States of

Consciousness:
Sleep

Chapter 7: States of Consciousness

Life is made up of many kinds of conscious

awareness

Who/what is perceiving this particular stimulus

here, now?

When you say, I am what are you referring to?

Who is the you? What is the you you are
talking about?

What is consciousness?

Slippery and difficult to define but we say that it is our

awareness of ourselves and our environment

The aware part of dual processing

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We change between different states of consciousness

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Wide Awake:
Normal waking consciousness

Three varieties of normal waking consciousness:

directed consciousness

flowing consciousness

daydreaming

Directed consciousness

a focused and orderly one tracked awareness

centered on a specific stimulus

Ex. First learning to drive

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Normal waking consciousness

Flowing consciousness

a drifting, unfocused awareness

your awareness (attention) moves at random from

attention to one stimulus to another

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Daydreaming!!!

Daydreams

focused and directed thinking, like directed consciousness,

but these involve fantasies (and not stimuli immediately at
hand)

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The Unconscious Mind

The concept of the Unconscious Mind

the notion of an unconscious mind helps to explain mental

processes that occur without conscious awareness

for example: when you forget something and then, hours later,
suddenly remember it though you had not been consciously trying
to remember it

the Unconscious Mind is a big part of the Psychoanalytic school

of thought in psychology BUT Freud believed that the unconscious
was a hiding place for our anxiety provoking ideas and emotions
and uncovering them could lead to healing psychologists
currently view the unconscious track as one that operates without
awareness. (It is the unaware part of dual processing)

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Psych AP Chapter 7

Sleeping

Sleep is one of the cycles that the body does daily.

These cycles are called circadian rhythms (from the
Latin circa about and diem day) and the body
typically operates on a cycle of about 24 hours

Consider it your internal biological clock

Other circadian body cycles include:

body temperature (rises in the a.m. peaks during the day,

dips in the early afternoon and drops again in the evening)

urine production

metabolism

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Details:

Hypothalamus tiny section of the brain that influences

the glandular system.
suprachiasmatic nucleus

deep within the hypothalamus; the internal clock that

tells people when to wake up and when to fall asleep.

Tells pineal gland when to secrete melatonin, which makes a person

feel sleepy.

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Sleeping

We cycle through four distinct stages

approximately every 90 minutes

REM

NREM 1

NREM 2

NREM 3

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Sleeping and Dreaming

Stages of sleep
involves

passing from waking state

into a semi-wakeful state, then into
4 stages of progressively deeper
sleep

stages of sleep based on EEG

measures of brainwave activity
during sleep that reveal different
brain-wave patterns

Brain Waves & Sleep Stages

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States of light and deep sleep

NREM

1 sleep:

the

May

brain is slowing down from calm awake, alpha waves

experience:

hypnagogic

images vivid visual events resembling

hallucinations sensory experiences without a sensory
stimulus

hypnic

jerk knees, legs, or whole body jerks

Nobody knows for sure what causes them, but some feel they
represent the side effects of a battle for control

States of light and deep sleep

NREM

the brain is slowing further

Sleep spindles periodic bursts of rapid, rhythmic brainwave activity

Approximately 20 minutes
(but half the night)

NREM

2 sleep:

3:

Slow wave sleep brain emits large, slow delta waves

You are hard to wake up
At the end of the deep, slow-wave NREM 3 sleep that
children might wet the bed

Approx 30 minutes

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REM sleep

Rapid Eye Movement

Dream Sleep

Emergent sleep: the brain begins to be more

active; returns to beta wave pattern of
wakefulness though you are still asleep

Approximately an hour after first falling asleep

Motor cortex is active but brainstem blocks the

messages muscles are relaxed

Heart rate rises, breathing is rapid and

irregular and every half minute your eyes dart
around (announce the beginning of a dream)

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Except for very scary dreams, your genitals

become aroused during REM sleep
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Sleeping and dreaming

Dream Sleep

beta-wave brain activity (like when you are wide awake) is

present and REM (rapid eye movement) activity is present

most people generally dream more than once in a single

night; virtually everyone dreams every night

REM increases and deep sleep decreases as the

night goes on.
With each approximately 90-minute cycle, stage
4 sleep decreases and the duration of REM sleep
increases.

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Sleeping and dreaming

A a typical sleep cycle is about 1.5 hours long so the typical person
has 4 to 5 sleep cycles occurring per sleep period (if the average is
7.5 hours)

The normal person may have as much as 1 to 2 hours of dreaming

every night

Over the years

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Sleeping and dreaming

Why do we sleep and dream?

What good is it to sleep and dream anyway?
Isnt it a waste of about 33% of your life?
NO!

Sleep and dreaming is important to

maintain normal psychological functioning
Sleep deprivation studies show that going
more than 40 hours without sleep begins to
tell by the appearance of forgetting,
irritation, poor judgment, and other
symptoms

Sleeping and dreaming

Extreme

sleep deprivation

studies

of extreme sleep deprivation

have shown that at about 120 hours of
sleep deprivation individuals will
begin to behave in ways
indistinguishable from paranoid
schizophrenics
these symptoms include: hostility,
suspicion, paranoia, unpredictable
behavior, hallucinations and delusions
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Sleeping and dreaming

What

important thing happens in sleep?

Studies

on sleep and REM deprivation show that

it is the REM (dreaming state) of sleep that is
the KEY reason why we sleep; sleeping without
dreaming is not useful in the big picture

We

do, like Shakespeare said, sleep,

perchance to dream

Necessity of Sleep

Adaptive theory - theory of sleep proposing that animals

and humans evolved sleep patterns to avoid predators by
sleeping when predators are most active.
Restorative theory - theory of sleep proposing that sleep is
necessary to the physical health of the body and serves to
replenish chemicals and repair cellular damage.

Current understandings are of five

reasons:

Protection

Safe to lie asleep in the cave instead of in harms way (falling off
cliffs)

Recuperation

Helps to restore and repair brain tissue high waking metabolism

creates free radicals which are toxic to neurons

Can also prune weak or unused connections

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Current understandings are of five

reasons:

Restore and Build our fading memories of the days experiences

Consolidates our memories strengthens and stabilizes neural memory

traces

Better retention of material if you sleep after training than if you

continue awake

Feeds Creative Thinking

Dreams inspire literary, artistic and scientific achievements

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Current understandings are of five

reasons:

Supports Growth

Pituitary gland releases growth hormone necessary for muscle

development

Regular full night sleep dramatically improves athletic ability

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Which (if any) statements apply to you?

1. Need an alarm clock in order to wake up at the appropriate time.

2. Its a struggle for me to get out of bed in the morning.

3. Weekday mornings I hit the snooze bar several times to get more sleep.

4. I feel tired, irritable, and stressed out during the week.

5. I have trouble concentrating and remembering.

6. I feel slow with critical thinking, problem solving, and being creative.

7. I often fall asleep watching TV.

8. I often fall asleep in boring classes or in warm rooms.

9. I often fall asleep after heavy meals or after a low dose of alcohol.

10. I often fall asleep while relaxing after dinner.

11. I often fall asleep within five minutes of getting into bed.

12. I often feel drowsy while driving.

13. I often sleep extra hours on weekend mornings.

14. I often need a nap to get through the day.

15. I have dark circles around my eyes.

Sleep Deprived?

Did you answer true to three or more?

Then yes, according to James B. Maass

assessment, you are sleep deprived

You could try going to bed 15 minutes

earlier than usual each night for the next
week until you wake up without an alarm
clock and feel alert all day

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What do the numbers indicate?

Less sleep,
more accidents

Accident
frequency

More sleep,
fewer accidents

2,800

2,700

4,200

2,600

4000

2,500

3,800

2,400

3,600

Spring time change

(hour sleep loss)
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Monday before time change

Fall time change

(hour sleep gained)
32 after time change
Monday

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Psych AP Chapter 7

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The Meaning of Dreams

Freuds view of dreams

Dreams have manifest content (the surface content of a

dream, which contains dream symbols that distort and
disguise the dreams true meaning)

Dreams have latent content (the true unconscious

meaning of the dream)

Dreams provide information from the unconscious mind

that a person can use to understand themselves

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Sleeping and dreaming

Nightmares and other sleep phenomena

Nightmares are exceptionally frightening dreams

they

typically involve anxieties

they

often involve being chased, being late, or falling

they

are typically dark and foreboding

individuals

may wake up after nightmares with a sense

of uneasiness

Nightmares

The Nightmare
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Sleeping and dreaming

Night terrors

very frightening event, typically in children, where the person

experiences extreme fear and may scream or run around during
deep sleep. It is difficult to wake them.
typically
they

these are outgrown as the child gets older

are not typically a sign of emotional problems in the

child
Night

terrors happen during deep non-REM sleep. Unlike

nightmares (which occur during REM sleep), a night terror is
not technically a dream, but more like a sudden reaction of
fear that happens during the transition from one sleep phase
to another

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Sleeping and dreaming

Sleep

walking and sleep talking

typically

occur in NREM3 sleep (not in REM sleep)

about 15% of the population has experienced
these phenomena
the sleeper should be protected from hurting
themselves; individuals have been known to leave
their home driving their car while asleep
The episode can be very brief (a few seconds or
minutes) or it can last for 30+ minutes. Most
episodes last for less than 10 minutes.
If they are not disturbed, sleepwalkers will go
back to sleep.But they may fall asleep in a
different or even unusual place

Causes of sleepwalking include:

hereditary (i.e., the condition may run in families)

lack of sleep or fatigue

interrupted sleep or inefficient sleep (including from

disorders like sleep apnea)

illness or fever

certain medications

stress, anxiety

going to bed with full bladder

noisy sleep environment/different sleep environment

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Sleeping and dreaming

Sleep

disorders

Insomnia:
affects

an inability to fall and/or stay asleep

about 20 million Americans

Narcolepsy:

a form of epilepsy that causes sudden,

immediate sleeping

Sleep

apnea: cessation of breathing while sleeping;

associated with the very loud snoring person

Lucid Dreaming only an app

away?

Check out the video:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18277074

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Psych AP Chapter 7

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Altered states of
consciousness

Altered states involve several common

characteristics:

Distortions of perception

Intense emotions (positive or negative)

A sense of unity

Altered states are often illogical, indescribable, and

transcendent; they may involve a sense of self-evident
reality

Altered States of Consciousness

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Altered states

Meditation can produce an altered state of

consciousness

extreme focused concentration away from thoughts and

feelings

generates a sense of relaxation

focusing on not thinking; try to stop thinking and see if you

can do it

use of mantras, prayers, or other techniques may be useful

in meditating

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Hypnosis
- state of consciousness in which the person is especially

susceptible to suggestion.

1.
2.
3.
4.

Four Elements of Hypnosis:

The hypnotist tells the person to focus on what is being
said.
The person is told to relax and feel tired.
The hypnotist tells the person to let go and accept
suggestions easily.
The person is told to use vivid imagination.

Hidden observer the idea that some part

of you is aware of what is actually going
on.

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Altered states
Hypnosis

can produce an altered state of

consciousness

characterized by relaxation, hypnotic hallucinations, hypnotic

analgesia, age regression, and hypnotic control

is hypnotism real, fake, or role playing?

about 15% of the population is easily hypnotized

has been used to induce anesthesia in certain individuals, e.g.

helping to manage drug-free childbirth; there have been
surgeries carried out with the patient only under hypnotic
suggestion for pain control

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Altering States of Consciousness

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Stimulants

Drugs that act on the brain and nervous system to

increase their overall activity and general
responsiveness

Includes: nicotine, caffeine, Ritalin, cocaine in all its

forms, amphetamines, methamphetamines, Ecstasy
(MDMA), etc.

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Psychoactive Drugs
Stimulants - Nicotine

Psychoactive Drugs
Stimulants - Cocaine

Opiates

Drugs derived from opium that function as an analgesic or pain

reliever.

Includes: morphine, heroin, street methadone, opium, codeine,

hydrocodone (Vicodin, Lortab), oxycodone (Percocet, Oxycontin),
Demerol, Darvocet, etc.

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Depressants

Depressantspsychoactive drugs that act on the

central nervous system to suppress or slow bodily
processes and reduce overall responsiveness

Includes: alcohol, barbiturates (mathaqualone

quaalude), anti-anxiety drugs (Valium, Xanax,
Ativan), Rohypnol (roofies), etc.

Hallucinogens

Drugs that produce sensory or perceptual distortions

called hallucinations.

Includes: LSD (acid), mescaline (peyote), mushrooms,

Ketamine (special K), PCP (angel dust), marijuana
(referred to as a pseudo-hallucinogenic drug)

Substance Dependence

Psychological Dependencedesire or craving to

achieve the effects produced by the drug

Physical Dependenceindicated by tolerance and/or

withdrawal

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Tolerance, Withdrawal

Tolerancedecreased sensitivity to a drug brought

on by its continuous use

WithdrawalDiscomfort and distress, including

physical pain and intense cravings, experienced
after stopping the use of addictive drugs

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Levels of Analysis for Drug Use

Criminally Responsible?

Sue is driving when she gets into a serious accident.

Her passenger Fred is killed. The accident occurred
due to driver error inappropriately long reaction
time.
Should she be held criminally responsible?
She has a brain tumour.

Criminally Responsible?

Sue is driving when she gets into a serious accident.

Her passenger Fred is killed. The accident occurred
due to driver error inappropriately long reaction
time.
Should she be held criminally responsible?
She is an alcoholic.

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