Download Consciousness

Announcement: Lecture at MCC
Fact or Falsehood?
The National Sleep Foundation’s Sleep IQ Test
States of Consciousness
Chapter 5
-Understanding Consciousness
- Sleep and Dreams
Circadian Rhythms, Stages of Sleep, Why Do We Sleep &
Dream?, Sleep Disorders, Self-help for Sleep Problems
- Psychoactive Drugs
- Healthier Ways to Alter Consciousness
Graph your alertness

Think of your alertness level on during a typical
weekday. Make a graph with wake-up to sleep
on the x-axis, and alertness on the y-axis.
Consciousness

Definition: An individual’s perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and
memories that are active at a given moment.
Or “an organism’s awareness of its own self and surroundings”

Awareness of:
• Internal sensations
• External events
• Self as a unique being
• Thoughts and experiences

Characteristics: Personal and subjective, occurring on a
continuum, and changing all the time.
Function of Consciousness
 Monitoring
• Monitoring the environment for what is and
what isn’t important
• Selective Attention: the ability to choose
what to allow into consciousness
• Cocktail Party Phenomenon

Controlling
• Used to plan and change our actions
Conscious/Unconscious Continuum

Subconscious
• ignore, select and reject incoming stimuli
• Ex: clock chiming the hour
 Preconscious
• Available memories
 Unconscious
• Freudian slips, repressed memories, dreams
 Divided Consciousness
• Ability to do two things at once
• Controlled vs. Automatic processes
Rhythms in humans

Yearly, 28 day, 90 minute

24 hour (Circadian) Rhythms: alertness, body temp, hormones

What happens if no external cues?

Jet lag

Sleep Deprivation
West to East Phase advance
East to West Phase delay
Theories on Sleep
There is no physiological reason found for sleep
Adaptive: Species need a certain time awake to
survive. Sleep protects by keeping out of trouble.
Conserving Energy: Less calories burned.
Restorative: Restore body and nervous system
Sleep as a change in consciousness
 Sleep Stages
• Stage 1
• Stage 2
Collectively called NREM stages
• Stage 3
• Stage 4
• REM
EEG Cycles
Brain Waves
Sleep Stages 1 & 2
Stage 1
• Theta Waves, irregular, breathing slows, light
sleep, easily awakened, lasts about two minutes,
hypnogogic jerks
Stage 2
• About 20 minutes long
• Characterized by sleep spindles and K Complexes
• easily awakened but clearly asleep
DEEP Sleep stages 3 & 4
Stage 3
• A purely transitional stage
• marked by 20-50% delta waves
Stage 4
• About 30 minutes long
• Hard to awaken
• Delta waves > than 50% of the time
• Walking or talking in sleep, wetting the bed, and
night terrors can occur during this stage
• Still attend to external stimuli
Sleep Stages REM
REM
• Occurs the first time about an hour into the
sleep cycle
• Brain waves rapid
• Breathing and heart rate rapid
• Arousal of genitals
• Rapid eye movement
• Essentially paralyzed during this stage
• Cannot easily be awakened
The Cycles of Sleep



Repeats about every 90 minutes
REM sleep increases at the night moves on
About 25% of sleep is REM
Function of Sleep

Deprivation studies for REM sleep result in:
•
•
•
•
•
•
hand tremors
crankiness
inability to pay attention, concentrate
reports of being sleepy
reported hallucinations
REM rebound which occurs once normal sleep
cycle is allowed to return
Specific Sleep Disorders







Sleep Apnea
Nightmares
Narcolepsy
Sleep paralysis
Insomnia
REM without Atonia
Restless leg
Sleep walking, talking
Night Terrors (NREM) children, sudden terror
Dreaming

Dreams can occur at any stage
 Content and clarity of dream depends on which
stage it occurs in
• Dreams in sleep stage 1-4 generally lack detail
and are more associated with reports of
emotion (ex: “It felt like I was being chased”)
• REM dreams are detailed and are associated
with story lines (ex: I was walking down a
dimly lit street, wearing high heels…”)
The Function of Dreaming

Function
• Wish Fulfillment (Freud):
Manifest (actual) and latent contents (symbolic)
• Information Processing (Cartwright):
The need to continue processing the day’s activities.
Solves problems
• Activation Synthesis Hypothesis (Hobson & McCarley):
Triggered by neural activity from the brainstem
Dreaming: pic
Most Common Dreams

Falling
 Being attacked
 Trying repeatedly to do something
 School, teachers, exams
 Sex
 Arriving too late
 Frozen with fright
 Death of a loved one
 Nudity/Inappropriate dress
 Killing or seeing themselves dead
 Fire/ Snakes
Hypnosis





Heightened state of suggestibility
Posthypnotic suggestions and amnesia
Theories: Disassociation, role, state
Best subjects: fantasize, imaginations, good
concentration, think favorably
Facts and fallacies
Drugs and Consciousness

Concepts in drug use
• Tolerance: The need to use more and more of a drug
to continue to get the same effects
• Dependence
• Physiological: Showing a withdrawal syndrome
once removed from the drug regimen
• Psychological: An emotional need for the drug
• Co-dependence
• Withdrawal: A distinct set of physiological
symptoms associated with the removal of the drug
from the system
Factors influencing drugs effects








Tolerance- change method of taking
Weight
Physiology
Gender/ethnic background
Amount, strength
Personality, mood
Age
Other drugs in system (synergy)
Use of Drugs - Percentage
“This picture demonstrates the debilitating
effects of drug use. You can clearly see the
physical breakdown that occurs with the abuse
of drugs. What you don't see but can imagine
is the loss of jobs, relationships and family.”
http://www.houstoncriminallawjournal.com/art
icles/drug-possession/
Classifications of Drugs

Stimulants: Drugs that stimulate CNS activity
• Examples –(meth)amphetamines, caffeine,
nicotine, ritalin, cocaine
• Can cause rush of energy and mood,
followed by a crash.
• Prolonged use and/or abuse can cause
psychosis.
Opiates



Can be called pain killers:
Heroin, oxycotin, codeine, morpheme
Kills pain, restricts pupils, sedates,
apathetic (no cares)
Depressants

Drugs which decrease CNS activity
• Examples - Alcohol, Barbiturates, Minor
tranquilizers, anti-anxiety (valium, zanax)

Alcohol: Reduces inhibitions. Males more
likely to coerce sex, tip and spend big.
Stimulants

Amphetamines: Speeds up nervous system.
Often an initial euphoria or gain in energy
followed by a crash
Examples: Meth, cocaine, nicotine, Ritalin,
“speed”
Other classifications

Hallucinogens: Drugs that change perception
and self-awareness
• Examples - LSD, PCP, marijuana (hard to
classify), peyote (legal on reservation),
psilocybin
Inhalants
Restricts blood to the brain
Marijuana



Does not fit neatly into any category,
although usually classified as
hallucinogen
Active drug THC
Much stronger than in previous
generations.
Classification of Drugs