jimtrue.com : school : PSY1012 : Chapter Seven: States of Consciousness

Posted by Jim True on February 27, 2006 5:28 PM. Last Updated October 22, 2006 9:23 PM

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Chapter Seven: States of Consciousness

Consciousness

Waking Consciousness

Consciousness - our awareness of ourselves and our environments. All thoughts, sensations and perceptions are included in your consciousness, or the things you are aware of. Based on selective attention, you may be more or less aware of things in your environment.

Sleep and Dreams

Sleep - periodic, natural, reversible loss of consciousness; is it really a LOSS of consciousness, or just an altered state of consciousness?
REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep

recurring sleep stage
vivid dreams, occurs ONLY during REM sleep.
"paradoxical sleep" - muscles are generally relaxed, but other body systems are active
Lucid dreaming - a person gives themself a "cue" before entering the dream that will wake them up so they can record the experience in a dream journal.

Measuring Sleep Activity

left and right eye movements; EMG (muscle tension)
EEG - brain waves

Brain Waves and Sleep Stages

Alpha Waves - slow waves of a relaxed, awake brain
Delta Waves - large, slow waves of deep sleep
Hallucinations - false sensory experiences

Stages in a Typical Night's Sleep: Start in Stage 1 and dip down into Stage 4 but often dip back up into Stage 1. Within 45 minutes to an hour, the body enters stage 4; necessary for breath rate to decrease, heart rate to decrease and cortisol levels breakdown. Stage 4 is when the body and brain repairs itself. As morning approaches, the body dips down into the lower levels less, but spends more time in REM sleep. REM Sleep occurs around Stage 1. If you deprive people of REM sleep, they can undergo psychosis. Stage 4 decreases the longer we sleep and REM sleep increases. There must be some reasons why we need to dream.
One of the theories about why we sleep, is that during sleep, you grow. As a baby you sleep quite a bit; elderly typically sleep very little.

Sleep Deprivation

Effects of Sleep Loss

Fatigue
imparied concentration
depressed immune system
greater vulnerability to accidents

Study performed on 'Daylight Savings Time phenomenon'; Spring time - one hour sleep loss, less sleep, more accidents the following day.

Sleep Disorders

Insomnia - persistent problems in falling or staying asleep.

Eating turkey or drinking warm milk; increases the level of tryptophan which breaks down into serotonin in the brain.
Short Sleepers need 6 or less hours; Long sleepers need at least 9 hours a night. Short sleepers were considered ambitious; long sleepers were more introverted and more anxious, non-conformists and worry a lot more and report less sexual gratification in their waking lives.

Narcolepsy - uncontrollable sleep attacks. Cataplexic, cannot move their muscles.

Army developed a drug called provigil to allow soldiers to stay awake for 40 hours at a time without feeling tired; also prescribed for narcolepsy. Very addictive. An article regarding the 40-hour day, brought up an interesting thought: that we don't get rewarded for taking care of ourselves, ie sleep as much as we need to in order to be rested. Are we evolving into a culture that doesn't sleep?

Sleep Apnea - temporary cessation of breathing; momentary reawakenings.

Risk Factors: severe snoring, being male. Being overweight is a huge risk factor.

Night Terrors

Occur within 2 or 3 hours of falling asleep, usually during Stage 4. Occurs during the deepest stage of sleep, so it's hard to wake them up.
High arousal, appearance of being terrified. Different than Nightmares which occur during REM Sleep, so it's possible to wake up during them.
Sleep walking and sleep talking also occur during the deepest stage of sleep, which is why people are unaware of it, or unable to remember it.

Dreams

Sequences of images, emotions and thoghts passing through a sleeping person's mind
hallucinatory imagery
discontinuous
incongruities
delusional accepance of the content
difficulties remembering
A lot of people believe that when we dream it means something specific; Freud was very interested in analyzing the content of dreams to determine their meaning.
Sigmund Freud - The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)

Wish fulfillment
Discharge otherwise unacceptable feelings

Two parts to dreams according to Freud

Manifest Content - remembered story line; this is the part you tell.
Latent Content - underlying meaning; this is what it what Freud believed your dream meant.
Example: A person anxious about an upcoming flight cross-country dreams about getting on the plane and instead of taking off it taxies all the way to JFK. This is the Manifest content; the latent content is that the person was afraid of flying

Information Processing - draems help facilitate memories
REM Rebound - REM sleep increases following REM sleep deprivation
Activation-Synthesis - activation refers to neural activity (neurons fire seemingly randomly while you sleep); because of our brain's need to make meaningful wholes of things, it takes the random activity in the neurons and makes up a story. It synthesizes meaning out of the random activity. This also reinforces the belief neural pathways grow during REM sleep.

Hypnosis

Hypnosis

a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur
Self meditation is very much like hypnosis; a very deep state of relaxation
Stage 1 Sleep is considered a "hypno-gogic" state, very much like hypnosis; this is considered where you're in a more relaxed, intuitive, introspective state of mind.
Number one factor for very good subjects: suggestibility, imagination and primarily, the belief that it would work; skeptic would more than likely NOT work. Works for some people, and not for others.

Posthypnotic Amnesia

supposed inability to recall what one experienced during hypnosis
induced by the hypnotist's suggestion

Orne & Evans (1965)

control group instructed to "pretend"
unhypnotized subjects performed the same acts as the hypnotized ones

Posthypnotic Suggestion

suggestion to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized
used by some clinicians to control undesired symptoms and behaviors
Two theories explaining hypnosis

Divided-consciousness theory - hypnosis has caused a split in awareness; you're not as aware of all the things around your environment, so you can use selective attention. focusing on breathing diverts your attention away from the pain.
Social Influence Theory - the subject is so caught up in the hypnotized role that she ignores the odor

Drugs and Consciousness

Psychoactive Drug

a chemical substance that alters perceptions and mood

Physical Dependence

physiological need for a drug
marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms
Most dangerous withdrawal is from benzodianzipine tranquilizers

Psychological Dependence

a psychological need to use a drug
body is not really addicted to the substance; your THINK you need it
for example, to relieve negative emotions

Physical and psychological dependence together may be the primary reason why it's so hard to quit smoking cigarettes
Tolerance - diminishing effect with regular use; the more you use it, the more you need it to get the same effect.

Alcohol tolerance decreases as you get older, because the liver is less able to process the alcohol

Withdrawal - discomfort and distress that follow discontinued use
Psychoactive Drugs

Depressants

drugs that reduce neural activity
slow body functions
alcohol, barbiturates, opiates

Barbiturates

Drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxieity but impairing memory and judgement
New class of these drugs are called benzodiazipenes, ie Xanax, etc. Just as addictive as valium because with prolonged use the person can develop tolerance.

Opiates

opium and its derivatives (morphine and heroin); newer ones today oxycodon, demoral, vicodin, percoset, codeine, etc.
opiates depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety
Make you numb so they help to control pain.
morphine does not work for some people. was developed as a replacement for morphine because it was considered not addictive.

Stimulants

drugs that excite neural activity
speed up body functions
caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, cocaine

Amphetamines

drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes
Used to be prescribed for ADD children; the idea was that ADD was caused by the children not being able to focus; the amphetamine helps to 'focus' the child.
Methamphetamine, very serious, due to the clandestine labs. Very addictive and very hard to kick the addiction.

Cocaine Euphoria and Crash

Serotonin, dopamine, epinephrine floods the receptor sites; with cocaine it blocks the reuptake of serotonin. Sigmund Freud was a very heavy user.
very psychologically addicting

Ecstasy (MDMA)

synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen
both short-term (extreme dehydration) and long-term health risks
short term health risk: extreme dehydration, extreme depression caused by a serotonin crash, also releases inhibition
long term health risk is permanent brain damage; creates tangles in neurons
originally invented to help couples get closer

Hallucinogens

LSD

lysergic acid diethylamide
a powerful hallucinogenic drug
developed in a lab by psychologists, synthetic
also known as acid
experience cross perceptions (taste colors, see smells, etc.)

the major active ingredient in marijuana
do not need as much with prolonged use, because THC builds up in the system
often amplifies your current mood.
worse thing about THC: disrupts memory; focusing attention and learning new material is hampered.
triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations

Some hallucinogens are naturally derived from plants; ie peyote, mescaline, etc. Peyote is legal on indian reservations as indians often partake of peyote to assist with spirit quests.
guide to Psychoactive Drugs Table 7.2

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