STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
True or False?
T/F We act out our forbidden fantasies in our dreams.
T/F Insomnia can be causes by trying too hard to fall asleep.
T/F It is dangerous to awaken a sleepwalker.
T/FYou can be hypnotized against your will.
T/F You can teach a rat to raise or lower its heart rate.
Biological Rhythms and Mental States
 Consciousness:
 Awareness of oneself and the environment.
 Biological Rhythm:
 A periodic, more or less regular fluctuation in a biological system.
 Altered states of consciousness: Sleep, daydreaming, dreaming,
hypnosis, meditation, intoxication.
Biological Rhythms and Mental States
Circadian rhythm:
 A biological rhythm with a period of about 24 hours (Exists in all living things).
 Regulated by external forces Air pressure, temperature (hibernation), rotation of the earth, presence or lack of sun light,
even the moon.
Suprachiasmatic Nucleus:
 Located inside the hypothalamus.
 Regulates our circadian rhythms.
 Responds to changes in light.
Melatonin:
 Hormone that works in tandem with the SCN.
 High levels are diagnostic of being tired.
 Low levels are diagnostic of being alert.
 Melatonin levels impacted by quantity of light.
Zeitgeber:
 Time-Giver.
 For humans it is the sun.
Biological Rhythms and Mental
States
The daily rhythms of the body:
 Metabolism
 Stomach acidity
 Alertness
 Body temperature
 Blood pressure
 Level of most hormones
Biological Rhythms and Mental
States
 The body runs on a 25-hour day, thus
biological clock must be reset daily (light is
one way).
 Light resets the biological clock by inhibiting
the production of melatonin (involved in the
onset of sleep).
Biological Rhythms and Mental States
Types of Circadian rhythms:

Diurnal (Light-onset)

Nocturnal (Light-offset)

Crepuscular (Dusk/Dawn Onset)
_____________________________________________________________
Internal desynchronization:

State in which biological rhythms are not in phase with one another.

Jet-lag

Graveyard Shift
Seasonal Affective Disorder: (SAD)

Person experiences depression during the winter.

Use light therapy.

Decrease melatonin levels you will feel better.
Biological Rhythms and Mental
States
 Body temperature is related to one’s level of alertness
and sleep/wake cycle.
 An increase in body temperature = greater alertness.
 A decrease in body temperature = reduced alertness &
motivation.
Sleep
Why do we sleep?
If our system is built to keep the organism alive and safe then why do we all spend time each day in a completely
vulnerable state?
Fun facts:

If you live 75 years you will have spent 25 years of your life sleeping.

You dream in color.

Not all animals have dual-hemispheric sleeping Dolphins have unihemispheric sleeping.
 Ducks can switch between dual and selective hemispheric sleeping.

Your sleep cycle is regulated by your body temperature.
 Not by the time it says on your clock.

You dream less the older you get.

Longest a person has gone in total sleep deprivation has been 10 ½ days.
Sleep
Sleep
Two main theories:
I. Restorative Process
Helps the animal recover from wakeful activities.

Essential for maintaining proper chemical levels in the body.

In humans sleep is regulated by three elements:
 Circadian Clock
 Adenosine levels increase each hour you are awake.
 Melatonin levels increase as the day progresses.
 Causes a gradual decrease in body temperature in diurnal animals.
 Homeostasis
 Individuals ideal makeup.
 Willful Behavior (Motor Cortex)
II. Adaptive Process
Developed because of a need of animals to protect themselves.

Survival, protection of offspring, food gathering, and resource management all require energy
that must be conserved.
Sleep
Sleeping Stages
 Defined by EEG recordings and consists of five stages which can include
alpha, beta, delta, and theta waves.
Divided into two broad stages:
I.
Non-REM Sleep
Stage 1 (transitional)
Stage 2
Stage 3 (transitional)
Stage 4
II.
REM Sleep
Stage 5
Sleeping Stages
I. Non-REM Sleep: (Accounts for 75-80% of total sleep time)

Stage 1: (TRANSITIONAL)
 Near disappearance of alpha waves and presentation of theta waves
 Sudden twitches and jerks will begin (somnolence).
 Subject looses muscle tone and conscious awareness of the external environment.
 Gateway state between wake and sleep

Stage 2: (45-55% of total sleep time)
 Onset of Sleep Spindles (12-16 Hz) and K-Complexes
 Conscious awareness of the external environment disappears.

Stage 3: (TRANSITIONAL)
 Delta waves (.5-4 Hz)
 Considered part of Slow-wave Sleep
 Occupies 3-8% of total sleep time

Stage 4: (10-15% of total sleep time)
 True Delta Sleep
 Predominates the first third of the night
 Deepest stage of sleep
 Clinical Anesthesia
 Night Terrors, Bed Wetting, Sleep Walking
Sleeping Stages
II. REM Sleep (Accounts for 20% of total sleep time)
 Rapid Eye Movement:


Dreaming:





Dreams can occur at any other stage as well (Hypnogogia).
Predominant in the final third of a sleep period.
Timing linked to body temperature (Fever).
Alpha and Beta waves present.
List of the five most common dreams: (Wieten, 1992)






Lots of activity throughout the CNS and PNS.
83% Falling
77% Being attacked or pursued
71% Trying repeatedly to do something
71% Working, studying, or practicing something
66% Sexual experiences
What function does dreaming serve?

Can you analyze a dream?
Sleep Stages
Sleeping Stages
Sleeping Stages
Dreams
 Hobson & McCarley: Dreams are generated
by random bursts of nerve-cell activity.
 Crick & Mitchison: Dreams are a way of
freeing the mind of irrelevant, repetitious
thoughts.
Dyssomnias
Defined:

Disturbance in normal rhythm or pattern of sleep.

Cognitive functioning declines rapidly without daily sleep.
 Eventually you will hallucinate and show signs typical of schizophrenia.
Dyssomnias
Sleep Apnea:

Breathing briefly stops during sleep.

Caused by an obstruction in the breathing process.

The obstruction causes carbon dioxide to build up.

Person may choke, gasp, or momentarily awaken.

Treatment Forced air mask

For infants under one year this is lethal They are too young for their brain to detect carbon dioxide levels in the body.
 Coca-Cola during first year to keep them alive.
Narcolepsy

Involves sudden attacks of sleepiness.

Involves boring, tedious, and repetitive tasks.
Dyssomnias
Cataplexy:

Collapsing and passing out due to increased anxiety levels.

Caused by excitable and sensitive autonomic nervous system.
(Myotonic goats-chloride imbalance)
Pavor Nocturnus: “Night Terrors”

Most common in children going through the early
stages of puberty.

The individual will not remember the episode.

This does not typically happen in adults.

Caused by massive brain changes.
Dyssomnias
Somnambulism:

Sleepwalking

Typically happens in children.
 Maturation

Almost never happens in adults.
 Stress
Hypnagogic Hallucinations:

Waking up at the end of a REM cycle.


Sometimes in stage 1.
Sleep Paralysis

You are completely paralyzed.
Can occur in REM sleep.

Muscle rigidity, visual and auditory hallucinations.

Everyone has them.
Dyssomnias
Nocturnal Emission:

Spontaneously climaxing during REM sleep.

Dream content does not have to be sexual.

Typically during puberty.
Enuresis:

Urinating in bed.
Encopresis:

Defecating in bed.
Dyssomnias
 Insomnia: Difficulty falling asleep or
remaining asleep.
Hypnosis
Hypnosis:
 Procedure in which the practitioner suggests changes in the
sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, or behavior of the
subject.