". Cílem práce bylo charakterizovat Bílou knihu, vymezit její hlavní cíle a zhodnotit naplnění reálného rozvoje vzdělávání v ČR v rámci stanovených kritérií vzhledem k tomuto strategickému dokumentu. Po prezentaci práce studentka zodpověděla na otázky: Jaké změny a nástroje, chce současné MŠMT ČR použít, aby se snížil nesoulad mezi počtem absolventů daných oborů a požadavky na trhu práce v ČR?Jaká vybraná kritéria jste zvolila pro hodnocení Bílé knihy

Humic acids from oxidized coals I. Elemental composition, titration curves, heavy metals in HA samples, nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of HAs and infrared spectroscopy

The formation of humic acids (HAs) from bituminous coal was verified by laboratory oxidation. In a relatively short time the oxidation by air at temperature above 150 °C led to the formation of HAs. These HAs were compared with those isolated from oxidized bituminous coal from the vicinity of red bed bodies, from weathered bituminous coal, oxihumolite and lignite. For this the organic and inorganic elemental composition of HAs, apparent dissociation constants, metal-binding capacities, nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectra were determined and evaluated. With increasing temperature of laboratory oxidation of bituminous coal the percentage of aromaticity of HAs increases. HAs prepared from coal oxidized at 150 °C are characterized by an aromaticity index 78% while for HAs prepared at 250 and 300 °C by 95% aromaticity. The same index for HAs isolated from naturally oxidized bituminous coals is of about 87% whereas it is of about 50% for oxihumolite and lignite. The apparent dissociation constants (Kapp) are much higher in HAs isolated from oxihumolite and lignite (pKapp from 3.35 to 3.80) than those from oxidized bituminous coal samples (pKapp from 4.47 to 4.85). There is a good negative correlation between Pb-binding capacity and pKapp of all samples suggesting that metallic ions are bonded to acidic groups of HAs. Also contents of inorganic elements like Fe, Al, Si are much higher in HAs isolated from lignite and oxihumolite than those in HAs from oxidized bituminous coal. Thus, it seems that the temperatures below 150 °C and the long oxidation time are necessary conditions for the formation of HAs in oxidative altered bituminous coal deposited deeply under the earth surface

Olfaction-Related Factors Affecting Chemosensory Dream Content in a Sleep Laboratory

Mental activity in sleep often involves visual and auditory content. Chemosensory (olfactory and gustatory) experiences are less common and underexplored. The aim of the study was to identify olfaction-related factors that may affect the occurrence of chemosensory dream content. Specifically, we investigated the effects of all-night exposure to an ambient odour, participants’ appraisal of their current olfactory environment, their general propensity to notice odours and act on them (i.e., odour awareness), and their olfactory acuity. Sixty pre-screened healthy young adults underwent olfactory assessment, completed a measure of odour awareness, and spent three nights in weekly intervals in a sleep laboratory. The purpose of the first visit was to adapt to the experimental setting. On the second visit, half of them were exposed to the smell of vanillin or thioglycolic acid and the other half to an odourless control condition. On the third visit, they received control or stimulation in a balanced order. On each visit, data were collected twice: once from the first rapid eye movement (REM) stage that occurred after 3 a.m., and then shortly before getting up, usually from a non-REM stage. Participants were asked to report the presence of sensory dream content and to assess their current olfactory environment. Neither exposure, nor participants’ assessments of the ambient odour, or olfactory acuity affected reports of chemosensory dream content but they were more frequent in individuals with greater odour awareness. This finding may have implications for treatment when such experiences become unwanted or bothersome

Nocturnal exposure to a preferred ambient scent does not affect dream emotionality or post-sleep core affect valence in young adults

Abstract Emotions experienced within sleep mentation (dreaming) affect mental functioning in waking life. There have been attempts at enhancing dream emotions using olfactory stimulation. Odors readily acquire affective value, but to profoundly influence emotional processing, they should bear personal significance for the perceiver rather than be generally pleasant. The main objective of the present sleep laboratory study was to examine whether prolonged nocturnal exposure to self-selected, preferred ambient room odor while asleep influences emotional aspects of sleep mentation and valence of post-sleep core affect. We asked twenty healthy participants (12 males, mean age 25 ± 4 years) to pick a commercially available scented room diffuser cartridge that most readily evoked positively valenced mental associations. In weekly intervals, the participants attended three sessions. After the adaptation visit, they were administered the odor exposure and odorless control condition in a balanced order. Participants were awakened five minutes into the first rapid eye movement (REM) stage that took place after 2:30 a.m. and, if they had been dreaming, they were asked to rate their mental sleep experience for pleasantness, emotional charge, and magnitude of positive and negative emotions and also to evaluate their post-sleep core affect valence. With rs < 0.20, no practically or statistically significant differences existed between exposure and control in any outcome measures. We conclude that in young, healthy participants, the practical value of olfactory stimulation with self-selected preferred scents for enhancement of dream emotions and post-sleep core affect valence is very limited

Closed‐loop auditory stimulation of slow‐wave sleep in chronic insomnia: a pilot study

Insomnia is a prevalent and disabling condition whose treatment is not always effective. This pilot study explores the feasibility and effects of closed-loop auditory stimulation (CLAS) as a potential non-invasive intervention to improve sleep, its subjective quality, and memory consolidation in patients with insomnia. A total of 27 patients with chronic insomnia underwent a crossover, sham-controlled study with 2 nights of either CLAS or sham stimulation. Polysomnography was used to record sleep parameters, while questionnaires and a word-pair memory task were administered to assess subjective sleep quality and memory consolidation. The initial analyses included 17 patients who completed the study, met the inclusion criteria, and received CLAS. From those, 10 (58%) received only a small number of stimuli. In the remaining seven (41%) patients with sufficient CLAS, we evaluated the acute and whole-night effect on sleep. CLAS led to a significant immediate increase in slow oscillation (0.5–1 Hz) amplitude and activity, and reduced delta (1–4 Hz) and sigma/sleep spindle (12–15 Hz) activity during slow-wave sleep across the whole night. All these fundamental sleep rhythms are implicated in sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Yet, CLAS did not change sleep-dependent memory consolidation or sleep macrostructure characteristics, number of arousals, or subjective perception of sleep quality. Results showed CLAS to be feasible in patients with insomnia. However, a high variance in the efficacy of our automated stimulation approach suggests that further research is needed to optimise stimulation protocols to better unlock potential CLAS benefits for sleep structure and subjective sleep quality in such clinical settings