• Think of your alertness level on during a typical weekday. Make a graph with wake-up to sleep on the x-axis, and alertness on the yaxis.

• Definition: An individual ’ s perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories that are active at a given moment.
Or “ an organism surroundings ”
’ s awareness of its own self and
• Awareness of:
» Internal sensations
» External events
» Self as a unique being
» Thoughts and experiences
• Characteristics: Personal and subjective, occurring on a continuum, and changing all the time.

• Monitoring
– Monitoring the environment for what is and what isn’t important
– Selective Attention: the ability to choose what to allow into consciousness
– Cocktail Party Phenomenon
• Controlling
– Used to plan and change our actions

• Pre-consciousness: Ideas that are not in your awareness right now, but could be recalled if asked.
• Unconsciousness: Unavailable to awareness under most circumstances. This information is hidden from you. The idea of the unconscious comes from Freud.
• Non-consciousness: Biological processes that you are just not aware of such as hair and finger nails growing.
• Altered State of Consciousness: hypnosis and drug induced states

States of Consciousness
• Consciousness
– Wake
• Alert & aware
– Sleep
• Temporary, nonconsciousness
– Altered States
• Artifically induced states

– Parallel processing – subconscious information processing occurs simultaneously on many parallel tracks.
– Serial processing – conscious processing takes place in sequence

• Biological clocks are internal units that control parts of the body and which are regulated by nature.
• They operate on freerunning cycles (under their own control).

• Twenty-eight-day cycles : The female menstrual cycle averages 28-days.
Research shows menstruation may not affect moods.

• The human body has a natural rhythm or cycle of sleep and wakefulness of 25 hours.
• Contrast this to the light-dark cycle of 24 hours.
• The human circadian rhythm is based on an entrained 24-hour cycle.
• Most people’s low points
(temperature, blood pressure, and weakness ) generally fall between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.

Circadian Rhythm
Light triggers suprachiasmatic nucleus to decrease
(morning) melatonin from pineal gland and increase (evening) it at night fall.


 periodic, natural loss of consciousness
 as distinct from unconsciousness resulting from a coma, general anesthesia, or hibernation.

Measuring sleep. About every 90- minutes we pass through a cycle of five distinct sleep stages .
Hank Morgan/ Rainbow
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EEG Cycles

During strong mental engagement brain exhibits low amplitude, fast, irregular beta waves (15-30 cps) . A person awake in conversation shows beta activity.
Beta Waves
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When eyes are closed, but the individual is awake, brain activity slows down to large amplitude, slow, regular alpha waves (9-14 cps) .
A meditating person exhibits alpha brain activity.
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During early light sleep (stages 1-2) the brain enters a high amplitude, slow, regular wave form called theta waves (5-8 cps) . A person daydreaming shows theta activity.
Theta Waves
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Stage 1
• Irregular, breathing slows, light sleep, easily awakened , lasts about two minutes, may have sensory experience without stimulus
Stage 2
• About 20 minutes long
• easily awakened but clearly asleep

During deepest sleep (stages 3-4 ) brain activity slows down . There are large amplitude, slow delta waves (1.5-4 cps) .
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Stage 3
– A purely transitional stage
Stage 4
– About 30 minutes long
– Hard to awaken
– Walking or talking in sleep, wetting the bed, and night terrors can occur during this stage
– Still attend to external stimuli

After reaching the deepest sleep stage (4) the sleep cycle starts moving backward towards stage 1 .
Although still asleep, the brain engages in low amplitude, fast and regular beta waves (15-40 cps) , much like awake-aroused state.
A person in this sleep phase exhibits
Rapid Eye Movements (REM) and reports vivid dreams.
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• REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep
– recurring sleep stage
– vivid dreams
– “paradoxical sleep”
• muscles are generally relaxed, but other body systems are active

REM SLEEP NREM SLEEP
1. Rapid eye movement 1. Non-rapid eye movement
2. Increases in length as night’s sleep progresses.
3. Vivid dreams
2.Decreases in length as night’s sleep progresses.
3. Vague, partial images and stories
4. Nightmares
5. Paralyzed body
4. Incubus attacks (night terrors)
5. Sleepwalking & talking in sleep
6. Essential part of sleep 6. Less essential part of sleep

• Dreams can occur at any stage
• Content and clarity of dream depends on which stage it occurs in
– Dreams in sleep stage 1-4 generally lack detail and are more associated with reports of emotion (ex: “ It felt like I was being chased ” )
– REM dreams are detailed and are associated with story lines (ex: I was walking down a dimly lit street, wearing high heels… ” )

• Function
– Wish Fulfillment (Freud):
Manifest (actual) and latent contents (symbolic)
– Information Processing (Cartwright):
The need to continue processing the day ’ s activities. Solves problems
– Activation Synthesis Hypothesis (Hobson &
McCarley): Triggered by neural activity from the brainstem

w Falling w Being attacked w Trying repeatedly to do something w School, teachers, exams w Sex w Arriving too late w Frozen with fright w Death of a loved one w Nudity/Inappropriat e dress w Killing or seeing themselves dead w Fire/ Snakes

With each 90-minute cycle, stage 4 sleep decreases and the duration of REM sleep increases .
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We spend one third of our life sleeping.
If an individual remains awake for several days they deteriorate, in terms of immune function, concentration and accidents.
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1. Fatigue and subsequent death.
2. Impaired concentration.
3. Emotional irritability.
4. Depressed immune system.
5. Greater vulnerability.
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Frequency of accidents increase with loss of sleep
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1. Sleep Protects: Sleeping in the darkness when predators loom kept our ancestors out of harms way.
2. Sleep Recuperates: Sleep helps restore and repair brain tissue.
3. Sleep Helps Remembering: Sleep restores and rebuilds our fading memories.
4. Sleep and Growth: During sleep pituitary gland releases growth hormone. Older people release less of this hormone and sleep less.
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• Some individuals need more and some less than the typical 8 hours per night
• Nonsomniacs—sleep far less than most, but do not feel tired during the day
• Insomniacs —has a normal desire for sleep, but is unable to and feels tired during the day

1. Somnambulism: Sleepwalking.
2. Nightmares : Frightening dreams that wake a sleeper from REM.
3. Night terrors : Sudden arousal from sleep and intense fear accompanied by physiological reactions (e.g., rapid heart rate, perspiration) that occur during SWS.
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4. Narcolepsy : Overpowering urge to fall asleep that may occur while talking or standing up.
5. Sleep apnea : Failure to breathe when asleep.
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Nightmares Night Terrors
1. Occurs during REM sleep, usually during the second half of the night.
2. Mild physiological changes
1. Occurs during NREM sleep, usually during the first hour of the night.
2. Drastic bodily changes: breathing & heart rate rise dramatically.
3. Associated with vivid images 3. Associated with panic
4. Most likely to occur during REM rebound.
4. Most likely to occur in children

w Heightened state of suggestibility w Posthypnotic suggestions and amnesia w Theories: Disassociation, role, state w Best subjects: fantasize, imaginations, good concentration, think favorably w Facts and fallacies

• As stated earlier teenagers need 9 to 9½ hours of sleep each night.
• Not only do they need more sleep, but your bodies are not tired until later, around 11:00 or so.
• That means you need to sleep until 8:00 to get the required amount of sleep.

• If you could take a nap every day, would you?
Why or why not?
• What time of day do you feel like you are at your best? Which period?
• Studies suggest that you are at your best around 9:00 am.

• Take out a piece of paper, Title it Sleeping and dreaming and spend a few minutes writing about the following: (we will be turning it in)
– Sleep
• How much do you get? Nightly & weekends
• What are your sleeping habits like?
• Is there such a thing as too much?
• How long can a person go without it?
– Dreams
• Do you dream?
• What is the purpose of dreams?
• Do dreams have meaning?

• Take your heart rate ( take your pointer and middle finger your neck and count beats while I time you for ten seconds)
• Take some deep breaths slow your breathing down
• Sit quietly and listen to your body
– What are your thoughts?
– How do your muscles feel?
– Are you carrying stress anywhere?
– 1-10 scale, how tired are you
• 1 if you are asleep right now, 10 if you’re bouncing off the walls
– On your same paper make a few notes about how you feel now
• Find a comfortable place on the floor or in your desk
– Don’t sit next to someone you will talk to
– If you snore, let your neighbor know.

• Now, spend another moment listening to your body.
– What changes do you notice?
– Is the tension gone?
– What are your thoughts?
• Write a paragraph about the relaxation exercise, how it affected you and how you could use it in your life.

Number your paper 1-15 and answer with a yes or no
1. I need an alarm clock to wake up at the appropriate time.
2. It’s a struggle for me to get out of bed in the morning.
3. Weekday mornings I hit the snooze bar several times to get more sleep.
4. I feel tired, irritable, and stressed out during the week.
5. I have trouble concentrating and remembering.

6. I feel slow with critical thinking, problem solving, and being creative.
7. I often fall asleep watching TV
8. I often fall asleep in boring meetings or lectures or in warm rooms.
9. I often fall asleep after heavy meals.
10. I often fall asleep while relaxing after dinner.

11. I often fall asleep within five minutes of getting into bed.
12. I often feel drowsy while driving.
13. I often sleep extra hours on weekend mornings.
14. I often need a nap to get through the day.
15. I have dark circles around my eyes.

• Scoring:
– 3 or less you have perfect sleep habits
– 4-11 various extremes of sleep deficit
– 12 or higher, extreme lack of sleep, possibly need professional help.

• Teenagers need on average NINE hours of sleep every night.
• If you are not getting 9 hours you could be sleep deprived.
• How can you improve your sleep deficit?
– Relaxation….zzzzzz….