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Consciousness. Sleep, Dreams, and Body Rhythms. Consciousness. Consciousness. Awareness of yourself and your environment. Possible levels of consciousness. Conscious– the information about yourself and your environment.
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Consciousness • Awareness of yourself and your environment
Possible levels of consciousness • Conscious– the information about yourself and your environment. • Nonconscious – body processes controlled by your mind that we are not usually (or ever) aware of. • Preconscious – information about yourself or your environment that you are not currently thinking about (not on a conscious level) but you could be.
Subconscious – information that we are not consciously aware of but we know must exist due to behavior. • Unconscious – some psychologists believe some events and feelings are unacceptable to our conscious mind and are repressed into the unconscious mind.
Biological Rhythms • Periodic physiological fluctuations • Can affect physiological functioning • Fall into three main categories • Circadian Rhythms • Ultradian Rhythms • Infradian Rhythms
Circadian Rhythms • Biological rhythms that occur approximately every 24 hours • Example: Sleep-wake cycle and temperature
Ultradian Rhythms • Biological rhythms that occur more than once each day • Example: Stages of sleep throughout the night
Infradian Rhythms • Biological rhythms that occur once a month or once a season • Example: Women’s menstrual cycle
Hypnosis • A social interaction in which a hypnotist makes suggestions about perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors, and the subject follows those suggestions • Differences in the ability of people to become hypnotized
Psychoactive drugs • Chemical substance that alters perceptions, mood, or behavior • Three common psychoactive drugs: • Caffeine • Alcohol • Nicotine
Meditation • Techniques used to control or retain attention • Techniques include focusing on: • Awareness of a visual image • Breathing • A word or phrase
Sleep • An altered state of consciousness in which people become relatively, but not totally, unaware of external stimulation
Reasons for Sleep • Two primary reasons: • Preservation: keep us protected from the dangers of the night • Restoration: recuperate from the wear and tear of the day
Hypothalamus • Sleep control center in the brain • Monitors changes in light or dark in the environment • Changes levels of hormones in the body
Melatonin • Hormone that helps regulate daily biological rhythms • Linked to the sleep-wake cycle • Melatonin level increases during the night and decreases with exposure to morning light
Non-REM Sleep • Stages 1 - 4 considered N-REM (non-REM sleep)
Stage 1 Sleep • Breathing is slowed. • Brain waves become irregular. • It is easy to wake the person, who will insist they are not asleep. • Rarely lasts longer than 5 minutes
Stage 2 Sleep • Brain wave cycle slows. • First time through stage 2 last about 20 minutes.
Stages 3 and 4 Sleep • Slow wave sleep • First time through stage 4 is about 30 minutes and is where one gets rejuvenated
REM Sleep • Rapid eye movement (REM Sleep) as eyes move quickly back and forth • Vivid dreaming occurs in REM sleep • Considered “paradoxical sleep” • Term coined by William Dement
Paradoxical Sleep • During REM sleep brain wave patterns are similar to when a person is awake • Pulse and breathing quickens. • REM sleep is sometimes called paradoxical sleep as one’s physiology is close to that of being awake but the brainstem blocks all muscle movement
Sleep Deprivation Effects • Can cause hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech, memory, and concentration lapses • Decreases efficiency of immune system functioning • Safety and accident issues
If it takes less than 5 minutes to fall asleep, you’re probably sleep deprived. • Ideal is 10-15 minutes • 17 hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol level of 0.05% • Possible to fall asleep with your eyes open without being aware of it
Amount of sleep needed • 10 hours – teenagers and young children • 8 hours – average adult, 25-55 years old • 6 hours – people over the age of 65 • Some studies suggest that women need up to an hour’s extra sleep a night
Feeling tired can feel normal after some time • Past studies have shown subjects lose awareness of being tired after the first few days • The most alluring sleep distraction? • 24-hour accessibility of the internet
Dreaming – a series of thoughts, images or emotions usually occurring in story-like form during sleep • Duration of dreaming ranges from a few seconds to a few minutes to as long as an hour • Organization of dreaming is usually somewhat logical and story-like
Everyone dreams about the same amount\ • Dreams seem to occur in real time • Recall of dreams seems dependent upon waking during a dream with a distraction free period to commit the dream to memory
4 ways to have limited control over dreams • Lucid dreaming – having control over the dream while asleep and the dream is happening • You are aware that you’re having a dream • Implicit pre-dream suggestion – things you think about during the day tend to show up in your dreams • Overt pre-dream suggestion – being able to plant something in your dreams by willing it to happen right before you fall asleep • Post-hypnotic suggestion – what is suggested to you during hypnosis is likely what you dream about
Theories of Dreaming • Freudian Dream Analysis • Believed dreams represent an unconscious attempt at wish fulfillment • The wish, often a source of conflict and anxiety, is fulfilled symbolically through the dream to defend against the anxiety • It can remain unconscious • Felt that dreams have 2 components • Manifest content – the actual images, often drawn from real experiences • Latent content – the hidden meaning of the dream, the wish that is being fulfilled
Dream is disguised though “dream process” which transforms manifest content into latent content • Consolidation – one character or image has the characteristics of several people, images or events • Displacement – the wish is hidden within minor, seemingly unimportant or insignificant details of the dream • Symbolization – people, events, and wishes are symbolized by other images in the dream
The Dream Theory of Carl Jung • Believed that many dream themes were universal, that is typical of the species and that these universal themes reflected archetypes stored in the collective unconscious • Dreams were messages from the unconscious to the conscious mind about personality and behavior imbalances that were causing or could cause psychological distress
Archetypes are associated with Jung • He believed there were several universal images that occurred in every culture throughout time and have the same universal meaning • Persona – the image we present to the world, public mask • Shadow – rejected aspects of yourself, symbol for weakness, fear or anger • Anima – feminine aspects that are repressed in the male psyche • Animus – masculine aspects that are repressed in the female psyche • Divine child – your true self, your sense of vulnerability • Wise Old Man – represent the self of some powerful figure • Great Mother – symbol for growth, fertility, seduction, or dominance
The Network Model • Dreams are a form of unconscious activity which is used to solve problems from everyday life. • Based off of clinical experience not controlled lab research.
Cognitive Theory • Dreams serve an important memory- related function by sorting and sifting through the day’s experiences • Brain goes “off-line” and sorts through information • Research suggests REM sleep helps memory storage. • Dream images are glimpses into the reorganization process, which the mind interprets as a meaningful story
Neurobiological Theory • The function of REM sleep is to clean out the network of neural connections in the cerebral cortex. • During the day, unnecessary information gets stored and needs to be cleaned out to maintain efficient function. • Dreams are a glimpse into the cleaning out process.
