Levels of
Consciousness
Unit 5
Consciousness: A state of awareness of
ourselves and of the world around us
• 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
- 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 Sleep
Importance 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 Sleep
Importance 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
Drugs and Consciousness
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
• 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