States of Consciousness

1. States of Consciousness Chapter 4

2. Conscious Experience Section 1

3. Introduction • Sleep and wakefulness are both sates of Consciousness—our awareness of various cognitive process, such as sleeping, dreaming, concentrating, and making decisions. • Cognitive activities fall into 2 broad categories • Walking Consciousness: mental state that encompasses the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions that occur when we are awake and reasonably alert • Altered Consciousness: Mental state that differs noticeably from normal waking consciousness

4. What is Waking Conscious? • At the same time we experience all sorts of internal sensations (heat, cold, touch, pressure, pain) as well as thoughts, memories, emotions, and needs. • Theses competing stimuli are all part of waking conscious • If we tried to pay attention to all of them we would be overwhelmed • We focus on whatever is most important at the moment and block everything else out • Our brain continues to process the information we are not even focusing on

5. Daydreaming and Fantasy • Everyone has daydreams—effortless shifts in attention away from the here-and-now-into a private world of make believe • Comes in waves, surging about every 90 minutes and peaking form around 12pm to 2pm • According to some estimates, the average person spends almost half of there awake hours fantasizing • Generally, we fantasize when we would rather be somewhere else or doing something else • It’s a momentary escape • Usually daydream about unfulfilled goals and wishes

6. Daydream and dreamers fall into distinct categories • Positive: imagine pleasant playful scenarios , uncomplicated by worry or guilt • Negative: frustration, guilt, fear of failure, hostility, reflects on self doubt and competitive envy that accompanies great ambition • Scattered: fleeting, loosely connected worrisome daydreams, which give them little pleasure • Purposeful: solve problems to think ahead, and develop insights

7. Does daydreaming serve any purpose? • Some psychologists see daydreaming as a retreat from the real world when its not meeting our needs • Daydreaming can interfere with activities and making problems worse

8. Other psychologists stress the positive value of daydreaming • May serve as a refreshing break from a stressful day • Reminds us of our neglected personal needs • Freudian Theorists tend to view daydreaming as a harmless way to work through hostile feelings and to satisfy guilty pleasures • Cognitive psychologists emphasize that daydreaming can build problem solving and interpersonal skills, as well as encourage creativity • Helps us endure difficult situations

9. Sleep Section 2

10. Spend 1/3 of your life sleeping • When people are sleep deprived , they strongly crave sleep just as someone who was hungry would crave food • How long organisms sleep, where and I what position, and other details vary from species to species • Larger animals sleep less the smaller animals because eating enough time to support their size requires more work • Elephants sleep 4 hours a night and bats sleep 18 hrs a night • Nobody knows exactly why we sleep, but evolutionary psychologists see sleep as an adaptive mechanism to conserve and restore energy

11. Circadian Cycles: The Biological Clock • Like many other biological functions, sleep and waking follow a daily, or Circadian, cycle • Fundamental adaptation to the 24 hr solar cycle of light and dark • Human biological clock is actually a tiny cluster of neurons in the hypothalamus that responds to levels of proteins in the body

12. Biological clock is self sustaining and continues to function in the absence of external cues to the cycle of the day and night • We usually don’t notice circadian rhythms unless they are disturbed • Ex: Jet lag • Travelers who travel across times zones “feel out of it” for several days because you miss a lot of sleep and your body desynchronizes

13. What counts is not the number of hours we sleep but the quality sleep • To be fully alter and function at our peak we need to have a good night’s sleep

14. Naps here and there do not meet out sleep requirements • Extended periods of too little regular sleep lead to slower reaction times, difficulty processing information, making decisions, and unplanned, involuntary naps that last a few minutes

15. The Rhythms of Sleep • Going to sleep means losing awareness and failing to respond to a stimulus that would produce a response in the waking state • Stages of Sleep • Twilight Stage: relaxed wakefulness, sometimes experience a floating or falling sensation followed by a quick jolt back to consciousness • Stage 1: slowing of the pulse, muscle relaxation, side-to-side rolling movement of the eyes • Stage only lasts a few moments, easily woken up and my be unaware of having slept at all

16. Stages 2 and 3: Deeper sleep, heard to awaken, does not respond to stimuli such as light and noise • Heart rate, blood pressure and temperature continue to drop • Stage 4: heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and body temperature is as low as they will go • After about an 1.5 hours of sleep ascends to stage 3, 2, and back to stage 1—process that takes about 40 minutes

17. Heart rate and blood pressure increase, yet the muscles are more relaxed than at an other point and the person is very difficult to wake up • The eyes move rapidly under closed eyelids—Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleeping is distinguished from all other stages of sleep • Non-REM (NREM): non rapid eye movement stages of sleep that alternate with REME stages during sleep cycle

18. REM sleep is also known as Paradoxical Sleep because although brain activity can me measured, heart rate and blood pressure, and other physiological functions are not active • The person is deeply asleep and is incapable of moving • REM sleep is also where most dreaming occurs, but some dreaming does occur during NREM • THE sequence of sleep stages repeats itself all night

19. Sleep Disorders • Sleep Walking, Sleep talking, and Night Terrors • Sleep walking and talking usually occur during stage 4 • Common among children and adults • Waking a sleep walker is NOT dangerous, but difficult

20. Sleep Terrors or Night Terrors are nocturnal fright has causes them to suddenly sit up in bed, and often scream out in fear • Different from nightmares • During night terrors generally cannot be woken up and comforted, often happens when someone is very tired • Typically in children 4-12 out adults can get them too • Adults who have them typically suffer from a personality disorder, or abuses drugs and alcohol

21. Insomnia, Apnea and Narcolepsy • Insomnia: difficulty falling asleep to remaining asleep throughout the night • Afflicts 35 million Americans • Most episodes grow out of stressful events and are temporary • People with frequent sleep disruption can take medication but sides effects may cause anxiety, memory loss, hallucinations and violent behavior

22. Apnea: breathing difficulty during the night and feelings of exhaustion during the day • Afflicts 10-12 million Americans • Associated with berthing difficulties and snoring at night • In severe cases the person can stop breathing after falling asleep

23. Narcolepsy: hereditary sleep disorder characterized by sudden nodding off during the day • Experience muscle loss after experiencing any sort of emotion • Ex: after a joke and laughing brings on a muscle paralysis and then collapses • Another symptom is immediate entry into REM sleep, which produces frightening hallucinations

24. Dreams Section 3

25. Introduction • Dreams: vivid visual auditory experiences that occur primarily during REM periods of sleep • Average person has 4-5 dreams a night, accounting for 1-2 hrs of total time sleeping • Consists of a sequential story or series of stories • Stimuli both external (sounds) and internal (mood, hunger pangs) may modify an on going dream • Often dreams are so vivid they are hard to distinguish from reality

26. What do we dream? • Vary widely what we dream about, their feelings associated with their dreams, and hoe often they remember their dreams • Dream content is related to where you are in your sleep cycle, what you are doing before you sleep, your gender, your age and even your socioeconomic status • Men: dream more about weapon, unfamiliar characters, male characters, aggressive interactions and failure outcomes • Women: dream more about being the victims of aggression

27. Vary by age • (2-5 yrs) tend to have brief dreams, may involve animals, but images are usually unrelated on one another and seldom have any emotion, narrative, or story line • (5-9 yrs) become longer, a few narrative, story like dreams • (7-9 Yrs) when most dreams take on a narrative form • (9-15 yrs) become more adult like, narrative follow well developed story lines, other people play important roles, and there are many verbal exchanges

28. Why do we dream? • Dreams as Unconscious Wishes • Freud believed that dreams represent wishes that have not been fulfilled in reality • People dreams reflect the motives guiding their behavior—motives they may not be consciously aware of • Dreams permit people to express their primitive desires that are relatively free of moral controls • Ex: someone who is not consciously aware of hostile feelings towards sister my dream of murdering her

29. Dreams and Information processing • We reprocess information gathered during the day as a way of strengthening out memory of information crucial to survival • Given so much sensory information need a change to sort through it (what it all means) and place it where it belongs in our memory

30. Dreams and Neural Activity • Alan Hobbs proposed that dreams are just a result of neurons misfiring and are meaningless • Dreams and Waking Life • Research has shown that what people dream about is generally similar to what they think about and do while awake • Ex: athlete may dream about competitions past, present and future

31. Do we need to dream? • Freud suggested that dreams serve as a psychic safety valve and if not given the chance to dream their lives would be significantly affected • Study: participants were woken up each time they entered REM sleep and became anxious, testy, and hungry • Difficult concentrating and even hallucinated during waking hours…all these side effects vanished after they were able to experience REM sleep again

32. Drug-Altered Consciousness Section 4

33. Introduction • Psychoactive Drugs—chemical substances that change moods and perceptions– are almost universal in culture • Most drugs used today, legally or illegally, have been used for thousands of years • Ex: Marijuana dates back to 2737 B.C. • Alcohol has the longest history of widespread use • Today’s drug problem differ from the problem is other societies and times • Motives have changed—used to be used for religious rituals, as medicines, now used recreationally • Drugs themselves have changed—stronger than those from other cultures and times and new synthetic drugs are appearing regularly • Ex: “club drugs” like “Ecstasy”

34. Substance Use, Abuse, and Dependence • Use is difference from abuse and dependence • On any given day most adults use some form of psychoactive substances—mediations, coffee • Substance abuse: pattern of drug use that diminishes the ability to fulfill responsibilities at home, or at work, or at school, that results in repeated used of drug dangerous situations, or that leads to legal difficulties related to drug use

35. Substance Dependence: pattern of compulsive drug taking that results in tolerance, withdrawal symptoms for a least a year • Withdrawal Symptoms: unpleasant physical or psychological affects that follow the discontinuance of a dependence- producing substance

36. Depressants: Alcohol, Barbiturates, and Opiates • Depressant: chemicals that slow down behavior or cognitive process • Alcohol • Typical Effects: depressed physical and psychological functioning • Effects of Overdose: disorientation, loss of conscious, death at extremely high BAC levels

37. America's #1 drug problem • Highly addictive • Potentially devastating long term effects– can harm every organ in the body , impairments with motor skills, problem solving and abstract thinking • At least 14 million Americans have a problem with drinking

38. Barbiturates and Tranquilizers: potentially deadly depressants, first used for their sedative properties, now used to treat conditions of epilepsy and arthritis • Typical Effects: depressed reflexes and impaired motor functioning, tension reduction • Effects of Overdose: shallow respiration, clammy skin, dilated pupils, weak and rapid pulse, coma and possible death • Known as “downers” and used alone and may be used with heroin and other drugs to boos their effects

39. Opiates: opium and heroin, that dull the senses and induce feelings of euphoria, well-being, and relaxation • Typical Effects: Euphoria, “rush” of pleasure, little impairment • Effects of Overdose: Slow shallow breathing . Clammy skin, nausea, vomiting, pinpoint pupils, convulsions, coma and possible death • Resembles endorphins, natural pain killers

40. Stimulants: Caffeine, Nicotine, Amphetamines, and Cocaine • Simulants: stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and produce feelings of optimism and boundless energy • Caffeine occurs naturally in coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate and often added to cola drinks and over the counter medications

41. Can become addictive • Heavy users may experience withdrawal symptoms like fatigue, headaches, and difficulty concentrating • Excessive use can lead to insomnia, gastrointestinal problems, and elevated blood pressure

42. Nicotine: additive ingredient in tobacco • Most dangerous and addictive stimulant today • Despite well-know health risks and strong social pressure millions of Americans continue to smoke • Youth 12-17 who smoke are 12x’s more likely to try other drugs • 16x’s to drink heavily compared to nonsmoking peers

43. Amphetamines: stimulant drugs that initially produces a rushes of euphoria often followed by sudden “crashes” and sometimes severe depression • Increase alertness • Users believe they cannot function without them • Chronic, excessive use may lead to personality changes, paranoia, anxiety, insomnia, homicidal and suicidal thoughts, and aggressive , violent behavior

44. Methamphetamine—”speed” or “crystal meth” • Produced in labs with ingredient form over the pharmaceutical counter • Ecstasy • Belief that drug makes you love and trust one another and puts you in touch with our own emotions • Short-term effects—clenching teeth, faintness, chills or sweating, damages neural connections

45. Cocaine: derived from coca plant, that while producing a sense of euphoria by stimulating the sympathetic nervous system, also tends to leave to anxiety, depression, and addictive cravings, • 1885, widely used as a topical anesthetic for minor surgeries, 1900’s cure for alcohol and morphine addiction • 1970’s became popular again on Wall Street allowed them to work late hours • Amphetamine of the wealthy • Cheaper, smokable version names “Crack” made its way to the inner city • Body constantly wants more

46. Hallucinogens and Marijuana • Hallucinogens: distort visual and auditory perception • LSD: Hallucinogen or “psychedelic” drug that produces hallucinogens and delusions similar to those occurring in psychotic state • “bad trips” or unpleasant experiences, may be set off by change in dose or an alteration in setting or mood

47. May not realize the experience is happening because of the drug, and panic • Do not produce withdrawal effects • Tolerance rapidly builds • After time, users get tired of the experience and decrease, discontinue their use

48. Marijuana: mild hallucinogen that produces a “high” often characterized by feelings of euphoria, a sense of well-being, and swings in mod from relaxation to feelings of anxiety and paranoid • Far less potent that LSD • Has direct psychological effects, bloodshot eyes, dry mouth, coughing, increased thirst and hunger, mild muscular weakness often in form of drooping eye lids

49. Major dangers: potential respiratory and cardiovascular damage, • Lose the ability to remember and coordinate information

50. Explaining Abuse and Addiction • Biological Factors • There is evidence of genetic basis for alcohol abuse • Americans view substance abuse as a biological problem • Often a result of “bad “ genes, that requires medical treatment • Many health professionals share this viewpoint