Download Chapter 7 States of Consciousness

States of
Consciousness
When we are awake we are…
In a state of Consciousness
Our awareness of ourselves
and our surroundings
*includes feelings, sensations, ideas, perceptions
The central theory of conscious
behavior can be found in:
Conscious
Preconscious
Subconscious
Unconscious
Levels of Consciousness
• Conscious Level – The information about yourself and
your environment you are currently aware of.
• Nonconscious Level – Biological functions (heartbeat,
respiration, digestion, and so on).
• Preconscious Level – Information about yourself or your
environment that you are not currently thinking about but
you can recall and become aware of (memories & stored
knowledge)
• Subconscious Level – Information that we are not
consciously aware of but we know must exist due to
behavior (i.e. priming and mere-exposure)
• Unconscious Level – Events an feelings that are
unacceptable to our conscious mind and are repressed.
Why Do We Daydream?
• They can help us prepare for future events
• They can nourish our social development
• They can substitute for impulsive behavior
Sleep and Circadian Rhythms
• You spend one third of your whole life sleeping.
• Like all creatures, we have a biological clock, which
governs our daily function. This process is called
Circadian Rhythms (The rhythm of activity and
inactivity lasting approximately one day)
• These rhythms include a sequence of bodily changes,
such as a change in body temperature, blood pressure,
and sleepiness and wakefulness, that occurs every 24
hours.
• It is best to take a test or study during your circadian
peaks
How can the circadian rhythm help explain jet lag?
The Stages of
Sleep
• Researchers have discovered that we sleep in stages.
• These stages are defined according to brain wave patterns
– measured by electroencephalograph (EEG).
• Brain waves (electrical activity) are cyclical. That is, they
vary according to whether we are awake, relaxed, or
sleeping.
• There are four different kinds of brain waves – beta, alpha,
theta, and delta.
• Awake brain = beta waves (short and quick)
• Begin to relax and get drowsy, the brain waves slow and
change to alpha waves (a little slower than beta)
• After this relaxed state, sleep follows in five distinct stages.
Sleep Stages
 There are 5 identified stages of sleep.
 It takes about 90-100 minutes to pass
through the 5 stages.
 The brain’s waves will change
according to the sleep stage you are in.
 The first four stages and know as
NREM sleep..
 The fifth stage is called REM sleep.
Stage One
 This is experienced as falling to
sleep and is a transition stage
between wake and sleep.
 It usually lasts between 1 and 5 minutes
and occupies approximately 2-5 % of a
normal night of sleep.
 eyes begin to roll slightly.
 consists mostly of theta waves (high
amplitude, low frequency (slow))
 brief periods of alpha waves, similar to
those present while awake
Stage Two
 This follows Stage 1 sleep and is the
"baseline" of sleep.
 This stage is part of the 90 minute cycle
and occupies approximately 45-60% of
sleep.
Stage Three & Four
 Stages three and four are "Delta" sleep or
"slow wave" sleep and may last 15-30
minutes.
 It is called "slow wave" sleep because brain
activity slows down dramatically from the
"theta" rhythm of Stage 2 to a much slower
rhythm called "delta" and the height or
amplitude of the waves increases
dramatically.
Stage Three and Four
(continued)
 Contrary to popular belief, it is delta sleep
that is the "deepest" stage of sleep (not
REM) and the most restorative.
 It is delta sleep that a sleep-deprived
person's brain craves the first and foremost.
 In children, delta sleep can occupy up to 40%
of all sleep time and this is what makes
children unawake able
or "dead asleep" during
most of the night.
Stage Five: REM SLEEP
 REM: Rapid Eye Movement
 This is a very active stage of sleep.
 Composes 20-25 % of a normal nights
sleep.
 Breathing, heart rate and brain wave
activity quicken.
 Vivid Dreams can occur.
 From REM, you go back to Stage 2
REM
 Body is essentially paralyzed during REM.
 Genitals become aroused. Erections and
clitoral engorgement.
 “Morning Erections” are from final REM
stage.
A typical 25 year old man has an
erection during half of his sleep
A 65 year old- one quarter
Brain Waves and Sleep Stages
Stages in a Typical Night’s Sleep
Awake
Sleep
stages
1
2
3
REM
4
0
1
2
3
4
Hours of sleep
5
6
7
What if you didn’t sleep?
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In 1964, a research study was
conducted under the
supervision of a doctor  a 17
year old boy stayed awake for
almost 11 days straight.
Result: he was extremely
irritable, could not focus his
eyes, had speech difficulties,
memory lapses, accident prone
and depressed immune system.
Person would eventually die if
they didn’t sleep.
Sleep Disorders
Insomnia
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Recurring problems in falling or staying
asleep
Not your once in a while (I have a big test
tomorrow) having trouble getting to sleep
episodes
Insomnia is not defined by the number of
hours you sleep every night
Primary versus Secondary insomnia
Narcolepsy
Characterized by uncontrollable sleep
attacks
•Lapses directly into REM sleep (usually
during times of stress or joy)
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Narcoleptic Dog
Sleep Apnea
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A sleep disorder characterized by
temporary cessations of
breathing during sleep and
consequent momentary
reawakenings
Night Terrors
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A sleep disorder
characterized by
high arousal and an
appearance of being
terrified.
Occur in Stage 4,
not REM, and are not
often remembered.
Sleepwalking
(Somnambulism)
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Sleepwalking is a sleep
disorder effecting an
estimated 10 percent of
all humans at least once
in their lives.
Sleep walking most often
occurs during deep nonREM sleep (stage 3 or
stage 4 sleep) early in the
night.
Sleepwalking
Symptoms and Features:
 Ambulation (walking or moving about) that
occurs during sleep. The onset typically occurs in
pre-pubertal children.
 difficulty in arousing the patient during an
episode
 amnesia following an episode
 Fatigue (which is not the same as drowsiness),
stress and anxiety
Young children who have the deepest and
lengthiest Stage 4 sleep, are most likely to
experience both night terrors and sleepwalking.
As we get older, Stage 4 sleep diminishes – so do
night terrors and sleepwalking.
Sleepwalking
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The sleep walking activity may include simply
sitting up and appearing awake while actually
asleep, getting up and walking around, or
complex activities such as moving furniture,
going to the bathroom, dressing and undressing,
and similar activities. Some people even drive a
car while actually asleep. The episode can be
very brief (a few seconds or minutes) or can last
for 30 minutes or longer.
One common misconception is that a sleep
walker should not be awakened. It is not
dangerous to awaken a sleep walker, although it
is common for the person to be confused or
disoriented for a short time on awakening.
Another misconception is that a person cannot be
injured when sleep walking. Actually, injuries
caused by such things as tripping and loss of
balance are common for sleep walkers.
Why Dream?
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Dreaming, primarily occurs during REM sleep.
When someone is awakened during REM sleep, they
usually report/remember a dream.
The average adult dreams for about 1 ½ hours every
night.
Modern psychology suggests that dreams are simply a
reflection of the brain’s aroused state during active
sleep.
Why Dream?
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During REM sleep, the cerebral cortex is active,
but it is largely shut off from sensory input.
The brain’s activity then is not constrained by
the demands of external reality.
Memory images become more prominent than
during waking life – for they do have to compete
with the insistent here and now provided by the
senses.
The recent experiences of the day are usually
evoked, and they then arouse a number of
previous memories and intermingle them.
Freud’s wish-fulfillment
Theory
 Dreams
are the key to understanding
our inner conflicts
 Ideas and thoughts that are hidden
in our unconscious
 Manifest and latent content
Freud’s theory of dreams
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Freud began with the assumption that at the root of every dream
lies an attempt at wish fulfillment.
While awake, a wish is not always acted upon because
considerations of both reality (the ego) and morality (the super
ego)
But during sleep, these restraints are drastically weakened and
the wish then leads to immediate thoughts and images of
gratification.
The underlying wish touches upon some forbidden
impulses/desires that might be associated with anxiety.
Therefore, the wish is censored (cannot be expressed directly) –
only allowed to surface within a dream in symbolic disguise.
The dreamer never experiences the latent (underlying) dream that
is the hidden wish Instead, experiences the manifest (obvious)
dream emerging after the defense mechanisms have done their
work.
Latent Content: the underlying meaning of a dream.
Manifest Content: the remembered storyline of a dream.
This latent-manifest dreaming represents a compromise between
forbidden urges (id) and repressive forces (super ego) that hold
them down.
Essentially, according to Freud, dreaming is a symbolic process.
True forbidden wishes are veiled in symbolic disguises.
Information-Processing
Theory
 Dreams
act to
sort out and
understand the
memories that
you experience
that day
 REM sleep does
increase after
stressful events
Physiological Function Theories
Activation-Synthesis
Theory:
 during the night our
brainstem releases
random neural activity,
dreams may be a way to
make sense of that
activity.
 The
REM Rebound
tendency for REM sleep to
increase following REM sleep
deprivation
 What will happen if you don’t get a
good nights sleep for a week, and
then sleep for 10 hours?
You will dream a lot!!!
Hypnosis
Hypnosis
Altered state of consciousness?
 Posthypnotic suggestion – a
hypnotized person will behave in
a certain way after he/she is
brought out of hypnosis
 Posthypnotic amnesia – when
people report forgetting events
that occurred while they were
hypnotized.
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Hypnotic Theories
Role Theory
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Hypnosis is NOT an
altered state of
consciousness.
Different people have
various state of hypnotic
suggestibility.
A social phenomenon
where people want to
believe.
Work better on people
with richer fantasy lives.
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State Theory
Hypnosis is an altered
state of consciousness.
Dramatic health
benefits
It works for pain best.
Dissociation Theory
Theory by Ernest
Hilgard
 We voluntarily divide
our consciousness up.
 Ice Water
Experiment
 We have a hidden
observer, a level of
us that is always
aware.
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DRUGS
Drugs and Consciousness

Psychoactive Drug
 a chemical substance that alters
perceptions and mood
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Physical Dependence
 physiological need for a drug
 marked by unpleasant withdrawal
symptoms
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Psychological Dependence
 a psychological need to use a drug
 for example, to relieve negative emotions
Psychoactive Drugs
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Depressants “Downers”
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drugs that reduce neural activity
slow body functions
*Alcohol (Involved in up to 60% of all crimes; the worst drug from a
macro perspective out there)
*barbiturates and opiates
Stimulants “Uppers”
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drugs that excite neural activity
speed up body functions
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caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy
Hallucinogens
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psychedelic (mind-manifesting) drugs that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images
in the absence of sensory input
LSD
Barbiturates “Tranquilizers”
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Opiates
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drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but
impairing memory and judgment
opium and its derivatives (morphine and heroin)
opiates depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety
Amphetamines
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drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated
energy and mood changes
Psychoactive Drugs