Altered States of Consciousness

1. Altered States of Consciousness

2. Sleep and Dreams • In 1959, New York disc jockey Peter Tripp stayed awake for 200 hours to raise money for charity. • After about 50 hours, he started having mild hallucinations, seeing cobwebs in his shoes when there were none there and thinking that specs of dirt on the ground were actually bugs.

3. Sleep and Dreams • After 100 hours had gone by, he became delirious and saw a doctor’s tweed suit as a tangled mess of furry worms. • Here, Peter Tripp is shown yawning at 48 hours. 2 hours prior to the onset of hallucinations.

4. Sleep and Dreams • At roughly 120 hours, he needed to be given stimulants in order to keep him awake. • At 150 hours, Peter was disoriented, not knowing who or where he was, and he became paranoid – he backed against a wall, letting no one pass behind him.

5. Sleep and Dreams • Finally, by 200 hours, his hallucinations had taken a sinister turn. • Peter began to think that the doctor attempting to examine him was an undertaker coming to bury him. • He was put to sleep by medical examiners and slept for 13 hours straight. • Upon waking up, he asked for the morning paper as if nothing had happened.

6. Sleep and Dreams • So, how important is sleep to humans? • Sleep is VITAL to mental health! • As Peter Tripp found out, if a person is deprived of sleep, he or she will begin to have psychological symptoms. • Most people think of sleep as a state of unconsciousness, punctuated by brief periods of dreaming. • This is only partially correct. • Sleep is a state of altered consciousness, characterized by certain patterns of brain activity and inactivity.

7. Sleep and Dreams • What is consciousness? • Consciousness: Is a state of awareness, including a person’s feelings, sensations, ideas, and perceptions. • When we discuss altered states of consciousness, we mean people can have different levels of awareness.

8. Sleep and Dreams • There are many different levels of consciousness! • For example; • People who are fully aware with their attention focused on something are conscious of that something. • A person who is not completely aware is in a different level of consciousness – an altered state of consciousness • Sleep IS an altered state of consciousness!

9. Freud’s Levels of Consciousness • Sigmund Freud identified three levels of Consciousness. • In his approach to consciousness, he claimed that preconscious ideas are not in your awareness now, but that you are able to recall them with some effort. • Unconscious ideas are hidden and unretrievable.

11. Why Do We Sleep • We are not sure why people sleep. • Sleep is characterized by unresponsiveness to the environment and usually limited physical mobility. • There are many different theories as to why we sleep: • Re-Charge? • Conserve Energy? • Clear our minds of useless information? • …To dream?

12. The Stages of Sleep • As you begin to fall asleep… • Your body temperature decreases. • Your pulse rate slowly drops. • Your breathing becomes slow and even. • Gradually, your eyes close and your brain begins to record alpha waves on the EEG. • These waves are associated with the absence of concentrated thought and relaxation.

13. The Stages of Sleep • Your body may slowly begin to twitch. • Your eyes may begin to roll. • Brief visual images may begin to flash across your mind…Although your eyelids are shut! • All of this is happening as you enter Stage One sleep, the lightest level of sleep.

14. The Stages of Sleep • Early Stages – “Stage I Sleep” • Your pulse slows a bit more and your muscles relax. • Your breathing becomes uneven and your brain waves grow irregular. • If you were awaken during this stage, you would report that you were “just drifting off” for a bit. • This phase lasts for up to 10 minutes.

15. The Stages of Sleep • Early Stages – “Stage II Sleep” • Your eyes roll slowly from side to side. • Your brain waves quickly grow and fall from lows to highs and back again. • Lasts roughly 30 minutes

16. Stage 3 Early Stages – “Stage III Sleep” • Your brain SLOWS down • Also called rejuvenating sleep (stages 3 &4) • Large amplitude waves begin to sweep through your brain every few seconds. • Lasts roughly 10 minutes.

17. The Stages of Sleep • Later Stages – “Stage IV Sleep” • This stage is the deepest sleep of all. • It is VERY difficult to wake a sleeper during this stage. • Large, regular waves move through your brain occurring more than 50% of the time. • If you are awakened by a large noise or movement, you will most likely feel disoriented. • Talking, Sleep-Walking, and Bed Wetting, all which occur in this stage – leave no trace on your memory. • In Stage 4, something very odd also begins to happen…

18. The Stages of Sleep • Later Stages – “Stage IV Sleep” • …Your eyes begin to move rapidly. • You have entered a more rapid type of sleep characterized by rapid eye movement. • This is called REM sleep.

19. The Stages of Sleep • Later Stages – “REM Sleep” • REM Sleep: A stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, a high level of brain activity, a deep relaxation of the muscles, and dreaming. • During REM sleep: • Your Pulse rate and breathing become irregular, and the levels of adrenal and sexual hormones in your blood rise – as if you were in the middle of an intensely emotional experience. • Often your face or hand muscles twitch…and the muscles in your arms and your legs actually become paralyzed.

20. The Stages of Sleep • Later Stages – “REM Sleep” • If you were to “sharply” wake up during this sleep, you could awake to find your body partially paralyzed…Or you could be dripping in sweat and have no idea why. • REM lasts for about 15-45 minutes. • After this period of time is over, you slowly go backwards through stages 4 – 1 until you awake.

21. Play “Sleep: Brain Functions” (11:12) Module #14 from The Brain: Teaching Modules (2nd edition).

22. How Much Sleep Do We Need? • Humans spend approximately one-third of their lives in sleep! • The amount of sleep that you need to properly function varies greatly from person to person and time to time. • Infants = 16, High School = 10, College = 8

23. How Much Sleep Do We Need? • Have you ever noticed that there are certain times of the day when you feel more alert and certain times when you feel more tired? • People seem to have an internal biological clock that regulates the sleep – wakefulness cycle. • Blood pressure, heart rate, appetite, , secretion of hormones and digestive enzymes, sensory sharpness, and elimination processes all follow what is called your “circadian rhythm.”

24. How Much Sleep Do We Need? • So…What is the Circadian Rhythm? • Circadian Rhythm: The rhythm of activity and inactivity lasting approximately one day. • Circadian Rhythms do not control our sleep cycles; the environment and 24 hour day control our sleep cycles. • For example: when you travel from New York to Moscow, your body is on a different time clock when you reach Moscow. You feel tired and disoriented.

25. Are we getting enough sleep? • Mondays after a change in daylight savings

26. Are YOU getting enough sleep? • Sleep deprivation survey

27. Dreams • We call the mental activity that takes place during sleep “dreaming.” • Everybody dreams, although most people are able to recall only a few, if any, of their dreams. • Sleep researchers make a point of waking study participants at regular intervals in order to study their dreams.

28. Dreams • Your first few dreams are usually composed of vague thoughts left over from the days activities. • Example; you may report that you were watching television in your dreams. • As the night wears on, dreams become longer and more vivid and dramatic, especially dreams that take place during REM sleep. • Because the amounts of time spent in REM sleep increase during the night, the last dream is likely to be the longest, and the one people remember when they wake up. • However, most people can barely remember more than 15 minutes of a dream.

29. The Content of Dreams • Actually…Dreams are usually very boring and mundane. • The majority of dreams feature you sitting and watching whatever is going on around you. • Occasionally though, you dream about something in an active sense. In other words, you are an active participant in your dream. • These dreams are usually aggressive in nature and involve some form of strenuous recreational activity.

30. Dream Interpretation • Dream interpretations have been discovered dating back to 5000 BC. • Sigmund Freud believed that no matter how mundane, dreams contained clues to thoughts the dreamer is afraid to acknowledge while awake. • Though many people are very skeptical about the idea of dreams portraying reality, Freud’s theories of subconscious desires and hopes still maintain today.

31. Freud’s Dream Interpretation

32. A Few other Theories on Dreaming Information Processing or Reverse Learning • Facilitates memory forming, “making sense” of the day and “tying up loose ends” Physiological Function • Helps us grow and develop our brains Activation Synthesis • Dreams are the mind’s attempt to make sense of random neural firing in the sleeping brain Cognitive Development Survival Theory-dreams give us info we need to survive

33. Sleep Disorders • Sometimes we may have problems falling asleep or have problems during sleep. • These “sleep disorders” can interfere with your quality of life, personal health, and even endanger public safety.

34. Sleep Disorders • Insomnia: The failure to get enough sleep at night in order to feel rested the next day. • This is usually a prolonged period of time. • Insomnia can be caused by anxiety, depression, nervousness, alcohol, and drug use.

35. Sleep Disorders • Sleep Apnea: A sleep disorder in which a person has trouble breathing while asleep. • Can be characterized by hundreds of brief periods of snoring throughout the night. • A blocking of the breathing passages actually causes the snoring; during this time the victim is in fact choking – the flow of the air to the lungs stops. • The episode ends when low levels of oxygen or high levels of carbon dioxide in the blood trigger breathing reflexes.

36. Sleep Disorders • Narcolepsy: A condition characterized by suddenly falling asleep or feeling extremely sleepy during the day. • Other symptoms include; unusual sleep and dream patterns, such as dreamlike hallucinations or of temporary paralysis. • People with narcolepsy can have sleep attacks throughout the day. • These sleep attacks are accompanied by brief periods of REM sleep.

37. Sleep Disorders • Nightmares and Night Terrors! • Nightmares: Unpleasant dreams… • Occur during the sleep phase of REM. • A nightmare can often frighten the sleeper, who will usually wake with a vivid “movie” like memory of the dream.

38. Nightmare

39. Sleep Disorders • Night Terrors: Sleep disruptions that occur during Stage IV of sleep, involving screaming, panic, or confusion. • A night terror may last anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. • They involve screaming, sweating, confusion, and a rapid heart rate. • The subject may suddenly awake from sleep or have a persistent fear that occurs at night. • Subjects usually have no memory of night terrors.

40. Sleep Disorders • Sleepwalking: Walking or carrying out daily behaviors while asleep. • During this disorder, you are partly but not fully awake. • You will have no memory of doing this. • Sleepwalking is commonly associated with children, although some adults retain this ability. • This disorder has been linked to stress, fatigue, and the use of sedative medicines in adults.

41. Sleepwalking/talking • Sleepwalking may be inherited. • It is usually harmless, however, it may become dangerous if sleepwalkers fall or otherwise injure themselves. • Sleepwalkers movement is often clumsy and unstable. • Sleep talking is a common sleep disruption. • Most people talk in their sleep much more often than they realize, only they do not remember it because it occurs during REM.

42. Hypnosis, Biofeedback, and Meditation ?

43. Hypnosis • Victor Rausch entered a hypnotic trance by focusing on Chopin’s Lush Nocturne in E-Flat, as it was played in the movie “the Eddy Duchin Story”. • Rausch visualized scenes from the movie and wrapped his mind in appealing thoughts. • Rausch’s blood pressure and pulse remained steady for 75 minutes. • During this 75 minutes, Rausch was undergoing a gallbladder operation! • He had refused the anesthetic, and during the surgery, he swears he felt no pain – Just a little “tugging.” He even talked and joked with the surgical team during the procedure. • After the surgery, he stood up and walked down the hall, riding the elevator to his hospital room.

44. Hypnosis • Surgery without anesthesia may sound like a trick, but such operations have been performed by hypnotizing the patient. • Although hypnosis still conjures up images of a circus magician saying, “you are getting sleepy, very sleepy…,” researchers are learning more about this mind-body connection. • Doctors and therapists use hypnosis to help people quit smoking, lose weight, manage stress, overcome phobias, and diminish pain.

45. Hypnosis • So what exactly is hypnosis? • Hypnosis: A state of consciousness resulting from a narrowed focus of attention and characterized by heightened suggestibility. • Hmmm, how does it work? • Well, at all times certain thoughts and sensations are filtered out of our awareness. • For Example; as you read this sentence, you were probably not aware of the position of your feet until I called attention to that. By mentioning the position of your feet, your attention has not shifted to your feet – an area of the body that seconds before was outside of your consciousness • Hypnosis shifts our perceptions in the same way.

46. Hypnosis • Hypnosis does not put a participant to sleep, as many people may believe. • A hypnotic trance is quite different from sleep. • In fact, participants become highly receptive and responsive to certain internal and external stimuli. • They are able to focus their attention on one tiny aspect of reality and ignore all other inputs.

47. Hypnosis • How is it done? • The hypnotist induces a trance by slowly persuading a participant to relax and to lose interest in external distractions. • Whether this takes a few minutes or much longer depends on the purpose of the hypnosis, the method of induction, and the participant’s past experiences with hypnosis. • In an environment of trust, a participant with a rich imagination can become susceptible to hypnotic suggestions.

48. Hypnosis • The participant is not under the hypnotist’s control but can be convinced to do things that he or she may not want to do. • The person is simply cooperating with the hypnotist. • He or she is not acting outside of their control.

49. Theories of Hypnosis • Psychologists do not agree about the nature of hypnosis. • Some psychologists argue that hypnosis is in no way an altered state of consciousness, but simply suggestibility. • According to these psychologists, if people are just given instructions and told to try their hardest, they will be able to do anything that hypnotized people can do. • Others believe that there is a special hypnotic state that all people may be susceptible to. In other words, a separate, altered state of consciousness. • What do you think?

50. Uses of Hypnosis • Hypnotists can suggest things for their participants to remember or forget when the trance is over. • This is known as a Posthypnotic Suggestion! • Posthypnotic Suggestion: A suggestion made during hypnosis that influences the participants behavior afterward. • For example; a hypnotist can suppress memory by suggesting that after the person is awakened, she or he will be unable to hear the word “psychology.” When she or he comes out of the trance, the participant may report that some people around them are speaking strangely. The participant is not fully aware that that part of their consciousness has been blocked.