Consciousness and Sleep

Consciousness – Consciousness, Sleep, Dreaming
20
Consciousness and Sleep
Conscious, Unconscious, Consciousness

 Conscious – being awake and aware (and with control).
 Unconscious – being asleep (?), knocked out, unaware.
 The Unconscious – unaware memories, desires, etc.
Consciousness
 A mental state, a way of perceiving, awareness.

 May involve thoughts, sensations, perceptions, moods, emotions, dreams, self-
awareness, and subject-object relations.
 Subjective experience.
 Nagel - the existence of "something that it is like" to be.
When We Are Awake
Multiple brain processes and structures must be operating simultaneously in order for us to
be conscious of our world or ourselves. When we are awake, most if not all the neurons in
our brains are constantly active. Even in the absence of such stimulation, neurons are still
active at a steady, low level and are communicating with other neurons.
For us to experience conscious awareness of something, such as a thought or an oncoming

car, many networks (neurons tend to work together in groups) must become particularly
active at once. While one set of networks is enabling us to pay attention to the stimulus,
other biological events must also be at work, enabling us to be aware and recognize that we
are attending. Still others are allowing us to monitor, remember, and control.
Researchers have not yet pinpointed all of the brain areas and events that are responsible for
such parallel processing, but research has suggested that two areas of great importance to
consciousness:
 The cerebral cortex (the brain’s outer covering of cells)

- the left cerebral cortex is responsible for verbal awareness
- the right cerebral cortex can produce tactile awareness and perhaps other kinds of
nonverbal awareness as well, but not verbal awareness
20
- for most of us, our two hemispheres are connected and these various kinds of
awareness occur simultaneously, helping to produce a broad and complete sense of
conscious awareness
 The thalamus (the brain structure that often relays sensory information from various
parts of the brain to the cerebral cortex).
Alert Consciousness
It seems that most children develop a stable concept of the self by around 18 months of age.
Some theorists suggest that consciousness itself is rooted in language. Because babies do not
have language, they cannot reflect on their thoughts and behaviours and do not have
consciousness yet.
Preconscious and Unconscious States
PRECONSCIOUSNESS is a level of awareness in which information can become readily

available to consciousness if necessary. Have you ever tried to remember something that
you’re certain you know but just cannot recall at the moment? When something is on the
tip-of-your-tongue it is in your preconsciousness. When (or if) you finally do remember it,
the memory has reached consciousness.
Many of our most familiar behaviours occur during preconsciousness. Example: For many
morning activities, you probably do things in the same order, but you do not necessarily need
to plan all the steps or think about what you’re doing as you move through your ritual.
Preconscious behaviours of this kind are sometimes called automatic behaviours.
An UNCONSCIOUS STATE is one in which information is not easily accessible to conscious

awareness. Example: Perhaps at a particularly beautiful moment while watching a movie,
you become teary-eyed, with no idea why. Psychoanalytic theorists, influenced by the ideas
of Sigmund Freud, would suggest that the movie triggered a memory in your unconscious. It
may be a memory of an especially happy or difficult time in your childhood, but chances are,
you will never find out for sure.
Information, feelings, and memories held
in the unconscious are—by definition—
not readily available to conscious
awareness.
Freud’s Views of the Unconscious

20
Freud believed that the vast majority of our personal knowledge is located in our
unconsciousness, and thus is not readily accessible. According to him, one of the key
functions of the unconsciousness is to house thoughts and memories too painful or
disturbing to us to remain in our consciousness. Although it is typically inaccessible,
unconscious material does come into conscious awareness on occasion.
Have you ever meant to say one thing, but something very different comes out, often to your
embarrassment? Freud identified this slip of the tongue (called a Freudian slip) as a moment
when the mind inadvertently allows a repressed idea into consciousness.
Our unconscious can work against us and people who

store too many emotionally-charged memories and
needs in their unconscious may eventually develop
psychological disorders.
Freud’s theory suggests that the knowledge and

memories stored in the unconscious maintain their
ability to influence how we think, feel, and relate to
others. If we repress too much, we may experience
distortions in how we feel or relate to others, and, at
the same time, we may feel helpless to change. Based
on this part of Freud’s theory, psychoanalytic
psychotherapy attempts to bring patients’ unconscious material into their conscious
awareness.
Cognitive Views of the Unconscious
The most prominent cognitive explanation for unconscious processing points to the concept
of implicit memory.
Cognitive theorists distinguish two basic kinds of memory:
 Explicit memory: pieces of knowledge that we are fully aware of – knowing the date
of your birth is an explicit memory.
 Implicit memory: refers to knowledge that we are not typically aware of – information
that we cannot recall at will—but that we use in the performance of various tasks in
life.
Implicit memory is usually on display in the skills we acquire. Example: Shortly after learning
to drive, you may realize one day that you are able to drive and talk to a passenger at the
same time, for example, but not recall the exact moment you learned how to control the
wheel and pedals well enough to add the additional activity of carrying on a conversation.
20
Implicit memory may also involve factual information. Example: When we vote for a
particular candidate on Election Day, a wealth of past experiences and information may be at
the root of that behaviour—childhood discussions with our parents about political parties,
Web sites we’ve seen, articles we’ve read, political science classes we’ve taken, interviews or
“news-bites” we have heard, and more.
Cognitive and cognitive neuroscience theorists see implicit memories as a part of everyday
functioning rather than as a way to keep difficult information from reaching our awareness.
There is evidence that explicit and implicit memories are stored in different pathways in the
brain.
20
Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs)

 Non-ordinary states of consciousness (e.g., dreams, drugs).
 “…any mental state(s), induced by various physiological, psychological, or
pharmacological manoeuvres or agents, which can be recognized subjectively by
the individual himself (or by an objective observer) as representing a sufficient
deviation in subjective experience or psychological functioning from certain general
norms for that individual during alert, waking consciousness.” (Ludwig, 1966, p.225).
 An ASC is any state of consciousness that varies significantly from the normal (beta-
wave) state (Smith).
 Includes:
 Sleeping/dreaming
 Pre/post sleep states (hypnogogic / hypnopompic)
 Meditation
 Hypnosis
 Under influence of psychoactive substance (drugs)
 Hypnosis
 Dissociation / Trance
 Other less obvious states? (e.g., adrenal, endorphin, hormonal?)
 General characteristics of ASCs (Ludwig, 1990):
 Alterations in thinking
 Disturbed sense of time
 Loss of control
 Change in emotional expression
 Body image change
 Perceptual distortions
 Change of meaning or significance
 Sense of the ineffable
 Feelings of rejuvenation
 Hyper suggestibility.
 Mapping ASCs I:
 Fischer’s Model – Fischer’s (1971) Cartography of Ecstatic & Meditative States
 Egotrophic = sympathetic CNS; trophotropic = parasympathetic.
 Only provides a rather linear view of ASCs fluctuating between
para/sympathetic activation
 Distinction between ASCs is physiological
 Over-simplistic, e.g.:
 Does not account for sleep states
 Psychedelic states are more complex than just arousal/relaxation.
20
 Tart’s Approach – Tart’s (1974) Discreet ASCs (d-

ASC):
 Draws distinction between the discreet
(ordinary) states of consciousness (d-SoC)
 Distinction between ASCs is functional
 Offers a means of comparing states along
multiple subjective dimensions
 Offers an open system for categorising ASCs.
 Investigating ASCs
 Brain imaging techniques
-
Electroencephalograph (EEG);
-
Positron Emission Tomography (PET);
-
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)]
 Cognitive tests (e.g., startle response)
 Subjective reports (e.g., William James)
 State Questionnaires - e.g., Dittrich’s (1998) ASC scale - 3 oblique dimensions
- Oceanic Boundlessness;
- Dread of Ego Dissolution;
- Visionary Restructuralization.
20
Altered States, Psychotherapy and Anomalous Experiences
 ASCs share many features in common
 often the unconscious becomes conscious
 has potential benefit in psychotherapy, e.g.,
- hypnosis& dreams: psychoanalysis
- psychedelics: addiction cessation, PTSD, death anxiety
- meditation: insight
 Often also gives rise to

anomalous
experiences: e.g., sleep
paralysis, spontaneous
ESP, mystical
experiences, near-death
experiences, out-of
body experiences,
apparitions, abduction
experiences,
mediumistic
experiences.
Hypnosis
 Definitions:
 “A heightened state of suggestibility or responsiveness”
 “An altered state of consciousness that enables the hypnotised subject to release the
‘dissociative’ capacities that lie with them”(Barber,1991)
 “A socially agreed upon display of dissociated mental functions” (Hilgard, 1992).
20
 Features(Smith et al., 2003):
 a willing individual relinquishes control to the hypnotist
 suggestibility is increased
 planfulness ceases
 attention is selective (listens only hypnotist)
 enriched fantasy readily evoked
 reality testing reduced/ reality distortion accepted
 not everyone equally susceptible to hypnosis
 post-hypnotic amnesia can be suggested
 Susceptibility to Hypnosis:
 10% to 50 % cannot be hypnotised
 No significant effects of sex, IQ, or educational level
 Susceptibility peaks before puberty, stabilises in adulthood, and decreases in older
age
 Several scales available to measure susceptibility, most asses behavioural (objective)
responses, while some asses both subjective and objective, e.g., Barber Suggestibility
Scale.
 Barber Suggestibility Scale: 1. Arm lowering; 2. Arm levitation; 3. Hand lock; 4. Thirst
hallucination; 5. Verbal inhibition; 6. Body immobility; 7. Post hypnotic-like response;
8. Selective Amnesia.
 Theories of Hypnosis:
 State theories
 Hidden Observer theory (Hilgard, 1986): control system outside of conscious
awareness
 Neo-dissociation theory (Hilgard, 1991)
- multiple levels of control (some conscious)
- executive ego controls & monitors control systems
- hypnotised gives up some control to hypnotist
 State theories supported by hypnotic analgesia
 Non-state theories
 solely belief, compliance and imagination (Barber)
 combination of experience & suggestion (Wagstaff)
 Hypnotic phenomena
 Hypnotherapy, many uses…
- reduction of pre-surgery anxiety
- overcoming addictions
- treating emotional problems
 Hypnotic analgesia
 Age regression: Nash (1987) review 60 years of research; evidence to support notion
weak
 Past Lives – little accurate information of the era (Spanos, 1991)
 False memory implantation.
20
Hypnosis is considered by many psychologists to be an altered state of consciousness. During
hypnosis, people can be directed to act in unusual ways, experience unusual sensations,
remember forgotten events, or forget remembered events.
People typically are guided into this suggestible state by a trained hypnotist or
hypnotherapist. The process involves their willing relinquishment of control over certain
behaviours and their acceptance of distortions of reality. In order for hypnosis to work,
individuals must be open and responsive to suggestions made by the hypnotist.
Approximately 15 percent of adults are very susceptible to hypnosis, while 10 percent are
not at all hypnotizable. Most adults fall somewhere in between.
Hypnotic Procedures and Effects
 Sometimes a person is asked to relax while concentrating on a single small target,

such as a watch or an item in a painting on the wall.
 At other times, the hypnotist induces a hyperalert hypnotic trance that actually
guides the individual to heightened tension and awareness.
 In either case, the hypnotist delivers “suggestions” to the subject, not the
authoritarian commands on display in the movies.
One area of functioning that can be readily influenced by hypnotists is motor control.
Example: If the hypnotist suggests that a person’s hand is being drawn like a magnet to a
nearby stapler, the individual’s hand will soon move to the stapler, as if propelled by an
external force.
Posthypnotic responses: people can be directed to respond after being roused from the
hypnotic trance by a predetermined signal. During hypnosis the hypnotist may suggest, for
example, that the person will later stand up whenever the hypnotist touches a desktop. After
being roused, and with no understanding of why, the person will in fact stand when the
hypnotist touches the desk.
Posthypnotic amnesia: The hypnotist directs the person to later forget information learned
during hypnosis. Once again, after being roused from the hypnotic trance, the person does
not remember the learned material until the hypnotist provides a predetermined signal to
remember. The degree to which the earlier information is forgotten varies. Some people will
not remember any of the learned material, while others will remember quite a bit.
Hypnosis can also induce hallucinations, mental perceptions that do not match the physical
stimulations coming from the world around us.
 Positive hallucinations are those in which people under hypnosis are guided to see
objects or hear sounds that are not present.
20
 Negative hallucinations are those in which hypnotized people fail to see or hear
stimuli that are present. Negative hallucinations are often used to control pain. The
hypnotized person is directed to ignore—basically, to simply not perceive—pain. The
hallucination may result in a total or partial reduction of pain. Some practitioners
have even applied hypnosis to help control pain during dental and other forms of
surgery. Although only some people are able to undergo surgery while anesthetized
by hypnosis alone, combining hypnosis with chemical forms of anesthesia apparently
helps many individuals.
Beyond its use in the control of pain, hypnosis has been used successfully to help treat
problems, such as anxiety, skin diseases, asthma, insomnia, stuttering, high blood pressure,
warts, and other forms of infection (Shenefelt, 2003).
Many people also turn to hypnosis to help break bad habits, such as smoking, nail biting,
and overeating. Does hypnosis help? Research has shown that hypnosis has little effect in
helping people to quit smoking over the long term. However, greater success has been noted
in efforts at weight loss, particularly if hypnosis is paired with cognitive treatments,
interventions that help people change their conscious ways of thinking.
Why Does Hypnosis Work?
 A state of divided consciousness (Ernest Hilgard): consciousness splits into two parts
and that both act at once during hypnosis, an experience called dissociation (Hilgard,
1992); one part of our consciousness becomes fully tuned into and responsive to the
hypnotist’s suggestions; the second part, the hidden observer, operates at a subtler,
less conscious level, continuing to process information that is seemingly unavailable
to the hypnotized person.
 An implementation of common social and cognitive processes: hypnotic phenomena
consist simply of highly motivated people performing tasks or enacting roles that are
asked of them; because of their strong beliefs in hypnosis, the people fail to recognize
their own active contributions to the process (Spanos et al., 1995)
What Happens In The Brain?

20
Neuroimaging studies show that hypnosis affects neuron activity in brain areas previously
implicated in conscious awareness, suggesting that the procedure does indeed produce
altered consciousness, as suggested by Hilgard’s theory.
WHEN PEOPLE ARE HYPNOTIZED:
 First they are guided into a state of mental relaxation. During this state, neural activity in
key areas of the cerebral cortex and thalamus—brain regions that are implicated in
conscious awareness—slows down significantly.
 Next, they are guided into a state of mental absorption, during which they focus carefully
on the hypnotist’s voice and instructions and actively block out other sources of
stimulation, both internal and environmental. In fact, mental absorption has often been
described as a state of total focus. During this state, cerebral blood flow and neural
activity actually pick back up in key areas of the cerebral cortex, thalamus, and other
parts of the brain’s attention and conscious awareness systems (Rainville et al., 2002).
Neuroimaging research suggests that one part of the brain’s cerebral cortex, the anterior
cingulate cortex, may be particularly involved when hypnosis is used to anesthetize or
reduce pain. This region has been implicated both in general awareness and in the
unpleasantness we feel during pain. Example: In one study, participants were hypnotically
induced to ignore their pain while placing their hands in painfully hot water (Rainville et al.,
1997). The neurons in their anterior cingulate cortex became markedly less active. Although
the activity of other neurons that receive pain messages continued as usual in these people’s
brains—suggesting that they were indeed receiving sensations of pain—the decreased
activity in the anterior cingulate cortex seemed to reduce their awareness of the pain. They
did not perceive the pain sensations.
Meditation:
Meditation is a technique designed to turn one’s consciousness away from the outer world,
toward inner cues and awareness, ignoring all stressors. The technique typically involves:
20
 going to a quiet place
 assuming either a specific body position or simply a comfortable position
 controlling one’s breathing
 limiting one’s outward attention
 forming internal images
The result of such efforts is an altered state of consciousness, accompanied by deeply

relaxing and pleasant feelings. Experienced meditators are often said to attain a “wider
consciousness.” Meditation is an ancient practice that can be traced through the history of all
the world’s major religions. Perhaps the best known practices derive from:
 The yoga traditions of the Hindu religion (Yoga is a form of meditation that involves
adjusting the body into different positions, or poses, in an attempt to also regulate
blood flow, heart rate, and digestive processes).
 The Zen traditions of Buddhism.
Two major techniques to meditation seem to use opposite approaches.
 Opening up approaches: the meditator seeks to clear his or her mind in order to receive
new experiences. One opening-up technique is to imagine oneself as another person; a
related opening-up technique involves the performance of a common task in a slightly
different way, in order to call better attention to one’s daily routine.
 Concentrative meditation: the person actively concentrates on an object, word, or idea,
called a mantra. In some versions of this approach, the person concentrates instead on
a riddle, called a koan. A well-known koan involves answering the question, “What is
the sound of one hand clapping?”
Benefits:
 Can help people relax.

 People in meditative states experience increases in the same brain waves that are
associated with the relaxation phase individuals experience just prior to falling asleep.
20
 Can lower respiration, heart rate, blood
pressure, and muscle tension.
 Used to help treat pain, asthma, high blood
pressure, heart problems, skin disorders,
diabetes, and viral infections.
 Lowering severe pain through mindfulness
meditation: meditators pay attention to the
feelings, thoughts, and sensations that are
flowing through their minds during meditation,
but they do so with detachment and without
judgment; in turn, they’re less likely to react
negatively to them.
Sleep & Dreaming

 Electroencephalograph (EEG)
 Measures electromagnetic variation of scalp
 Term coined by Hans Berger (1924)
 Interested in transmission method for telepathy
 Discovered different wave forms
 Different states of alertness (including sleep) found to exhibit different wave forms.
 Dreaming originally considered only to take place during Rapid Eye Movement (REM)
sleep
 But NREM sleep also produces some dream recall (~50%)
 REM/ NREM dreams also qualitatively
different
 REM dreams more visually vivid,
emotional, and illogical
 N REM dreams more directly related to
waking life
20
 Also
pre/post dream states are rich in subjective experience

 Hypnagogic - liminal waking-sleeping stage
 Hypnopompic (Myers, 1903) - liminal sleep-waking stage; prone to anomalous
experiences, e.g., sleep paralysis.
 Sleep Theory – Opponent Process Model (Edgar & Dement, 1992)
 2 opposing drives
 Homeostatic sleep drive (nocturnal): physiological process strives to sleep
20
 Clock-dependent altering process (diurnal); biological clock rouses sleeper;
operates circadian rhythm.
 2 opposing drives interact to produce daily cycle
 Controlled by neuro- hormonal / chemical process
 Neurochemical Basis of Sleeping & Dreaming
 Pineal controls sleep (& dream?) hormone /neurotransmitter production
 Pineal, like eye, is sensitive to light
 Serotonin (5HT) produced in day, and converted to melatonin at night
 Serotonin = alert
 Melatonin = sleep
 Pineal also thought to produce DMT
 DMT is endogenous hallucinogenic
 DMT thought to regulate dreams (Calloway, 1988).
Sleep
Why Do We Sleep?
20
 THE ADAPTIVE THEORY OF SLEEP suggests that sleep is the evolutionary outcome of self-
preservation. This view suggest that organisms sleep in order to keep themselves away
from predators that are more active at night. Our ancestors, for example, tucked
themselves away in safe places to keep from being eaten by nocturnal animals on the
prowl. Animals that need to hide from predators tend to sleep less. An elephant, for
example, sleeps only two or three hours a day, whereas a bat sleeps around twenty. This
evolutionary argument, however, seems to account more for why we sleep at night than
for why we sleep in the first place.
 BIOLOGICAL THEORIES
 One suggests that sleep plays a role in the growth process, a notion consistent with
the finding that the pituitary gland releases growth hormones during sleep. In fact, as
we age, we release fewer of these hormones, grow less, and sleep less.
 THE RESTORATIVE THEORY OF SLEEP suggests that sleep allows the brain and body to
restore certain depleted chemical resources, while eliminating chemical wastes that
have accumulated during the waking day.
Rhythms of Sleep
Although we tend to be awake during the day and to sleep at night, our circadian rhythms
are not fully dependent on the cycles of daylight.
During the circadian cycle, we experience subtle patterns of biochemical activity. As morning
nears, for example, our temperature rises and continues to rise until it peaks at midday. Then
it dips and we feel fatigued. Many people around the world take naps during this early
afternoon lull. Later in the afternoon, body temperature rises once more, only to drop again
as we approach our full evening sleep. Moreover, the release of growth hormones tends to
occur during periods of sleep.
On average, we are most alert during the late morning peak in the circadian rhythm. This
however varies with age: younger people tend to peak later in the day, while older people
peak earlier.
The circadian rhythm has been called our biological clock because the pattern repeats itself
from one 24-hour period to the next. This clock, however, can be made to go haywire by
certain events.
 Long-distance airplane flights when we are awake at times that we should be sleeping—a
problem compounded by crossing time zones. The result: jet lag.
 People who work nightshifts, particularly those who keep irregular schedules of dayshifts
and nightshifts, may experience sleep disorders and, in some instances, develop
problems such as depression or health difficulties.
20
People with a pattern called circadian rhythm sleep disorder experience excessive sleepiness
or insomnia as a result of a mismatch between their own sleep wake pattern and the sleep-
wake schedule of most other people in their environment.
“Owls” And “Larks”
Do you get up at the crack of dawn, head to the gym, and complete all of your class
assignments before noon? Then you are probably a morning person (a “lark”). Or do you
have trouble getting up before noon and can’t really concentrate on your work until much
later in the day? If so, you are likely an evening person (an “owl”).
Most people have no preference for the time of day when they are most alert and active;
they may shift their sleep-wake rhythms with no adverse effects on their alertness or activity
level. But for some, there is a strong preference for either earlier or later in the day.
Researchers now believe that genetics plays an important role in determining these
variations in sleep-wake rhythms, and that age, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic factors
have almost no influence.
When We Sleep
The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a small group of neurons in the hypothalamus, is

ultimately responsible for coordinating the many rhythms of the body. As daylight fades into
night, the SCN “notices” the change and directs the pineal gland to secrete the hormone
melatonin. Increased quantities of melatonin, traveling through the blood to various organs,
cause sleepiness. Melatonin production peaks between 1:00 and 3:00 A.M. As dawn
approaches, this production decreases and sleepers soon awaken.
During the day, photoreceptors in the retina of the eye communicate the presence of
sunlight to the SCN and melatonin secretions remain low. Photoreceptors are also sensitive
to artificial light. In fact, the invention of the lightbulb just over a hundred years ago has
disturbed the human experience of the circadian rhythm by increasing the number of hours
of light people are exposed to in a given day. This may be one reason why many people today
sleep much less than our forbearers.
When we are deprived of light, the various circadian rhythms also become out-of-synch with
each other. The normal cycles of body temperature and melatonin production, for example,
no longer coordinate with one another (Lavie, 2001). When a person who has been kept in
an environment without sunlight is returned to normal living conditions, the usual 24-hour
circadian rhythm is quickly restored.
Patterns of Sleep
20
Every 90 to 100 minutes while we sleep, we pass through a sleep cycle that consists of five
different stages.
When we first go to bed and, still awake, begin to relax, EEG readings show that we
experience what are called alpha waves. As we settle into this drowsy presleep period, called
the hypnagogic state, we sometimes experience strange sensations. We may feel that we
are falling or floating in space, or “hear” our name called out, or we may hear a loud crash.
All of these sensations seem very real, but none actually has happened. Such sensory
phenomena are called hypnagogic hallucinations. Also common during this presleep stage is
a myoclonic jerk, a sharp muscular spasm that generally accompanies the hypnagogic
hallucination of falling.
Stage 1:
 it lasts only a few minutes

 brain waves are smaller and irregular
 alpha-wave patterns are replaced by slower waves, called theta waves
 a bridge between wakefulness and sleep
 our conscious awareness of street noises or the hum of an air conditioner fades
 if we are roused from this stage, we might recall having just had ideas that seem
nonsensical
Stage 2:
 lasts 15 to 20 minutes
 a further slowing of brain-wave activity
 sleep spindles — bursts of brain activity that last a second or two
 breathing becomes steadily rhythmic
 the body twitches occasionally, although generally our muscle tension relaxes
 we can still be awakened fairly easily
 towards the end our brain waves slow even further and delta waves start to appear in
addition to the theta waves (delta waves indicate deep sleep)
Stage 3:
 between 20 and 50 percent of our EEG waves are delta waves
Stage 4:
 the percentage of delta waves increases to more than 50 percent

 heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rates all drop to their lowest levels and the
sleeper seems “dead to the world”
20
 although our muscles are most relaxed during this deepest phase of sleep, this is also
the time that people are prone to sleepwalking and might go for a stroll; similarly,
children who wet their beds tend to do so during this stage
Passing through all of the first four stages takes a little more than an hour of each 90 to 100-
minute sleep cycle. After that, we experience the most interesting stage of sleep, rapid eye
movement, or REM, sleep. In fact, all the preceding stages (Stages 1–4) are collectively called
non-REM sleep, or NREM.
During REM sleep (paradoxical sleep):
 we experience rapid and jagged brain-wave patterns, in contrast to the slow waves of
NREM sleep
 increased heart rate and rapid and irregular breathing
 every 30 seconds or so, our eyes dart around rapidly behind our closed eyelids
 brains behave just as they do when we are awake and active
 the genitals become aroused: except during nightmares, men are usually experiencing
erections and women vaginal lubrication and clitoral engorgement even if the content
of the dream is not sexual
 dreams usually occur throughout REM sleep
If people are awakened during this stage, they almost always report that they have been
dreaming. Unlike the hypnagogic hallucinations of presleep, which are often fleeting and
isolated images, dreams tend to be emotional and are experienced in a story-like form.
Dreams are less common during NREM sleep, and when they do happen, they are less vivid
or fantastic than REM dreams.
Many researchers believe that REM sleep serves a particularly important function—the
consolidation of memories of newly learned material. In fact, REM sleep tends to extend
longer than usual in both animals and humans if the organisms go to sleep after just having
learned a new task.
Criticism:
 Some studies show that when animals are administered antidepressant drugs, which
typically disrupt REM sleep, they nevertheless continue to learn and remember quite
well.
 Research also finds that people with lesions to the pons portion of the brain, which is
active during REM sleep, learn, remember, and function quite normally.
Sleep through development

20

Through the first four months of life, babies sleep between 14 and 17 hours each day.
The amount of time that they spend sleeping declines steadily as they get older
(Sadeh et al., 2009).
 Their sleep periods can last anywhere from minutes to hours, but sleep tends to
become more structured at around six months of age.
 Babies appear to spend a great deal more time (8h) than adults (2h) in REM sleep.
 Several have speculated that REM sleep aids in the development of the central
nervous system by facilitating synaptic pruning and preventing the formation of
unnecessary connections, although research has not yet confirmed this belief.
 REM sleep tends to decrease to adult levels somewhere between the ages of two and
six years.
 By early childhood, an individual’s total daily sleep requirement also decreases
significantly.
 Most children sleep around 9 hours each day (although it is recommended between
12 and 15 hours of sleep for anyone between two and five years of age).
 Teenagers average around 7 hours of daily sleep (although recommend at least 8
hours).
 As we age, we spend less and less time in deep sleep and REM sleep, our sleep is
more readily interrupted, and we take longer to get back to sleep when awakened.
 Our biological clocks are also affected by environmental demands and expectations.
The body clocks of teenagers seem to be compromised by the increased social and
academic pressures that they encounter.
Sleep Deprivation and Sleep Disorders
How much sleep a person needs varies, depending on factors such as age, lifestyle, and
genetic disposition. The amount of sleep a person actually gets may also be different from
20
how much they need. Their lifestyles deprive many people of sleep, and sleep disorders and
may also make it impossible to sleep properly.
SLEEP DEPRIVATION
Left unhindered, most people would sleep for nine or ten hours a day in order to awaken
alert and refreshed. However, we’ve all had the opposite experience—that of not getting
enough sleep. We become generally sleepy and maybe a little cranky. After a while, we may
yearn for sleep. Without enough sleep, people experience a general malaise, display lower
productivity and are more apt to make mistakes. Not surprisingly, accidents and deaths
sometimes occur when drivers and pilots do not get enough sleep. While it is possible to
make up for the lost sleep of one night by sleeping a little longer the next night, it becomes
increasingly difficult for persons to “pay off” their “sleep debt” if they chronically miss sleep.
Adolescents are particularly likely to be sleep deprived. Interestingly, teenagers today get
about two hours less sleep per night than teens did 80 years ago. Ironically, students who
pull all-nighters in order to complete their work actually wind up working less efficiently and
effectively than they would if they were to sleep the eight or nine hours that they need.
Sleep-deprived participants in complex, logical tasks often are able to avoid poor
performances by being highly interested in the complex tasks at hand. Many sleep-deprived
college students, for example, seem able to conduct research or write papers, particularly if
those works interest them a lot. Problems arise, on the other hand, when a sleep-deprived
person faces unexpected turns of events, distractions, or innovations while working on a
complex task, or needs to revise the task.
Sleep loss can lower the effectiveness of people’s immune systems. Sleep deprived people
apparently have a more difficult time fighting off viral infections and cancer. Thus, it may not
be surprising that people who average at least eight hours of sleep a night tend to outlive
those who get less sleep.
SLEEP DISORDERS
 Sleep disorders occur when normal sleep patterns are disturbed, causing impaired
daytime functioning and feelings of distress (APA, 2000).
 Almost everyone suffers from some kind of sleep disorder at one time or another in
their lives.
 The sleep disorder may be part of a larger problem, such as life stress, a medical
condition, or substance misuse, or it may be a primary sleep disorder, in which sleep
difficulties are the central problem.
 Primary sleep disorders typically arise from abnormalities in the people’s circadian
rhythms and sleep-wake mechanisms.
20
Insomnia:
 Sufferers regularly cannot fall asleep or stay asleep.

 The most common sleep disorder.
 Many cases of insomnia are triggered by day-to-day stressors. In particular, job or
school pressures, troubled relationships, and financial problems have been
implicated.
 For many people, a subtle additional stress is worrying about not getting enough
sleep while trying to fall asleep. This vicious cycle can further intensify anxiety and
make sleep all the more elusive.
 More common among older people than younger ones.
 Elderly individuals are particularly prone to this problem because so many of them
have medical ailments, experience pain, take medications, or grapple with depression
and anxiety—each a known contributor to insomnia.
 In addition, as people age, they naturally spend less time in deep sleep and their
sleep is interrupted more readily.
Sleep apnea:
 Sufferers repeatedly stop breathing during the night, depriving the brain of oxygen
and leading to frequent awakenings.
 The second most common sleep disorder.
 Typically older men who are heavy snorers.
 Can result when the brain fails to send a “breathe signal” to the diaphragm and other
breathing muscles or when muscles at the top of the throat become too relaxed,
allowing the windpipe to partially close.
 Sufferers stop breathing for up to 30 seconds or more as they sleep.
 Hundreds of episodes may occur each night.
 Often the individual will not remember any of them, but will feel sleepy the next day.
Narcolepsy:
 An uncontrollable urge to fall asleep.

 People with this disorder may suddenly fall into REM sleep in the midst of an
argument or during an exciting football game.
 When they wake, they feel refreshed.
 The narcoleptic episode is experienced as a loss of consciousness that can last up to
15 minutes.
 This disorder can obviously have serious consequences for people driving cars,
operating tools, or performing highly precise work.
 Its cause is not fully known.
 Narcolepsy seems to run in families, and some studies have linked the disorder to a
specific gene or combination of genes.
20
Sleepwalking:
 Most often takes place during the first three hours of sleep.
 Sleepwalkers will often sit up, get out of bed, and walk around.
 They usually manage to avoid obstacles, climb stairs, and perform complex activities.
 Accidents do happen, however: tripping, bumping into furniture, and even falling out
of windows have all been reported.
 People who are awakened while sleepwalking are confused for several moments.
 If allowed to continue sleepwalking, they eventually return to bed.
 The disorder appears to be inherited.
 Up to 5 percent of children experience this disorder for a period of time.
Night terror disorder:
 Individuals who suffer from this pattern awaken suddenly, sit up in bed, scream in
extreme fear and agitation, and experience heightened heart and breathing rates.
 They appear to be in a state of panic and are often incoherent.
 Usually they do not remember the episodes the next morning.
 It is not the same thing as a nightmare disorder (sufferers experience frequent
nightmares).
 Sleepwalking and night terrors are more common among children than among
adolescents or adults.
 They tend to occur during Stages 3 and 4, the deepest stages of NREM sleep.
Dreams
 Who dreams?
 everyone* dreams, but may not recall it
 pre-schoolers may not dream
 stroke patients may lose dreams (Solms, 1997)
 Dream recall – “attended to” dreams better consolidated
 waking activity crucial (Hobson, 1988)
 motivation to recall predicts recall ability
 Recall tips…
 Sleep with pen & pencil by bed
 Tell yourself before sleeping that you will recall dreams
 Write down dreams immediately upon waking.
Lucid Dreaming [Dr. Blagrove (Luke, 2009) says…]
 reported by up to 58% population

20
 21% report once a month or more
 “signal verified lucid dreams” indicate not just during REM
 related to internal “locus of control”
 distractibility important – video gamers have more lucid dreams
 conscious attention important – lucid dreamers better at Stoop task
 but unconscious attention not important - change blindness unimportant
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
 Lucid dreaming can also be learned (e.g., LaBerge techniques)
Theories of Dreaming
 Purpose of dreaming still remains somewhat of an enigma

 Almost as many theories as researchers, some include:
 Dreams as memory consolidation (E.g., Zhang, 2003)
 Dreams as wish fulfilment of unconscious (Freud, 1900)
 Dream as shadow personality (Jung, 1934)
 Defragmentation process for purging junk data (Crick,1983)
 Mood regulation (Kramer, 1993)
 Stress regulation (Griffin, 1997)
 Mental schema testing and purging (Coutts, 2008)
 Oneiric Darwinism of ideas by random thought mutations
 And so on…
 Dreams as wish fulfilment of unconscious (Freud, 1900)
 “The interpretation of dreams”
 dreams symbolise fears and unfulfilled desires
 latent content (wishes, etc.) → manifest content (dream content)
 transformation occurs via “dream work”
 allows unconscious to communicate with consciousness
 but, disguised & symbolically to avoid guilt and anxiety
 can be decoded by therapist to reveal underlying psychology
 Fisher & Greenberg (1996) admit good evidence for meaningful dreams
 but say no evidence for latent/manifest distinction, or dream work
 although agree that emotional concerns are primary
 Activation-synthesis hypothesis(Hobson & McCarley, 1976)
 chaotic REM signals from pons (brain stem) activate forebrain
 random signals produce REM and synthesised by forebrain
 a narrative is constructed from random internal stimulation
 But, Solms (2000) discovered dreams and Rem are not directly related
 parietal lobe damage patients (e.g., stroke) had dream impairment
 but, brain stem patients did not, though research with howler monkeys
inconclusive
 Dreams as memory consolidation(e.g., Zhang, 2004)
 Function of sleep is to transfer STM data to LTM
 NREM for conscious memory/ REM for unconscious memory
 But, little evidence to support consolidation theory
 Tarnow (2003) suggests dreams are actually random LTM firing.
20
Dreams—emotional, story-like sensory experiences that usually occur during REM sleep.
FREUDIAN DREAM THEORY (psychoanalytical)
Sigmund Freud argued that dreams represent the expression of unconscious wishes or
desires. He believed that dreams allow us to discharge internal energy associated with
unacceptable feelings (Freud, 1900).
Freud suggested that dream interpretation, in which a psychoanalytic therapist facilitates

insight into the possible meaning behind a dream, may help clients appreciate their
underlying needs and conflicts with the goal of being less constrained by them during waking
life. For example, if a lonely and morally upstanding young man is sexually attracted to his
brother’s wife, he might have a dream in which he goes swimming in a private pool that is
marked “No Trespassing.” His therapist might help the man arrive at the conclusion that the
dream about swimming in an off-limits pool symbolizes his wish to be with his sister in-law.
Such an insight eventually might help the man to overcome inhibitions he feels about finding
a suitable partner for himself.
Freud called the dream images that people are able to recall the manifest content. The
unconscious elements of dreams are called the latent content. In our example, the young
man’s desire for his sister-in-law (latent content)—a scandalous idea that he would never
allow himself to have—is symbolized in the dream by a swim in the pool (manifest content).
His dream of a happy swim in forbidden territory is his mind’s solution to a problem that he
could not work out consciously.
Criticism: object-relations theorists, psychoanalytic theorists who place greater emphasis on

the role of relationships in development, focus more on relationship issues when interpreting
dream material. Regarding the earlier dream in which a woman gets punched, an object-
relations therapist might be inclined to help the patient explore her feelings of vulnerability
in various relationships rather than her financial fears.
INFORMATION-PROCESSING (cognitive)
This offers an alternative, more cognitive, view of dreaming. According to this view, dreams
are the mind’s attempt to sort out and organize the day’s experiences and to fix them in
memory.
Consistent with this perspective, studies have revealed that interrupting REM sleep—and so
interrupting dreams—impedes a person’s ability to remember material that he or she has
learned just before going to sleep (Empson, 2002). Also, in support of this view, researchers
have found that periods of REM sleep (during which we dream) tend to extend longer when
people’s days have been filled with multiple stressful events or marked by extensive learning
experiences.
20
ACTIVATION-SYNTHESIS HYPOTHESIS (biological)
Researchers J. Allan Hobson and Robert W. McCarley (1998) argue that as people sleep, their
brains activate all kinds of signals. In particular, when dreams occur, neurons in the brainstem
are activated. These, in turn, activate neurons in the cerebral cortex to produce visual and
auditory signals. Also aroused are the emotion centres of the brain, including the cingulate
cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus.
The activated brain combines—or synthesizes— these internally generated signals and tries
to give them meaning. Each person organizes and synthesizes this random collection of
images, feelings, memories, and thoughts in his or her own personal way—in the form of a
particular dream story.
Criticism: What remains unclear in this model is why different people synthesize their
onslaught of brain signals in different ways. Freud, of course, might suggest that each
person’s particular synthesis is influenced by his or her unfulfilled needs and unresolved
conflicts.
Nightmares, Lucid Dreams, and Daydreams
NIGHTMARES
 Dreams filled with intense anxiety

 The feeling of terror can be so great that the dreamer awakens from the dream, often
crying out.
 Dreamers feel they are caught in a real and terrifying situation. Nightmares generally
evoke feelings of helplessness or powerlessness, usually in situations of great danger.
 They tend to be more common among people who are under stress. People who
experience frequent nightmares and become very distressed by their nightmares are
considered to have a nightmare disorder.
 More common among children than adults, although there is some dispute on this issue.
When children have a nightmare, simple reassurances that they are safe and that the
dream does not reflect real danger are usually helpful.
LUCID DREAMS
 Dreams in which people fully recognize that they are dreaming (Baars et al., 2003).
 Some lucid dreamers can even wilfully guide the outcome of their dreams (LaBerge,
2007).
 In a lucid dream, the sleeper might tell himself—while still asleep—that he is only
dreaming and is actually fine; he even might try to guide the outcome of the dream so
that he prevails over her attacker.
20
 Although not necessarily subscribing to psychoanalytic theory, people who attempt to
engage in lucid dreaming often believe that it is a way to open up another phase of
human consciousness.
THE DAYDREAM
 Fantasies that occur while one is awake and mindful of external reality, but not fully
conscious (Schon, 2003; Singer, 2003).
 Sometimes a daydream can become so strong that we lose track of external reality for a
brief while.
 Although we may be embarrassed when caught daydreaming, such experiences may
also afford us opportunities for creativity.
 We are less constrained during the fantasies than we would be if attending strictly to
the outside world.
Psychoactive Drugs
Coffee, cigarettes, and alcohol—along with many others, alter our state of consciousness and
influence our moods and behaviours. Psychoactive drugs are chemicals that affect
awareness, behaviour, sensation, perception, or mood. Some such drugs are illegal chemicals
(heroin, ecstasy, marijuana), while others are common and legal.
Some of the changes brought about by psychoactive drugs are temporary, lasting only as long
as the chemicals remain in the brain and body. But certain psychoactive drugs can also bring
about long-term changes and problems. People who regularly ingest them may develop
maladaptive patterns of behavior and changes in their body’s physical responses, a pattern
commonly called addiction.
20
ADDICTS:
 Feel compelled psychologically and physically to keep taking it.

 Rely on the drug excessively and chronically and may damage their family and social
relationships, function poorly at work, or put themselves and others in danger.
 May acquire a physical dependence on the drug.
 May develop a tolerance for the drug, meaning they need larger and larger doses in
order to keep feeling its desired effect.
 May experience unpleasant and even dangerous withdrawal symptoms (such as nausea,
cramps, sweating, or anxiety) if they try to stop taking or cut back on the drug.
 People in withdrawal may also crave the drug that they had been taking regularly.
 Even if they want to quit taking it, the knowledge that they can quickly eliminate the
unpleasant withdrawal symptoms by simply ingesting the drug makes it difficult for
many users to persevere through the withdrawal period.
Alcohol
20
All alcoholic beverages contain ethyl alcohol, a chemical that is quickly absorbed into the
blood through the lining of the stomach and the intestine. The ethyl acts to slow functioning
by binding to various neurons, particularly those that normally receive a neurotransmitter
called gamma amino butyric acid, or GABA.
Alcoholism – long-term pattern of alcohol addiction.
Effects:
 Slows down the brain areas that

control judgment and
inhibition;
 People become looser and
more talkative, relaxed, and
happy.
 Slows down additional areas in
the central nervous system,
causing the drinkers to make
poorer judgments, become
careless, and remember less
well.
 People become highly emotional, and some become loud and aggressive.
 The motor responses of individuals decline and their reaction times slow.
 People may be unsteady when they stand or walk.
 Their vision becomes blurred and they may misjudge distances.
 They can also have trouble hearing.
 People who have drunk too much alcohol may have enormous difficulty driving or solving
simple problems.
Eventually the drinking disrupts their social behavior and their ability to think clearly and
work effectively. Many build up a tolerance for alcohol and they need to drink greater and
greater amounts to feel its effects.
Withdrawal, within hours: hands and eyelids begin to shake, feeling of weakness, heavily
sweating, heart beating rapidly, and blood pressure rises (APA, 2000).
Problems Caused By Alcoholism:
 Destruction of an individual’s family, social, and occupational life.

 Suicides, homicides, assaults, rapes, accidental deaths.
 Abused children (which results in: children with elevated rates of psychological
problems and substance-related disorders, low self-esteem; weak communication skills;
poor sociability; marital problems).
20
 Damage to one’s physical health (overworking the liver, people may develop an
irreversible condition called cirrhosis; damage to the heart; lower the immune system
etc.).
 Finally, women who drink during pregnancy place their fetuses at risk. Heavy drinking
early in pregnancy often leads to a miscarriage. Excessive alcohol use during pregnancy
may also cause a baby to be born with fetal alcohol syndrome, a pattern that can
include mental retardation, hyperactivity, head and face deformities, heart defects, and
slow growth.
Sedative-Hypnotic Drugs
 At low dosages, sedative-hypnotic drugs produce feelings of relaxation and drowsiness.

 At higher dosages, they are sleep inducers, or hypnotics.
 Xanax, Ativan and Valium are three of the benzodiazepines in wide clinical use.
 Reduce anxiety without making people as overly drowsy as alcohol or other depressant
substances.
 In high enough doses, benzodiazepines can cause intoxication and lead to addiction.
Opioids
 The term opioids refers to opium and drugs derived from it, including heroin, morphine,
and codeine.
 Opium is a substance taken from the sap of the opium poppy.
 It was used widely in the treatment of medical disorders because of its ability to reduce
both physical pain and emotional distress.
 Discovered to be addictive.
 Several synthetic (laboratory blended) opioids such as methadone have been developed.
 Morphine and codeine are used as medical opioids, usually prescribed to relieve pain.
 Outside of medical settings, opioids are smoked, inhaled, snorted, injected by needle just
beneath the skin, or injected directly into the blood stream. An injection quickly produces
a rush—a spasm of warmth and joy that is sometimes compared with an orgasm. The
brief spasm is followed by several hours of a pleasant feeling and shift in consciousness.
During a high, the opioid user feels very relaxed and happy and is unconcerned about
food or other bodily needs.
 The drugs attach to brain receptors that ordinarily receive endorphins.
 The most direct danger of heroin use is an overdose, which shuts down the respiratory
centre in the brain, almost paralyzing breathing and in many cases causing death. Death
is particularly likely during sleep, when individuals cannot fight the respiratory effects by
consciously working at breathing.
Caffeine
20
 World’s most widely used stimulant.
 Found in coffee, tea, chocolate, cola, and so-called energy drinks.
 Addictive.
 Withdrawal symptoms for chronic users: lethargy, sleepiness, anxiety, irritability,
depression, constipation, and headaches.
 Withdrawal symptoms can start only a few hours after the individual’s last consumption
of caffeine.
Nicotine
 One of the most highly addictive substances known.

 Taken into the body by smoking tobacco.
 Absorbed through the respiratory tract, the mucous membranes of the nasal area, and
the gastrointestinal tract.
 Inhalation is faster than injection into the blood stream.
 Regular smokers develop a tolerance for nicotine and must smoke more and more in
order to achieve the same results.
 Withdrawal symptoms: irritability, increased appetite, sleep disturbances, and a powerful
desire to smoke.
 Chronic smoking is directly tied to lung disease, high blood pressure, coronary heart
disease, cancer, strokes, and other fatal medical problems.
 Pregnant women who smoke are much more likely than non-smokers to deliver
premature and underweight babies.
Cocaine
 The most powerful natural stimulant currently known.

 Comes from a plant in South America (coca plant); native people, have chewed the leaves
of the plant to raise their energy and increase their alertness.
 Cocaine brings on a rush of euphoria and well-being—an orgasmic-like reaction if the
dose is high enough. Initially, cocaine stimulates the higher centers of the central nervous
system, shifting users’ levels of awareness and making them excited, energetic, and
talkative.
 As more cocaine is taken, it stimulates additional areas of the central nervous system,
resulting in increases in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, arousal, and wakefulness.
 The effects are produced by increasing activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine at key
neurons throughout the brain.
 As the stimulating effects of cocaine subside, the user experiences a depression-like let-
down, popularly called crashing.
 Tolerance to the drug may be developed.
 Sudden withdrawal may result in: depression, fatigue, sleep problems, anxiety, and
irritability.
20
 An overdose may impair breathing, produce major—even fatal—heart irregularities, or
cause brain seizures.
Amphetamines
 Made in a lab.
 In low doses, they increase energy and alertness and lower appetite.
 In high doses, they produce intoxication and psychosis.
 When they leave the body, they cause an emotional let-down.
 The effects are produced by increasing activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
 Tolerance to amphetamines builds very rapidly, thus increasing the chances of users
becoming addicted.
 Withdrawal: addicts fall into a pattern of deep depression and extended sleep identical to
the withdrawal from cocaine.
 One powerful kind of amphetamine is methamphetamine.
Lsd
 Lysergic acid diethylamide.

 Within two hours of being swallowed, LSD brings on hallucinosis, a state marked by a
strengthening of visual perceptions and profound psychological and physical changes.
 People may focus on small details—each hair on the skin, for example. Colours may seem
brighter or take on a shade of purple. Users often experience illusions in which objects
seem distorted and seem to move, breathe, or change shape.
 Can produce strong emotions, from joy to anxiety or depression. Past thoughts and
feelings may return.
 The effects wear off in about 6 hours.
 It is believed to be binding to many of the neurons that normally receive the
neurotransmitter serotonin.
 Any dose, no matter how small, is likely to produce very strong reactions.
Cannabis
 The most powerful of them is hashish.

 The weaker ones include the best-known form of cannabis, marijuana, a mixture derived
from the buds, crushed leaves, and flowering tops of hemp plants.
 The greater the THC [tetrahydrocannabinol – active chemical] content, the more
powerful the cannabis.
20
 When smoked, cannabis changes one’s conscious experiences by producing a mixture of
hallucinogenic, depressant, and stimulant effects.
 At low doses, the smoker typically has feelings of happiness and relaxation, although
some smokers become anxious or irritated, especially if they have been in a bad mood.
Time seems to slow down, and distances and sizes become greater.
 In strong doses, cannabis produces particularly unusual visual experiences, changes in
body image, and even hallucinations.
 Most of the drug’s effects last two to six hours.
 Marijuana can interfere with complex sensorimotor tasks and cognitive functioning; also,
users may fail to remember information, especially recently learned material.
 Regular marijuana smoking may contribute to long-term medical problems, including
lung disease, lower sperm counts in men, and abnormal ovulation in women.
 It is not clear whether a pattern of heavy and regular use represents a true addiction or a
strong habit.
What Happens In The Brain?
An ingested drug increases the activity of certain neurotransmitters in the brain—chemicals

whose normal purpose is to reduce pain, calm us, lift our mood, or increase our alertness.
While each drug has its own starting point in the brain, most (perhaps all) of them eventually
activate a single reward learning pathway, or “pleasure pathway”, in the brain. This brain
reward learning pathway apparently extends from the midbrain to the nucleus accumbens
and on to the frontal cortex.
The key neurotransmitter in this pathway appears to be dopamine. When dopamine is

activated there, a person wants—at times, even craves— pleasurable rewards, such as music,
a hug, or, for some people, a drug.
People prone to abuse drugs may suffer from a reward deficiency syndrome—their reward
learning pathway is not activated readily by the events in their lives, so they are more
inclined than other people to turn to drugs to keep their pathway stimulated. Abnormal
genes have been pointed to as a possible cause of this syndrome.
Explaining addiction, marked by tolerance and withdrawal effects: when a person takes a
particular drug chronically, the brain eventually makes an adjustment and reduces its own
production of the neurotransmitter whose activity is being increased by the ingested drug.
Because the drug is increasing neurotransmitter activity, natural release of the
neurotransmitter by the brain is less necessary. As drug intake increases, the body’s
20
production of the neurotransmitter continues to decrease, and the person needs to take
more and more of the drug to feel its positive effects. If drug takers suddenly stop taking the
drug, their supply of neurotransmitters will be low for a time, producing symptoms of
withdrawal that will continue until the brain resumes its normal production of the necessary
neurotransmitters.

Consciousness and Sleep

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Consciousness and Sleep

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Consciousness – Consciousness, Sleep, Dreaming

Consciousness and Sleep

Conscious, Unconscious, Consciousness

 A mental state, a way of perceiving, awareness.

When We Are Awake

For us to experience conscious awareness of something, such as a thought or an oncoming

 The cerebral cortex (the brain’s outer covering of cells)

Preconscious and Unconscious States

PRECONSCIOUSNESS is a level of awareness in which information can become readily

An UNCONSCIOUS STATE is one in which information is not easily accessible to conscious

Freud’s Views of the Unconscious

Our unconscious can work against us and people who

Freud’s theory suggests that the knowledge and

Cognitive Views of the Unconscious

Cognitive theorists distinguish two basic kinds of memory:

Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs)

 Tart’s Approach – Tart’s (1974) Discreet ASCs (d-

 Often also gives rise to

Hypnotic Procedures and Effects

 Sometimes a person is asked to relax while concentrating on a single small target,

Why Does Hypnosis Work?

What Happens In The Brain?

WHEN PEOPLE ARE HYPNOTIZED:

The result of such efforts is an altered state of consciousness, accompanied by deeply

Two major techniques to meditation seem to use opposite approaches.

 Can help people relax.

Sleep & Dreaming

pre/post dream states are rich in subjective experience

“Owls” And “Larks”

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a small group of neurons in the hypothalamus, is

 it lasts only a few minutes

 between 20 and 50 percent of our EEG waves are delta waves

 the percentage of delta waves increases to more than 50 percent

During REM sleep (paradoxical sleep):

Sleep through development

Sleep Deprivation and Sleep Disorders

 Sufferers regularly cannot fall asleep or stay asleep.

 An uncontrollable urge to fall asleep.

Night terror disorder:

Lucid Dreaming [Dr. Blagrove (Luke, 2009) says…]

 reported by up to 58% population

 Purpose of dreaming still remains somewhat of an enigma

FREUDIAN DREAM THEORY (psychoanalytical)

Freud suggested that dream interpretation, in which a psychoanalytic therapist facilitates

Criticism: object-relations theorists, psychoanalytic theorists who place greater emphasis on

Nightmares, Lucid Dreams, and Daydreams

 Dreams filled with intense anxiety

 Feel compelled psychologically and physically to keep taking it.

Alcoholism – long-term pattern of alcohol addiction.

 Slows down the brain areas that

Problems Caused By Alcoholism:

 Destruction of an individual’s family, social, and occupational life.

 At low dosages, sedative-hypnotic drugs produce feelings of relaxation and drowsiness.

 One of the most highly addictive substances known.

 The most powerful natural stimulant currently known.

 Lysergic acid diethylamide.

 The most powerful of them is hashish.

What Happens In The Brain?

An ingested drug increases the activity of certain neurotransmitters in the brain—chemicals

The key neurotransmitter in this pathway appears to be dopamine. When dopamine is

Potrebbero piacerti anche