Levels of Consciousn

ess Unit 5

• Levels of Consciousness

- Focused Awareness

- State of heightened awareness of the task at hand

- Typically you will shut out all of the other “stuff” going on around you

- Drifting Consciousness

- Your mind will begin to wander to other things outside of what it is that you were focusing on

- Daydreaming: A wakeful state where your mind wanders to dreamy thoughts or fantasies

Consciousness: A state of awareness of ourselves and of the world around

us

- Divided Consciousness “Multi-tasking”

- You can perform two or more tasks at the same time. As if your mind has been divided

- “How did I get here” when you’re driving and talking at the same time

- Unconsciousness: Lack of ones awareness of what is going on around you

- Examples: Sleep, dreams, coma, head trauma, anesthesia, death

Altered Levels of Consciousness

- Awake, but not fully awake, somewhere in between

- Daydreaming

- Drugs

- Meditation

- Hypnosis

- Repetitive activity

Stages of SleepImportance of getting your

zzzzsss….• Stage 1 (about 2-5 minutes)

- Brain waves become small and irregular

- Easily awakened

• Stage 2 (about 20 minutes)

- Bursts of brain activity: sleep spindles

- Deeper sleep but still easily awakened

- Spend about half of your time in each sleep cycle in this stage

Stages of SleepImportance of getting your

zzzzsss….• Stage 3 & 4 (about 30 minutes)

- “Delta Sleep” deepest stage of sleep

- Brain waves very slow. Difficult to awaken

• REM (30-45 minutes)

- Eyes dart about under closed eyelids

- When we typically dream

- Brain activity increases

- Also called Paradoxical sleep: increased brain activity but muscle activity is nearly gone

- Amount of time spent in REM sleep increases with each sleep cycle

• Sleep Cycles typically are 90 minutes long

Influence of Drugs

Drug dependence: A sever drug-related problem, sense that you need the drugs in your body to function

Physiological dependence: Repeated use changes the chemical make-up of the body

Withdrawal: Symptoms associated with abrupt end of drug usage

Tolerance: Repeated use requires increased amount of drugs to achieve the same results

Drug Addiction: Dependence on a drug – physical and psychological

Drugs and Consciousness

Drugs and Consciousness • Stimulants: heighten action of central nervous

system (CNS)- Amphetamines- Cocaine- MDMA (Ecstasy)- Nicotine- Caffeine – Most addictive drug

• Depressants: slows the central nervous system (CNS)

- Alcohol- Barbiturates- Tranquilizers- Opiates

Drugs and Consciousness

• Hallucinogens – alter your sensory perceptions and distort your visual, auditory and sensory abilities

• -LSD “acid”• -PCP• -Marijuana

The Theories of Dreaming

• Cognitive Theory of Dreaming– Apply logic to analyze

meaning of dreams– Proposes that we

think, create memories in the same manor as we would if we were awake

– Problem is that dream brain activity isn’t the same as wakeful brain activity…that’s ignored

• Activation-Synthesis Theory– Dreaming is the result

of your brain trying to make sense of the random firings of neurons as you sleep

– It creates a story to connect the memories

- In ancient times, dreams were believed to be messages sent from the Gods

-Why do we dream? No one really knows for sure

-Possibly to sort out issues and find solutions

-Attempt to make sense of the random firing of neurons while we sleep: activation-synthesis hypothesis

-Way to deal with the socially unacceptable urges and desires we have

1. Manifest content: Events that occur in your dreams

2. Latent content: Underlying messages in

your dreams, what the manifest content represents

- Lucid Dreams: dreamer is aware that they are dreaming

Sleep Issues

-Insomnia: difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep

-slows reaction time

- impairs memory and concentration

- health issues: more apt to become ill

- Most common sleep disorder

Narcolepsy: “Sleep attacks”: sudden unexplainable sleeping

Sleep Apnea: Temporarily stop breathing while sleeping

- Can be life threatening

- Commonly snore loudly

- Most common in middle-aged overweight men

Nightmare disorder: Pattern of frequent disturbing nightmares

- Nightmares usually happen in REM sleep; stressed, high fevers, or sleep deprived

Sleep Terror disorder: Repeated episodes of intense fear during sleep causing physical reactions: talking, sudden sitting up or yelling, sweating, crying, thrashing ect…

- Usually happen during stages 3 and 4 of sleep, not REM