Fact or Falsehood?

The National Sleep Foundation’s Sleep IQ Test

States of Consciousness

Chapter 5

-Understanding Consciousness

- Sleep and DreamsCircadian 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• Check out this Ted Talk about Circadian Rhythms!

•What happens if no external cues?

• Jet lag West to East Phase advanceEast to West Phase delay

• Sleep Deprivation – • 25 facts of sleep deprivation

Theories on SleepThere 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•Stage 3•Stage 4•REM

Collectively called NREM stages

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 & 4Stage 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

Video on REM from Psychology Tomorrow

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 Factors Video

•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/articles/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