States of Consciousness

Levels of Consciousness

CONSCIOUS: Thoughts/memories to which we are FULLY AWARE. Not non-conscious info (e.g. hormone changes, electrical brain activity, etc.) PRECONSCIOUS: Absent but info may be brought to level of consciousness (e.g. first day of this class). UNCONSCIOUS: Connected to memories and feelings. Impulses which are very difficult to bring to awareness (e.g. you hate your mother).

Modes of Consciousness

CONSCIOUSNESS- immediate awareness of both external and internal events. PASSIVE: Meaning UNFOCUSED. Open awareness of surroundings. Relaxed enjoyment (e.g. listening to music). ACTIVE: Meaning FOCUSED. Productive mental activities (e.g. planning; decision-making).

Altered States of Consciousness

HYPNOSIS: Where people begin to go into a trancelike state of heightened susceptibility to the suggestions of others. - Started by Mesmer in the 1700s, created the word "mesmerized". - Deals with the interplay between voluntary and involuntary control. - Uses relaxation, suggestion, restriction of attention, and intense concentration (Hypnotic Conditions). - Despite their compliance when hypnotized, people do not lose all will of their own. Only 8 out of 10 can be hypnotized but only a small % are highly responsive to hypnosis.They will not perform antisocial behaviors, and they will not carry out self-destructive acts. People will not reveal hidden truths about themselves, and they are capable of lying. Moreover, people cannot by hypnotized against their will-despite popular misconceptions. - According to famed hypnosis researcher Ernest Hilgard, hypnosis brings about a DISSOCIATION, or division, of consciousness into two simultaneous components. - People go under hypnosis for certain reasons: - To control pain - Reduce the like of smoking - Treating psychological disorders - To assist la enforcement - To improve athletic performance SLEEP: - FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP: 1) Energy Conservation 2) Restorative Period: forced to conserve energy 3) Behavioral Adaptive (Webb)- a protective device carried out from pre-historic times when we needed to put oneself in a non-responsive state so the threatening environment won't bother us. 4) Use to consolidate memories. - CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS (from the Latin CIRCA DIEM, or "about a day") are biological processes that occur regularly on approximately a 24-hour cycle (Programmed into our daily lives). (Example: 2 weeks to recover from 4 hour change) - Regulated by the hypothalamus. - Several other bodily functions, such as body temperature, hormone production, and blood pressure, also follow circadian rhythms. - The brain's SUPRACHIASMATIC NUCLEUS (SCN) controls circadian rhythms. - However, the relative amount of light and darkness, which varies with the seasons of the year, also plays a role in regulating circadian rhythms. IN fact, some people experience SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER, a form of severe depression in which feelings of despair and hopelessness increase during the winter and lift during the rest of the year. The disorder appears to be a result of the brevity and gloom of winter days. - AVERAGE SLEEP TIME - Infants: 13-16 hours (Because it becomes overwhelming for them, so they need all the rest they can get.) - Adolescents: 10-11 hours - Adults: 7-8 hours - Takes up about 1/3 of your lifetime. - MEASURING SLEEP: - EEG: records brain electrical activity - EMG: records muscle movement - EOG: records eye movement - KINDS OF SLEEP: 1) Non-rapid eye movement a) NREM b) Brain relatively inactive c) Body highly active d) Eyes hardly moving 2) REM- brain active a) Body immobile (as if paralyzed) b) Eyes moving rapidly c) Most dreams occur here - Characteristics of REm a) Rem rebounds if you miss too much REM sleep, and you make up for it by deleting stage 4 of the sleep cycle. b) Deprivation makes a person grouchy c) Internal organs act as day-time emergency (heart increase, respiration (shallow & fast), blood pressure increases; sex organs may fill with blood) d) REM increases over the duration of the night. - 1st for 10 mins - 2nd After 20 mins later for 20 mins - 3rd 90 minutes later for 40 mins e) REM Time - Early age 50% - Middle age 20% - Later age 14%

Sleep Disturbances: Slumbering Problems

- At one time or another, almost all of us have difficulty sleeping-a condition known as INSOMNIA. It is where you are unable to sleep or are sleeping too little. Treatments: - Counting Sheep - It is good for you because the left hemisphere sees it as a reason and the right hemisphere uses the imagery so the two hemispheres start to function. - A progressive relaxation technique (tense and then relaxes). SLEEP APNEA is a condition in which a person has difficulty breathing while sleeping. The result is disturbed, fitful sleep, and a significant loss of REM sleep, as the person is constantly reawakened when the lack of oxygen becomes great enough to trigger an awaking response. - Sleep apnea also may play a role in SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME (SIDS), a mysterious killer of seemingly normal infants who die while sleeping. NIGHT TERRORS are sudden awakenings from non-REM sleep that are accompanied by extreme fear, panic, and strong physiological arousal. Usually occurring with 1 hour of going to sleep during stage 4 sleep. They occur most frequently in children between the ages of 3 and 8. NIGHTMARES: Bad dreams that occur toward the morning during REM sleep. More frequent than night terrors. NARCOLEPSY is uncontrollable sleeping that occurs for short periods while a person is awake. No matter what the activity-holding a heated conversation, exercising, or driving-a narcoleptic will suddenly fall asleep. People with narcolepsy go directly from wakefulness to REM sleep, skipping the other stages. The causes of narcolepsy are not known, although there could be a genetic component because narcolepsy runs in families. SLEEPTALKING AND SLEEPWALKING (SOMNAMBULISM): Both occur during stage 4 sleep and about 10% of children have, however, it doesn't go past the age of 12. Sleeptalkers and sleepwalkers usually have a vague consciousness of the world around them, and a sleepwalker may be able to walk with agility around obstructions in a crowded room. It is caused by stress and a fever. Occurs rarely in strange places. SLEEP DEPRIVATION: -Peter Tripp a disk jockey stayed up for 200 hours Randy Gardner stayed up for 264 hours. - Almost any degree of sleepiness can be overcome by physical exercise. If people go without hours of sleep, they will start to hear and see hallucinations. The amount of sleep required to catch up after prolonged wakefulness is about the same as for normal night's sleep (up to 14 hours). HYPERSOMNIA: Excessive daytime sleep. ENURESIS: Bed-wetting. It happens more in males than females, however, it is not usually caused by psychology disturbances. BRUXISM: Teeth grinding.

REM Sleep: The Paradox of Sleep

- The heart rate increases and becomes irregular, their blood pressure rises, and their breathing rate increases. Most characteristic of this period is the back-and-forth movement of their eyes as if they were watching an action-filled movie. This period is called RAPID EYE MOVEMENT (REM SLEEP). REM SLEEP: Sleep occupying 20% of an adult's sleeping time, characterized by increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate; erections; eye movements; and the experience of dreaming. 20-25 cycles per second. Beta waves. 80% of sleep is slow-wave sleep. 20% of it is REM. - Paradoxically, while all this activity is occurring, the major muscles of the body appear to be paralyzed. And although some dreaming occurs in non-REM stages of sleep, dreams are most likely to occur in the REM period, where they are most vivid and easily remembered. - There is a good reason to believe that REM sleep plays a critical role in everyday human functioning. People deprived of REM sleep-by being awakened every time they begin to display the physiological signs of that stage-show a REBOUND EFFECT when allowed to rest undisturbed. With this rebound effect, REM-deprived sleepers spend significantly more time in REM sleep than they normally would. In addition, REM sleep may play a role in learning and memory, allowing us to rethink and restore info and emotional experiences that we've had during the day. DREAMS: During REM and non-REM sleep. It is described as a mentation through a thought-like or verbal formation. - Research findings: All people dream. It occurs throughout the night, about approximately 90 minutes. - Intervals: Each dream lasts longer than the previous one. - Importance of Dreams: Dream deprivation increases the need to dream. Connects to the REM rebound.

The Function and Meaning of Dreaming

- Using psychoanalytic theory, Sigmund Freud viewed dreams as a guide to the unconscious. In his UNCONSCIOUS WISH FULFILLMENT THEORY, he proposed that dreams represent unconscious wishes that dreamers desire to see fulfilled. To Freud, the MANIFEST CONTENT of the dream is what we remember and report about the dream-its storyline. The manifest content, however, disguises the LATENT CONTENT, which includes the actual, underlying wishes that the dream represents. Because the underlying wishes (the latent content) are threatening to the dreamer, they are hidden in the dream's storyline (the manifest content). - According to the DREAMS-FOR-SURVIVAL Theory, which is based on the evolutionary perspective, dreams permit us to reconsider and reprocess during sleep info that is critical for our daily survival. Dreaming is considered an inheritance from our animal ancestors, whose small brains were unable to sift sufficient info during waking hours. Consequently, dreaming provided a mechanism that permitted the processing of info 24 hours a day. In the dreams-for-survival theory, dreams represent concerns about our daily lives, illustrating our uncertainties, indecisions, ideas, and desires. - Using the neuroscience perspective, psychiatrist J. Allan Hobson has proposed the activation-synthesis theory of dreams. ACTIVATION-SYNTHESIS THEORY: The theory that the brain produces random electrical energy during REM sleep that stimulates memories stored in the brain. - It has been defined by the ACTIVATION INFO MODULATION (AIM) THEORY. According to AIM, dreams are initiated in the brain's pons, which sends random signals to the cortex. Areas of the cortex that are involved in particular waking behaviors are related to the content of dreams. For example, areas of the brain related to vision are involved in the visual aspects of the dream related to motion.

The Stages of Sleep

AWAKE: Moves 20-25 cycles per second. Associates with beta waves. Desynchronized high frequency. Low amplitude. DROWSY: 12-14 cycles per second. Associates itself with alpha waves. Larger synchronized waves. Slower process. Start to lose thoughts. And you may tend to jump sometimes. - When people first go to sleep, they move from a waking state in which they are relaxed with their eyes closed into STAGE 1 SLEEP. STAGE 1 SLEEP: The state of transition between wakefulness and sleep, characterized by relatively rapid, low-amplitude brain waves. 9-12 cycles per second and deals with theta waves. - It only lasts for a couple of minutes. During Stage 1, images sometimes appear, as if we were viewing still photos, although this nt=ot true dreaming, which occurs later in the night. - As sleep becomes deeper, people enter STAGE 2 SLEEP, STAGE 2 SLEEP: A sleep deeper than that of stage 1, characterized by a slower, more regular wave pattern, along with momentary interruptions of "sleep spindles". 3-6 cycles per second. Takes up 50% of sleep. If awakened you would say that you were asleep. Difficult to awaken from. - This makes up about half of the total sleep of those in their early 20s.It becomes increasingly difficult to awaken a person from sleep as stage 2 progresses. - People then drift into STAGE 3 SLEEP. STAGE 3 SLEEP: A sleep characterized by slow brain waves with greater peaks and valleys in the wave pattern than in stage 2 sleep. 2-4 cycles per second. Beginning delta waves. Takes up 20-50% of your sleep. Larger, slower waves. Deep sleep. - And by this time, sleepers arrive at STAGE 4 SLEEP. STAGE 4 SLEEP: The deepest stage of sleep, during which we are least responsive to outside stimulation. 1-4 cycles per second. Delta waves. At least 50% of your sleep. Low frequency. High amplitude. Deep sleep. Several sleep disturbances/disorders occur here. -In the first half of the night, sleep is dominated by stages 3 and 4. The second half is characterized by stages 1 and 2-as well as a fifth stage during which dreams occur. - Stages 1 through 4 is also called non-REM sleep.

Daydreams: Dreams Without Sleep

DAYDREAMS are fantasies that people construct while awake. - Unlike dreaming that occurs during sleep, daydreams are more under people's control. Therefore, their content is often more closely related to immediate events in the environment that is the content of the dreams that occur during sleep. - Daydreams are a typical part of waking consciousness, even though our awareness of the environment around us declines while we are daydreaming. For example, around 2% to 4% of the population spends at least half their free time fantasizing. - When dealing with complex problem solving, daydreaming may be the only time these areas are activated simultaneously, suggesting that daydreaming may lead to insights about problems that we are grappling.