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Explore the various levels of consciousness, from conscious and non-conscious to pre-conscious and unconscious, and discover how our perception of reality can shift in states such as sleep and altered consciousness.
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States of Consciousness ZZZzzzzzz…..
Consciousness • Can be a weird thing… think about when you are just falling asleep or waking up… Can be hard to understand what is real? What is still a dream? • Think about when people are under conscious sedation (Ex. Nitrous Oxide). They are not aware of what is going on but can still respond to doctor requests. • Think about when doing a repeated task (Ex. Ringing up a customer at your job). You can still ring up the customer, while thinking about something different. • Having an oral conversation while texting. Y’all are experts at that!
Consciousness an awareness of ourselves and our environment. • Various levels: • Conscious level – This level includes information about yourself and your environment that you are currently aware of. For example, right now you are focusing on the words and the meanings that you are reading. • Non-conscious level – This level includes the body processes that are controlled by your mind that you are not aware of. For example, your heart rate, your breathing, your digestion. • Pre-conscious level – This level includes information about yourself and your environment that you aren’t currently thinking about but you could be if you needed to. For example, at this moment you are probably not thinking about what you did last night, but you might be thinking about that now.
Sub-conscious level – This level includes the information that we are not consciously aware of but we know that it exists because of our behavior. For example, we tend to prefer things that we have seen before over new things, even if we can’t consciously remember seeing the things before. This is called the mere exposure effect. Another example is called priming. This is when we respond quicker to questions that we have seen before, even if we don’t consciously remember seeing them before. • Un-conscious level – This level includes the information that is unacceptable to our conscious mind. For example, this could include memories of traumatic events that we have chosen to forget. • All of the above levels of consciousness occur when we are awake. But we can temporarily lose waking consciousness by nodding off or going to sleep. We have naturally occurring body rhythms that affect our wakefulness and our sleep.
States of Consciousness • States of consciousness • Sleep • Wake • Altered states
Sleep – The Equalizer of Seniors and Second Graders • Even when deeply asleep, your perceptual window is not completely shut. You are able to move around your bed, but manage not to fall out. Some sounds do not wake you up (Ex. Hum of traffic), while others jolt you awake (Ex. Beeping of your alarm). • EEG recordings show that the brain auditory cortex responds to sound stimuli, even when in deep sleep. (Ex. Hearing your name). • Processing of information outside of our conscious awareness occurs in wakefulness and sleeping.
Research in Sleep Studies • Able to record brain waves and muscle movements during sleep. • Some of the questions raised… all turned out to be false. • 1) When people dream of performing some activity, their limbs often move in concert with the dream. • 2) Older adults sleep more than younger adults. • 3) Sleepwalkers are acting out their dreams. • 4) Sleep experts recommend treating sleep disorders with the occasional sleeping pill. • 5) Some people dream every night; others seldom dream.
Sleep IQ Test / Sleep Deprivation Test • Notes for Mrs. Connor • Go to National Sleep Foundation Test - PPT • Go to Sleep Deprivation Test -PPT
Research on Sleep Deprivation • Lack of sleep decreases the levels of hormones that are necessary for your immune system to function properly. • Lack of sleep increases the level of cortisol, a stress hormone, which is responsible for learning and memory. • Lack of sleep increases the number of car accidents because people fall asleep at the wheel. • Lack of sleep (even one hour when the clocks change) affects the number of accidents. • Lack of sleep has an effect on concentration and being irritable. • Lack of sleep has an effect on cancer-fighting immune cells. • Lack of sleep has an effect on premature aging.
Biological Rhythms and Sleep • Circadian Rhythm the biological clock; regular bodily rhythms (for example, of temperature and wakefulness) that occur on a 24-hour cycle. • What could interfere with this rhythm? • 24 hour cycle • Temperature changes- rises as morning approaches, peaks during the day, dips for a time early afternoon and drops again in the evening. Therefore, thinking/memory is the most sharp when we are at our daily peak of the circadian cycle. • Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is triggered when bright light in the AM triggers light sensitive retinal proteins. This decreases the release of the sleep inducing hormone, melatonin. • Bright light that is continuous through the day keeps melatonin production down. However, it is a cycle, which can be disturbed with too much or too little sleep. • Artificial lights may have permanently changed our circadian cycles by delaying sleep. (ex. Pulling an all nighter).
Light striking the retina signals the SCN the suprachiasmatic nucleus to suppress the pineal gland’s production of the sleep hormone melatonin.
At night the SCN quiets down, allowing the pineal land to release melatonin into the bloodstream.
Using Melatonin to Help with Insomnia • Melatonin induced sleep is remarkably normal • The stages of both non REM sleep and REM sleep occur at the usual hours and for the usual amount of time. • Most users do not seem to feel drowsy or experience side effects. • Melatonin seems to promote sleep at any time of the day. • Repeated doses at certain times of day or night can alter circadian body rhythms. • Helpful for people who need to sleep during the day, who are taking drugs which inhibit normal melatonin synthesis and who are patients with diseases that cause insomnia.
Sleep Stages • Several 90 minute cycles over the period of sleep. • Discovered while testing an EEG machine on a sleeping child. • AWAKE : Alpha waves the relatively slow waves of a relaxed, awake state. – conscious • Define sleep as REM Sleep Rapid Eye Movement ;; a recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams occur. AKA paradoxical sleep b/c of relaxed muscles, only minor twitches, but all other body systems active. • STAGE 1: Sleep Periodic, natural loss of consciousness – as distinct from unconsciousness resulting from a coma, general anesthesia or hibernation. • Slow breathing, irregular brain waves. • Hallucinations ( false sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of external visual stimuli) can take place. • Ex. Sense that you are falling (jerk your body) or floating – hypnagogic sensations • Hallucinations can lead to memories – Ex. Abduction by aliens.
STAGE 2 – 20 minutes long • Sleep spindles – bursts of rapid, rhythmic brainwave activity. • Easy to wake up in this stage, but you are asleep at this point. • Sleep talking is common. • STAGE 3 – transitional, start of delta waves large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep. • STAGE 4 – deep sleep. • Delta waves in full effect for 30 minutes – hard to wake up. • Sleepwalking and bed wetting common in this stage.
REM vs NREM Sleep • NREM sleep non-rapid eye movement sleep, encompasses all sleep stages except for REM sleep. • 1 hour after you fall asleep, you cycle back through stage 3 and 2 of the sleep cycle then to REM sleep. • For about 10 minutes, brain waves mimic those of stage 1. However, heart rate rises, breathing becomes rapid and irregular and eyes dart every 30 seconds. These announce the beginning of a dream. Dreams in this stage are the most sensation filled. • REM sleep causes genital arousal even if the dream is not sexual in context. • Men’s morning erection is usually from the last REM period, before waking. • Brain cortex is active in REM but brainstem blocks messages, so you remain relaxed. • As the night wears on, stage 4 becomes shorter, REM and stage 2 periods get longer. • You dream every night, even if you don’t remember it.
Why Do We Sleep? • Individual sleep times vary greatly. • Cultural influences play a role. Ex. NA – 8 hours per night, Siesta time in Spain, etc. • If left undisturbed, most adults get 9 hours on average a night. • Sleep debt is kept around for around 2 weeks, so 1 full night after a few short nights is not enough.
The Effects of Sleep Loss • When the going gets boring… the student get snoring. • Teenagers are averaging 2 hours less per night than they did 80 years ago. • Sleep debt makes you stupid… literally. Leads to difficulty studying, concentrating, etc. • Sleep debt makes you fatter… literally. Leads to an increase in the hunger boosting hormone ghrelin and decrease in the hunger inhibiting hormone leptin. • Sleep debt makes you sicker…literally. Leads to suppression of immune cells that fight off cancer and viruses. • Daylight savings time… increase in accidents.
What is sleep’s function? • Sleep theories: • Sleep protects- better off asleep in a cave than out in the open • Sleep helps recuperation – restore in repair brain tissue and neurons and eliminate free radicals. • Memory storage – restore and rebuild our memories from the day. • Sleep and creative thinking – boost to thinking and learning. • Sleep and growth – pituitary gland releases growth hormone.
Sleep Disorders • Insomnia Recurring problems falling or staying asleep. Treated with sleeping pills. However more natural uses, like exercise have been encouraged. • Narcolepsy A sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune time. Due to the lack of neurotransmitter orexin. • Sleep Apnea A sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings. Associated with obesity. • Night terrors A sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified. Unlike nightmare, night terrors occur during stage 4 sleep, within 2-3 hours of falling asleep, and are seldom remembered. Target mostly children. • Sleep walking / Sleep talking – Runs in families.
Other Sleep Problems • Somnambulism or sleepwalking • This occurs during the deeper stages of NREM sleep. They can walk and talk but rarely remembers doing so. • Bruxism • This is teeth-grinding that occurs while sleeping. • Enuresis • This is bed-wetting while sleeping. • Myoclonus • This is a sudden jerking of the body during Stage 1 or 2.
Sleep and Dreams • Measuring sleep activity
Dreams • Dream Sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind. Dreams are notable for their hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and incongruences and for the dreamer’s delusional acceptance of the content and later difficulties remembering it. • Manifest Content According to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream (as distinct from it’s latent, or hidden content). • Latent Content According to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream (as district from it’s manifest content)
Dreams are influenced by what you did before you went to sleep (ex. Played a video game), what you experienced that day (ex. Trauma leads to nightmares) and what your hobbies are (ex. Musicians have musical dreams). • Sensory stimuli in your sleeping environment may play a role. A smell or noise from the ‘outside’ world can make it into your dream. • What’s the craziest dream you can remember having? DISCUSS!
Why We Dream • To satisfy our own wishes – latent content • To file away memories – sift, sort and fix the day’s experiences into our memory. • To develop/preserve neural pathways – periodic stimulation, exercise for your resting brain. • To make sense of neural static – neural activity spreading upward from the brainstem. Brain attempts to make sense of it without outside stimuli. • To reflect cognitive development – brain maturation. • REM Rebound The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation (created by repeated awakenings during REM sleep). More restful sleep.
Critical Considerations: Lacks any scientific support; dreams may be interpreted in many different ways.
Critical Considerations: But why do we sometimes dream about things we have not experienced?
Critical Considerations: This may be true, but it does not explain why we experience meaningful dreams.
Critical Considerations: The individual’s brain is weaving the stories, which still tells us something about the dreamer.
Critical Considerations: Does not address the neuroscience of dreams.
Hypnosis • Hypnosis A social interaction in which 1 person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviours will spontaneously occur. • Hypnotic induction - The processing of hypnotizing someone. • Hypnosis as an altered state?
Facts and Falsehoods • Can Anyone Experience Hypnosis? • Postural sway –eyes closed, will sway when told they are swaying. • Susceptibility – hypnotic ability – the ability to focus completely on a task. Also, if you expect it to happen, it will. • Can Hypnosis Enhance Recall of Forgotten Events? • Age regression – the supposed ability to relive childhood experiences.
Facts and Falsehoods • Can Hypnosis Force People to Act Against Their Will? – An authoritative person in legitimate context can influence people – hypnotized or not – to perform unlikely acts. (Ex. Acid experiment) • Can Hypnosis Be Therapeutic? • Hypnotherapists – power of the mind and suggestion. • Posthypnotic Suggestion a suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors. • Can Hypnosis Alleviate Pain?- Yes! 10% of people can have surgery without anesthesia if hypnotized correctly.
Explaining the Hypnotic StateHypnosis as a Social Phenomenon • “Good hypnotic subjects” – The more the subject likes and trusts the hypnotist, the more they allow that person to direct their attention and fantasies. • Social influence theory – hypnosis is simply an extension of everyday social behavior, not something unique to hypnosis.
Explaining the Hypnotic StateHypnosis as Divided Consciousness • Hilgard – Researcher who believed that hypnosis involves not only social influence but also a special state called Dissociation a split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others. • Saw it as a mind split. Like doodling while listening to a teacher. Lower a hand into an ice bath, mind split allows the pain to take the backseat. • Unified account of hypnosis – both the social influence and the dissociation theories together.
Drugs, drugs, drugs… Which are good? Which are bad? Drugs, drugs, drugs… Ask your Mom or ask your Dad! • Psychoactive Drugs a chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods. • Difference between legal (caffeine, Tylenol, diet pills, etc) and illegal drugs (cocaine, meth, heroine, etc). • Using both, can still be drug dependant.
Tolerance the diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring the user to take larger and larger doses before experiencing the drug’s effect. • Alcoholic versus someone who only drinks occasionally. Will take more alcohol for the alcoholic to feel the effects. • Withdrawal the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug. • Can be both physical and psychological effects. Some drugs can be cut ‘cold turkey’, others need to be gradually diminished. • Physical Dependence a physiological need for a drug, marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the drug is discontinued • Psychological Dependence a psychological need to use a drug, such as to relieve negative emotions.
