Module 2: Booklet 5

http://educationportal.com/academy/lesson/intro-to-statesof-consciousness.html#lesson (3:55)

Different levels of awareness that occur each day (I.e. sleeping, dreaming, thinking, etc) A person who is not completely aware is in a different level (state) of consciousness

Waking consciousness: Includes all the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions when we are awake and alert Altered States of Consciousness (ASC): A mental state that differs from waking consciousness

Examples include: Daydreaming Sleep Dreaming Hypnosis Meditation Intoxication

State of awareness, including a person s feelings, sensations, ideas and perceptions People can have different levels of awareness Levels of awareness are related to brain waves

There are 4 major type of brain waves: Was difficult to study until the development of the EEG (electroencephalograph), a device that records the electrical activity of the brain (brain waves)

1) Alpha (THE ZONE) Middle frequency; 12-16 Hz (Hz means how many waves per second) Associated with physical stillness and body presence

2) Beta (AWARE STATE) Frequency range above 12 Hz Low amplitude (look short on graph) beta waves with multiple and varying frequencies is often associated with active, busy or anxious thinking and active concentration

Rhythmic beta waves with a dominant set of frequencies is associated with various pathologies (diseases) and drug effects, especially benzodiazepines (enhance the effect of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA-A), resulting in sedative, sleep-inducing, antianxiety, anticonvulsant, and muscle relaxant properties)

3) Delta (SLEEP STATE) Frequency range up to 4 Hz Seen in stage III to IV of sleep

4) Theta (DEEPER TRANCE) Frequency range from 4 Hz to 8 Hz Associated with drowsiness, childhood, adolescence, and young childhood Can sometimes be produced by hyperventilation (to breathe unusually deeply or rapidly because of anxiety)

Can be seen during hypnologic states such as trances, hypnosis, deep day dreams, lucid dreaming (you are aware you are dreaming) and light sleep and the preconsciouness state just upon waking, and just before falling asleep.

Also. Gamma Waves Frequency range 26-100 Hz Involved in higher mental activity including perception, problem solving, fear and consciousness

Main Idea: Sleep an essential state of consciousness involves four stages and a period of dreaming Is a state of altered consciousness, characterized by certain patterns of brain activity

Can now be studied using an EEG which records the electrical activity of the brain Some believe sleep is restorative and allows people to charge up their batteries for the brain to recover from exhaustion and stress Others believe we sleep to clear our minds of useless information The amount of sleep a person needs to function effectively varies considerably from person to person and from time to time within a person s life

Newborns spend an average of 16 hours a day sleeping, almost half of it in REM sleep (is a normal stage of sleep characterized by the rapid and random movement of the eyes) People over 70 MAY only need 5 hours of sleep People have an internal biological clock that regulates the sleep-wakefulness cycle

Blood pressure, heart rate, appetite, secretion of hormones and digestive enzymes, sensory sharpness, and elimination processes all follow circadian rhythms: Biological clock genetically programmed to regulate physiological (body) responses with a period or 24 or 25 hours Operates even when normal day and night cues are removed Human have a circadian cycle of approx. 24.18 hours WE do not control sleep cycles, the environment and the 24-hour day control our cycles A disruption in this when travelling can cause jet lag It usually takes about one day for each hour of time change to reset your circadian clock!

http://educationportal.com/academy/lesson/sleepcycle.html#lesson (4:20)

Relaxing Before Sleep: Body temperature declines, pulse rate drops, and breathing grows slow and even Eyes close and brain emits alpha waves which are associated with relaxation and the absence of concentrated thought

Stage I: Lightest level of sleep Pulse slows, muscles relax, breathing becomes uneven and your brain waves grow irregular Just drifting off Lasts for about 10 minutes Marked by the presence of theta waves which are longer in amplitude and frequency than alpha waves

Stage II: Eyes roll slowly from side to side Brain waves occasionally shift from lowamplitude, high-frequency waves to highamplitude, low frequency waves Lasts for 30 minutes

Stage 3: Large-amplitude delta waves begin to sweep your brain every second or so

Stage IV: Deepest sleep of all Difficult to waken a sleeper in this stage Large, regular delta waves occur more than 50% of the time If suddenly awoken, may feel disoriented Talking out loud, sleepwalking and bed-wetting may occur in this stage and leave no trace on the memory

Important to your physical and psychological well-being Spend about 75% of time in stages I-IV

A person sleeping goes through one sleep cycle (all stages) about every 90 minutes The first sleep cycle of the night takes you into the deepest sleep Each subsequent cycle takes you less deep most of your deep stage 4 sleep is early in the night REM accounts for about 20% of the sleep time, and increases with each sleep cycle

Means rapid eye movement Muscles are even more relaxed than before, but eyes start moving rapidly Pulse rate and breathing become irregular, and levels of adrenal and sexual hormones in your blood rise as is you were in the middle of an intensely emotional or physically demanding task

Face or fingers twitch and the large muscles in your arms and legs are paralyzed Brain sends out waves that closely resemble this of a person who is fully awake Called active sleep (stages I-IV referred to as NREM, nonrem) Most dreaming normally occurs here

Lasts for about 15 minutes (early at night) to 45 minutes (late at night) after which you retrace the decent to stage IV Go through the cycle approximately every 90 minutes, each time the period of stage IV sleep decreases and the length of REM sleep increases, until you eventually wake up Seems to serve psychological functions such as building efficient learning and memory processes

1) Insomnia: Failure to get enough sleep at night in order to feel rested the next day Prolonged and unusually abnormal inability to obtain adequate sleep Can have many causes and take many forms Causes can include anxiety, depression, alcohol or drugs

2) Sleep Apnea Sleep disorder in which a person has trouble breathing while asleep Causes frequent interruptions of breathing during sleep Common symptom is a specific kind of snoring that may occur hundreds of times during the night where each snoring episode lasts 10 to 15 seconds and ends suddenly, often with a physical movement of the entire body

A blockage of the breathing passages causes the snoring and during this time the sleeper is in fact choking and the flow of air to the lungs stops The episode ends when low levels of oxygen or high levels of carbon dioxide in the blood trigger breathing reflexes Affects about 1% of Americans and occurs mostly in older people. An estimated 858,900 (3%) Canadian adults 18 years and older reported being told by a health professional that they have sleep apnea. (2009 Canadian Community Health Survey )

People may feel listless (lacking energy), sleepy and irritable during the day Usually caused by a physical problem that blocks the airway such as enlarged tonsils, repeated infections in the throat or middle ear or obesity because these conditions may cause the muscles at the base of the tongue to relax and sag repeatedly

3) Narcolepsy Condition characterized by suddenly falling asleep or feeling very sleepy during the day Also described as a permanent and overwhelming feeling of sleepiness and fatigue (mental or physical exhaustion) Could also include unusual sleep and dream patterns such as dreamlike hallucinations or a feeling of temporary paralysis May have sleep attacks throughout the day which are accompanied by brief periods of REM sleep

4) Nightmares and Night Terrors A nightmare is a frightening dream which occurs during the dream phase of REM sleep A nightmare will usually frighten the dreamer who will wake up with a vivid memory of the dream Night terrors occur during stage IV sleep (usually within an hour after going to bed), and last any where from 5 to 20 minutes and involve screaming, sweating, confusion, and a rapid heart rate

With a night terror, the person may suddenly awake from sleep or have a persistent (continual) fear that occurs though the night Subjects usually have no memory of night terrors

5) Sleepwalking and Sleep Talking Occurs when a person is partly but not completely awake during the night They may walk of do other things without any memory of doing so Mostly associated with children who usually grow out of it Has been linked to stress, fatigue, and the use of sedative medicines May also be inherited

Sleep talking can occur in REM or nonrem sleep Most people talk in their sleep more than they realize because they do not remember talking during their sleep You can often engage a sleep talker in a conversation!

6) Sleep Deprivation: Can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness, weight loss or weight gain Prolonged sleep deprivation causes death in laboratory animals

Is the mental activity that takes place during sleep Everybody dreams!!! Most people are able to recall only a few, if any, of their dreams! In cultures in which dreams are highly valued (ex. Inuit), and talked about frequently, people remember their dreams almost every morning

Sleep researchers sometimes make a point of waking sleep participants at regulate intervals during the night to ask them about their dreams The first few dreams are usually composed of vague (unclear) thoughts left over from the day s activities As the night wears on, the dreams become longer and more vivid and dramatic

Because the amount of time spent in REM sleep increases during the night, the last dream is likely to be the longest and the one people remember when they wake up People can rarely recall more than the last 15 minute of a dream After people have been deprived of REM sleep, they increase the amount of time they spend in REM sleep. Thus, it appears that certain amount of dreaming each night is necessary.

Most dreams are commonplace and dull We tend to remember and talk about the most interesting dreams Often we incorporate our everyday activities into our dreams Most dreams involve either strenuous recreational activities or passive events such as sitting and watching A large percentage of the emotions experienced in dreams are negative or unpleasant

Dreams do not occur in a split second and they correspond to a realistic time scale Freud believed that no matter how simple, dreams may contain clues to thoughts the dreamer is afraid to acknowledge in his waking hours Inuit people also believe that dreams contain hidden meanings and that when people dream they enter into the spiritual world where they interact with those who have passed away to help them reflect on some current or future events

Others see dreams as an unimportant by-product of stimulating certain brain cells during sleep Some think that dreaming allows people a chance to review and address some of the problems they faced during the day Francis Crick believes that dreams are the brain s way of unlearning or removing certain unneeded memories (a form of mental housekeeping)

Main Idea: Hypnosis, biofeedback & Mediation are altered states of consciousness that can occur when we are awake

Is a state of altered consciousness resulting from a narrowed focus of attention and characterized by heighted suggestibility Can use hypnosis to help people quit smoking, lose weight, manage stress, overcome phobias (fears), and diminish pain

By allowing the hypnotist to guide and direct them, people can be made conscious of things they are usually unaware of and unaware of things they usually notice At all times, certain sensations and thoughts are filtered out of our awareness (as we are talking, you are probably not thinking about the position of your feet on the floor, until you read this) By mentioning the position of your feet, your attention shifted to your feet an area of your body that seconds before was outside your consciousness

Hypnosis shifts our perception in the same way A hypnotic trance is different from sleep and people are able to focus their attention on one tiny aspect of reality and ignore all other inputs The hypnotist induces a trance by slowly persuading a participant to relax and to lose interest in external distractions The participant is cooperating with the hypnotist and will now do anything against their will

Psychologists do not agree whether hypnosis is a special states of consciousness or not

Stretch your arms in front of your with the palms facing each other Close your eyes and imagine your right arm getting heavier and heavier which your left arm is getting lighter and lighter To help, imagine weights tied to your right hand and a helium balloon tied to your left hand After a minute, open your eyes and look at the position of your arms

Is the process of learning to control bodily states with the help of specialized machines Is a technique that trains people to improve their health by controlling certain bodily processes that normally happen involuntarily, such as heart rate. EXAMPLE

Has been used to teach people to control a wide variety if physiological responses, including brain waves, heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature, and sweat gland activity The basic principle is that feedback makes learning possible Machines tell people about very subtle, moment-tomoment changes in the body For example, you can be hooked up to a biofeedback machine so that a light goes on every time your heart rate goes over 80. You could then learn to keep your heart rate below 80 by trying to keep the light off.

Biofeedback is an effective therapy for many conditions, but it is primarily used to treat high blood pressure, tension headache, migraine headache, chronic pain, and urinary incontinence.

Involves focusing of attention to clear one s mind and produce relaxation There are 3 major approaches to mediation: a) Transcendental meditation Involves the mental repetition of a mantra (word or idea; ex. Om) The participant sits with eyes closed and meditates for 15-20 minutes twice a day

b) Mindfulness Meditation: Developed from a Buddhist tradition Focuses on the present moment Participant may move his or her focus through the body from the tips of the toes to the top of the head EXAMPLE (mp3)

c) Breath mediation Concentration on one s respiration Meditation can help people lower their blood pressure, heart rates and respiration rates

Main Idea: Psychoactive drugs interact with the central nervous system to alter consciousness Drugs are carried by the blood and taken up in the body Drugs act like neurotransmitter and hook onto the end of nerve cells (neurons) and send out their own chemical messages Sometimes can be the trigger for a mental illness (ex. Schizophrenia)

Produces an altered state of consciousness when smoked or ingested Effects vary from person to person and can be pleasant or unpleasant Most people report that sensory experiences seem greatly augmented or increased (colours brighter, smells stronger) Pop Culture Example

Not physically addictive but can by psychologically addicted Can heighten a variety of unpleasant feelings (ex. If depressed may become really depressed) Harmful Effects: More damaging to the lungs than cigarettes, disrupts memory formation

Drugs that produce hallucinations Found in plants Also called psychedelic because they create a loss of contact with reality LSD is the best known & studied hallucinogen Harmful Effects: Impairs thinking, even though the user feels they are thinking more clearly

Also called narcotics Include opium, morphine and heroin Produce pain reduction and euphoria (extreme happiness) Can lead to physical addiction Harmful Effects: Overdose results in loss of control of breathing or even death

Depressant that inhibits the brain s normal functions (ex. Cerebellum affected = loss of coordination) Harmful Effects: Permanent brain and liver damage and a change in personality can result from prolonged heavy use. It is the most widely used and abused mind-altering substance in North America today!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufub8pet 0ZQ&feature=plcp (Part 1 13:50) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjr8at_kh Bs&feature=relmfu (Part 2 13:46) No longer up Feb 14