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

2
Many states of consciousness

 Note: We change between different states of

consciousness

Psych AP Chapter 7 3
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
4
Normal waking consciousness
 Flowing consciousness
a drifting, unfocused awareness
 your awareness (attention) moves at
random from attention to one stimulus
to another

5
 Daydreaming!!!
 Daydreams
 focused and directed thinking, like directed consciousness, but
these involve fantasies (and not stimuli immediately at hand)

Psych AP Chapter 7 6
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
7
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.

Psych AP Chapter 7 8
9
Sleeping

 We cycle through four distinct stages

approximately every 90 minutes
 REM
 NREM 1
 NREM 2
 NREM 3

10
 Sleeping and Dreaming

 Stages of sleep
 involves passing from waking state
(beta) into a relaxed semi-wakeful
state (alpha), then into 4 stages of
progressively deeper sleep
4 stages of sleep based on EEG
measures of brainwave activity
during sleep that reveal different
brain-wave patterns
 Brain Waves & Sleep Stages

Psych AP Chapter 7 12
 States of light and deep sleep

 NREM 1 sleep:
 the
brain is slowing down from calm awake, alpha
waves
 May experience:
 hypnagogic sensations – vivid visual events
resembling hallucinations – sensory experiences
without a sensory stimulus (ex. Sensation of falling
or floating)
 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 2 sleep:
 the brain is slowing further
 Sleep spindles – periodic bursts of rapid, rhythmic
brain-wave activity
 Approximately 20 minutes at start
(but typically spend half the night here)

 NREM 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
REM sleep
 Rapid Eye Movement
 Dream Sleep c. 20-25% of nightly 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)
 Except for very scary dreams, your genitals
become aroused during REM sleep
Psych AP Chapter 7 15
Sleeping and Dreaming: Key
Concept
 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
 With each approximately 90-minute cycle, stage 4 sleep
decreases and the duration of REM sleep increases.
Psych AP Chapter 7 17
 Over the years…

Psych AP Chapter 7 18
Sleeping and dreaming

 Why do we sleep and dream?

 What good is it to sleep and dream anyway?
Isn’t it a waste of about 33% of your life?
 NO!Sleep and dreaming is important to maintain
normal psychological functioning
 Sleepdeprivation studies show that going more
than 40 hours without sleep begins to tell by the
appearance of forgetting, irritation, poor
judgment, and other symptoms
 Sleep and dreaming are imperative for learning!!
 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 those with
paranoid schizophrenia
 these symptoms include: hostility,
suspicion, paranoia, unpredictable
behavior, hallucinations and delusions

20
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
 Safeto lie asleep in the cave instead of in harm’s
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
23
 Current understandings are of five
reasons:
 Restore and Build our fading memories of the day’s
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

24
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

25
 Which (if any) statements apply to you?
 1. Need an alarm clock in order to wake up at the appropriate time.
 2. It’s 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. Maas’s
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

Psych AP Chapter 7 27
Psych AP Chapter 7 28
While watching the video…

 Think about which arguments/evidence

you find most convincing

 If you are remain unconvinced, why? What

is your rebuttal to the evidence?

Psych AP Chapter 7 29
The Meaning of Dreams

Freud’s view of dreams

 Dreams have “manifest” content (the surface content of a
dream, which contains dream symbols that distort and
disguise the dream’s 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
Psych AP Chapter 7 31
 Sleeping and dreaming: Nightmares
 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
 individualsmay wake up after nightmares with
a sense of uneasiness
 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.
 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
 Good news: typically these are outgrown as the
child gets older
 Nightmares

“The Nightmare”
Psych AP Chapter 7 34
 Sleeping and dreaming
 Sleep walking
 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:
 genetics (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 36

environment
Sleeping and dreaming
 Sleep disorders
 Insomnia: an inability to fall and/or stay asleep
 affects about 20 million Americans

 Narcolepsy:a form of epilepsy that causes sudden,

immediate sleeping (brief episodes)

 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

Psych AP Chapter 7 38
Think about the experience you just had,
presuming that you allowed yourself to let
go, how would you characterize this state
of consciousness?

Psych AP Chapter 7 39
Altered states: Meditation
 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
 Altered States:
Hypnosis

Psych AP Chapter 7 41
Altered states: Hypnosis
 Hypnosis can produce an altered state of
consciousness
 characterized by relaxation, hypnotic hallucinations, hypnotic
analgesia, age regression, and hypnotic control
 Long standing question: is hypnotism real, fake, or role playing?
 About 20% of the population is easily hypnotized
 has been used to relieve pain:
 helping to manage drug-free childbirth
 there have been surgeries carried out with the patient only under
hypnotic suggestion for pain control (almost 10% of population can
be so deeply hypnotized that major surgery can be performed
without anesthesia)
 Explanations of Hypnosis

 Social phenomenon
 Hypnotized people are feeling and behaving in ways that good hypnotic
subjects would (analogous to demand characteristics)

 Divided Consciousness

Psych AP Chapter 7 43
 Explanations of Hypnosis
 Social phenomenon
 Divided Consciousness
 Critique of social phenomenon view since there is distinctive brain activity
accompanying hypnosis
 Dual processing:
 Dissociation – hypnosis splits different levels of consciousness ex. ice bath some
part of you is aware of the pain but the stimulus is dissociated from emotional
suffering
 Selective attention – hypnosis can block attention to stimuli ex. brain activity
is reduced where pain is processed but not in the cortex that receives the raw
data

Psych AP Chapter 7 44
 Hypnosis
- state of consciousness in which the person is especially
susceptible to suggestion.
 Four Elements of Hypnosis:
1. The hypnotist tells the person to focus on what is being
said.
2. The person is told to relax and feel tired.
3. The hypnotist tells the person to “let go” and accept
suggestions easily.
4. 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.
46
 Hypnosis is NOT…
 A means of forcing people to do things against their will
 A means of treating addiction
 A means of accessing all experiences of our lives which
have been stored or repressed and only need hypnosis
or some such, to bypass our defenses (we know that this
is NOT how memory works)

47
Altered States: Psychoactive
Drug Use

 Chemicals that
change perceptions
and moods

 Key ideas:
 Tolerance
 Addiction
 Withdrawal

48
Neuroplasticity can work
against us!
 Addiction is the compulsive craving of a substance or certain behaviors
despite known adverse consequences
 Put it into your own words…

 Tolerance is the diminishing effect of the same dose with regular use,
requiring the user to take larger and larger doses before experiencing
the drug’s effect
 Put it into your own words…

 Withdrawal is the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing an

addictive drug or behavior
 Put it into your own words… 49
Less formal definitions:

 Addiction – the need/desire to have the substance

or behavior in order to feel ‘normal’ or at your
baseline

 Tolerance—decreased sensitivity to a drug brought

on by its continuous use

 Withdrawal—Negative effects and distress, including

physical pain and intense cravings, experienced
after stopping the use of addictive drugs
Psych AP Chapter 7 51
Substance Dependence

 Psychological Dependence—desire or craving to

achieve the effects produced by the drug

 Physical Dependence—indicated by tolerance and/or

withdrawal
Stimulants
 Drugs that act on the brain and nervous system to
increase their overall activity and general
responsiveness
 Excite neural activity, dilate pupils, raise blood sugar
levels, increase heart and breathing rates

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

forms, amphetamines, methamphetamines, Ecstasy
(MDMA), etc.
Psychoactive Drugs
Stimulants - Nicotine
Psychoactive Drugs
Stimulants - Cocaine
Psych AP Chapter 7 56
Depressants

 Slow neural processing

 Sympathetic nervous system slows, reactions slow, etc.
 Disrupt memory formation
 Impairs memory formation and REM sleep is suppressed
 Reduce self-awareness and self-control
 More likely to be less able to concentrate but less likely to
notice (useful if you’re wanting to suppress awareness of
failures, etc.)

Psych AP Chapter 7 57
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.

58
Depressants

 Depressants—psychoactive 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.
Psych AP Chapter 7 60
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”)
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.
Messaging Matters

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOnENVylxPI

Psych AP Chapter 7 65
How would you design an
awareness campaign
 Use the information gleaned from notes, videos, etc. ,
your own feelings about current awareness campaigns,
your

Psych AP Chapter 7 66