Consciousness: awareness of one’s own existence, sensations, and cognitions; it is personal, selective, continuous, and changing

• Normal waking consciousness vs. altered state of consciousness
• Focus here on altered states: sleep, hypnosis, meditation, and chemically-altered consciouness (drugs & alcohol)

There are 5 stages of sleep

• Stage 1: lasts approximately 5 mins of 1st cycle
• Transition from relaxed wakefulness to sleep
• You can be awakened easily, see flashing lights, feel a falling or floating sensation, and experience sudden hypnic jerks
• Stage 2: lasts ~20 mins of 1st cycle
• Clearly asleep now; sleep spindles occur: bursts of brain wave activity
• Stages 3 & 4: combination of two lasts ~35 mins of 1st cycle
• Slow-wave (delta) sleep; heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and body temperature all slow down
• REM (“rapid eye movement”): varies in length
• Aka, paradoxical sleep: more brain activity than when awake, but your non-respiratory/non-vascular muscles are paralyzed; vivid dreams occur; increased genital blood flow for both men & women

• 1st cycle: awake, stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, stage 4, stage 3, stage 2, REM
• REM signifies the end of every sleep cycle
• After 1st cycle, the subsequent cycles vary in incidence and duration (i.e., after 1st cycle, we don’t usually follow the same process in 1st cycle)
• Each cycle lasts roughly 90 minutes; approximately 4-5 cycles per night
• As we age, % of REM sleep declines (decreased production of sleep hormones)
• As quality of sleep declines, so does its restorative effect on cardiovascular and endocrine systems

• Restorative theories: sleep rejuvenates us
• Amount of slow wave sleep depends on how long we’ve been awake
• Circadian theories
• Circadian rhythms: the body’s daily physiological fluctuations in response to the dark & light cycle
• Includes sleep, body temp, metabolism, blood pressure, etc
• In absense of cues for dark & light cycle, we tend to drift toward 25-hour cycle
• Evolutionarily, sleep has survival value
• Amount of REM sleep depends on disruption of circadian rhythm: if you don’t get enough REM sleep one night, your next sleep cycle will make the lost REM sleep up (REM rebound)
• The human body needs approximately 8 hours of sleep in the normal 24-hour circadian cycle
• Sleep deprivation is associated with cognitive, emotional, and physical difficulties

• Dreams are recalled more often during REM sleep than other stages
• Theories
• Freud: wish fulfillment of unconscious desires
• Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis
• Dreams arise from random bursts of nerve cell activity, particularly with cells involving hearing and seeing
• The brain then tries to make sense of this random firing of cells. Resulting in dreaming
• Purging of unnecessary/accidental brain connections formed during the day
• Research suggests that problem solving & info retention is enhanced with sufficient REM sleep
• Research has linked dreaming with brain areas involved in motivation & goal-directed activity

• Insomnia: Repeated difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, or waking up to early
• Changes in nighttime habits may be necessary, such as keeping a consistent circadian schedule, avoiding naps, not reading or watching TV in bed, avoiding stimulants at night, etc.
• Narcolepsy: Sudden attacks of extreme drowsiness, often resulting in sleep
• Typically for 10-20 minute sleeping spells; tends to be genetic; treated with medication
• Sleep Apnea: difficulty in breathing accompanied by loud snoring during sleep
• Prevents restful sleep and can be fatal (i.e., throat muscles relax and block the airway)
• Night Terrors: vivid & frightening dreams
• Disturbing fits of sleepwalking/talking that are usually not remembered after awakened; tend to occur in 3rd or 4th stage of the 1st third of sleep; appear to be somewhat genetic and go away with age
• Nightmares: dreams with strong negative emotion
• Different from night terrors in that nightmares occur during REM sleep and are often remembered

Trance State: An induced state of consciousness

• In this relaxed state, participant is encouraged to focus awareness on vivid, imagined experiences away from external environment
• Trance logic: uncritical acceptance of incongruous, illogical events, without being distracted by their impossibility (e.g., imagining yourself on a deserted island)
• Hypnotic Susceptibility: roughly 25% of all people highly hypnotizable; roughly 10% are not hypnotizable at all
• Hypnotizability is moderately correlated with absorption (ability to concentrate on external material) and openness to experience
• Trance Theory: Those in a trance are highly responsive to suggestions through dissociated state, separated from normal consciousness

• Sociological Role Theory: behavioral & experiential changes occur not because of a trance-like state but b/c of participant’s expectations of hypnosis
• Task-Motivation Theory: Some participants voluntarily respond to hypnotic suggestions b/c they are motivated to carry out tasks
• However, recent brain-imaging research suggests that brain activity is controlled by suggestions to participants in a trance state

• Pain relief (e.g., inhibition of pain signals to brain); therapy of mental illness (e.g., anxiety, OCD), physical illness (e.g., asthma), & stress; pregnancy complications (e.g., breech births); performance enhancement (particularly athletic performance)

• Altered state of consciousness characterized by a sense of deep relaxation and loss of self-awareness
• Increased focus on single environmental stimulus, such as a mandala, rhythmic physical motion of body (e.g., breathing), or a mantra (repeated chant/phrase)
• Goal is to purge awareness of other thoughts and sensations; experience is one of wakeful relaxation
• Meditative state resembles brain activity during the non-REM sleep stages
• Effects include: reduced tension/anxiety/stress; increased self esteem & sense of control; overcoming insomnia, smoking, skin conditions

Psychoactive drugs: induce changes in thinking, perception & behavior by affecting neural activity in the brain

• Three general categories: depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens

• Alcohol
• Low doses: alcohol can cause a sense of decreased awareness and increased relaxation; extroversion
• Moderate doses: slowed reaction time, impaired judgment
• High doses: cognition, self-control, self-restraint are impaired; can become emotionally unstable/aggressive; diminished sense of cold (increased blood flow – but in reality, the body loses heat and is at risk for hypothermia), pain, discomfort; can elicit respiratory arrest, coma, death
• Alcohol Myopia: impairment of ability to process abstract information and notice situational cues.
• A state of shortsightedness in which superficially understood, immediate aspects of experience have a disproportionate influence on behavior and emotion.
• Barbiturates
• Usually prescribed to aid sleep or to reduce anxiety
• Lethal when combined with alcohol
• Opiates
• Morphine, heroin, codeine
• Narcotic Analgesics: Relieve pain and induce euphoria, but are strongly addictive
• But, by increasing endorphin production in the brain, the body’s reaction is to decrease endorphin levels after the effects of heroin wear off – this leaves the user to experience pain without natural means to relieve pain, thus adding to the further addiction to heroin

• Caffeine
• Enhances mental/physical arousal, such as increased alertness, insomnia, restlessness, and ringing in ears
• Nicotine
• Physical/mental arousal, such as alertness, irritability
• Amphetamines (speed, ecstasy)
• Synthetic stimulants; high doses can lead to psychosis (paranoia, delusions, hallucinations) and violent behaviors
• Cocaine
• After the high comes paranoia, addiction, excessive heart stimulation, and hallucinations
• With abuse, cocaine can lead to disinterest in food/sex

• LSD
• Synthetic substance that produces visual & auditory hallucinations (stimulation/alteration of sensory receptors)
• Bad trip: alteration of consciousness is so disturbing that it induces feelings of panic; suicide and/or murder have sometimes resulted
• Flashbacks: hallucinations that recur without use of LSD; can happen even years after taking drug!
• Marijuana: most common hallucinogen in U.S.
• Perceptual alterations include increased vividness of sight/sound, distortions of space and time; impaired motor skills; can produce euphoria and/or drowsiness
• Only heavy users experience withdrawal symptoms