Study of Consciousness

1. Study of Consciousness Chapter 5, Section 1

2. Consciousness= Awareness • Consciousness as Sensory Awareness • Conscious of the sensations around you • Sights • Sounds • Smells • Selective attention focusing on a particular stimulus • Someone’s voice in a crowded room. • Consciousness as Direct inner Awareness • No sensory organs are involved-abstract concepts • Aware of feeling angry or sad • Remembering someone • Remembering a feeling (jumping into cold water)

3. Consciousness as Sense of Self • Being aware of ourselves and our existance

4. Levels of Consciousness • Preconscious Level • Not in your awareness right now, but you could recall them if you had to. (memories, stored knowledge) • Class schedule, what you did on your last vacation • Unconscious Level (Subconscious) • Unavailable to awareness under most circumstances • Sigmund Freud - defense mechanisms • Fear, selfish needs, immoral urges, irrational wishes, shameful experiences, violent motives, unacceptable desires • Nonconscious Level • Basic biological functions • Breathing, breathing, pupils dialating

5. Altered States of Consciousness • A person’s sense of self or sense of the world changes • Sleep • Drugs • Meditation • Biofeedback • Hypnosis

6. Sleep and Dreams • Circadian rhythms- biological clocks • Sequence of bodily changes (24 hrs) • Body temperature • Blood pressure • Sleepiness • wakefulness

7. Stages of Sleep • Defined in terms of brain-wave patterns, which can be measured by EEG. • Beta waves • Awake – short and quick • Alpha waves • Relax and drowsy –slower than beta • Visual images, flashes of color, sensations like falling • Theta waves • Stage 1 sleep (no more than 30-40 minutes) • Dreamlike images that resemble vivid photographs • If awakened you will recall these images and feel like you haven’t slept at all. • Delta waves • Slowest waves • Stages 3 and 4 of sleep – stage 4 is the most difficult to wake from

8. REM- Rapid Eye Movement Sleep • After about 90 minutes of sleep (NREM) • Breathe irregularly, blood pressure rises, and the leart beats faster. • Brain waves become similar to stage 1 sleep

9. Stages of sleep change throughout the night During an 8 hour period, most people go through these stages about 5 times each makes a sleep cycle

10. Why do we Sleep • Revive the tired body • Recover from stress • Psychological functions • Learning, remembering

11. DreamsREM sleep ..most vivid dreamsBlack and white, or color Freudian View • dreams reflect a person’s unconscious wishes and urges • people dream in symbols • “symbolic” dreams give people a way to deal with painful material Biopsychological Approach • Neurons fire in a part of the brain that controls movement and vision • Brain tries to make sense of the randon bursts by weaving a story. • Events or problems of the day

12. Sleep Problems • Insomnia • inability to sleep • Difficulty falling asleep • Increasing during periods or anxiety, trying to sleep can make it worse. • Nightmares and Night Terrors • Middle ages nightmares were believed to be the work of demons • Today we know they are generally products of REM sleep • More likely to have nightmares if anxious or depressed

13. Night terrors • more severe than nightmares • Those with night terrors gasp for air, heart races, sit up, talk incoherently, or thrash about. They do not wake up. • Do not generally remember night terrors • Tend to occur between sleep stages 3 and 4 • Usually occur in young children with immature nervous systems

14. Sleepwalking • roam during stages of deep sleep. • May respond to questions, but will not remember this upon waking • Most sleepwalkers go out of this with age • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Zj1w7lXz4&feature=related • Sleep Apnea (10 million Americans) • Breathing interruption that occurs during sleep • Do not automatically start breathing again until they sit up and gasp for air, then fall back to sleep (they do not fully wake up so they do not remember) • Associated with snoring and obesity • Can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes

15. Narcolepsy • A rare sleep disorder in which people suddenly fall asleep no matter what time or where they are • There muscles suddenly relax and are in REM sleep • Drug therapy and frequent naps are used to treat this disorder • Narcoleptics usually wake feeling refreshed • Dangerous for driving, operating machinery • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TooBgODll0E&feature=related

16. Meditation • Method some people use to try to narrow their consciousness and relieve outside stressors • Focus on peaceful repetitive stimulus- mantras (sounds, om) • Narrow consciousness, suspend planning, worrying, and concerns • Important part of some religions – Buddhism

17. Biofeedback • A system that provides information about something happening in the body

18. Hypnosis • Altered state of consciousness during which people respond to suggestions and behave as though they are in a trance. • Professionals ask subjects to focus on something specific- spot on a wall, object, or hypnotists voice. • Hypnosis is not sleep • Often used to jog the memory of witnesses to a crime • Hypnosis is also used as pain prevention – dentistry, childbirth • Posthypnotic suggestions – suggestions made under hypnosis to be carried out after the session