States of Consciousness
Chapter 4
Conscious Experience
Section 1
Introduction
Sleep and wakefulness are both sates of Consciousness—our
awareness of various cognitive process, such as sleeping,
dreaming, concentrating, and making decisions.
Cognitive activities fall into 2 broad categories
Walking Consciousness: mental state that encompasses
the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions that occur when
we are awake and reasonably alert
Altered Consciousness: Mental state that differs
noticeably from normal waking consciousness
What is Waking Conscious?
At the same time we experience all sorts of internal
sensations (heat, cold, touch, pressure, pain) as well as
thoughts, memories, emotions, and needs.
Theses competing stimuli are all part of waking conscious
If we tried to pay attention to all of them we would be
overwhelmed
We focus on whatever is most important at the
moment and block everything else out
Our brain continues to process the information we are
not even focusing on
Daydreaming and Fantasy
Everyone has daydreams—effortless shifts in attention away from
the here-and-now-into a private world of make believe
Comes in waves, surging about every 90 minutes and peaking form
around 12pm to 2pm
According to some estimates, the average person spends almost
half of there awake hours fantasizing
Generally, we fantasize when we would rather be somewhere else
or doing something else
It’s a momentary escape
Usually daydream about unfulfilled goals and wishes
Daydream and dreamers fall into distinct categories
Positive: imagine pleasant playful scenarios , uncomplicated by
worry or guilt
Negative: frustration, guilt, fear of failure, hostility, reflects on self
doubt and competitive envy that accompanies great ambition
Scattered: fleeting, loosely connected worrisome daydreams,
which give them little pleasure
Purposeful: solve problems to think ahead, and develop insights
Does daydreaming serve any purpose?
Some psychologists see daydreaming as a retreat
from the real world when its not meeting our needs
Daydreaming can interfere with activities and
making problems worse
Other psychologists stress the positive value of daydreaming
May serve as a refreshing break from a stressful day
Reminds us of our neglected personal needs
Freudian Theorists tend to view daydreaming as a harmless way
to work through hostile feelings and to satisfy guilty pleasures
Cognitive psychologists emphasize that daydreaming can build
problem solving and interpersonal skills, as well as encourage
creativity
Helps us endure difficult situations
Sleep
Section 2
Spend 1/3 of your life sleeping
When people are sleep deprived , they strongly crave sleep just
as someone who was hungry would crave food
How long organisms sleep, where and I what position, and other
details vary from species to species
Larger animals sleep less the smaller animals because eating
enough time to support their size requires more work
Elephants sleep 4 hours a night and bats sleep 18 hrs a night
Nobody knows exactly why we sleep, but evolutionary
psychologists see sleep as an adaptive mechanism to conserve
and restore energy
Circadian Cycles: The Biological Clock
Like many other biological functions, sleep and waking
follow a daily, or Circadian, cycle
Fundamental adaptation to the 24 hr solar cycle of light
and dark
Human biological clock is actually a tiny cluster of neurons in
the hypothalamus that responds to levels of proteins in the
body
Biological clock is self sustaining and continues to function
in the absence of external cues to the cycle of the day and
night
We usually don’t notice circadian rhythms unless they are
disturbed
Ex: Jet lag
Travelers who travel across times zones “feel out of it” for
several days because you miss a lot of sleep and your body
desynchronizes
What counts is not the number of hours we sleep but
the quality sleep
To be fully alter and function at our peak we need to
have a good night’s sleep
Naps here and there do not meet out sleep
requirements
Extended periods of too little regular sleep lead to
slower reaction times, difficulty processing information,
making decisions, and unplanned, involuntary naps
that last a few minutes
The Rhythms of Sleep
Going to sleep means losing awareness and failing to respond to a
stimulus that would produce a response in the waking state
Stages of Sleep
Twilight Stage: relaxed wakefulness, sometimes experience a
floating or falling sensation followed by a quick jolt back to
consciousness
Stage 1: slowing of the pulse, muscle relaxation, side-to-side
rolling movement of the eyes
Stage only lasts a few moments, easily woken up and my be
unaware of having slept at all
Stages 2 and 3: Deeper sleep, heard to awaken, does not
respond to stimuli such as light and noise
Heart rate, blood pressure and temperature continue to
drop
Stage 4: heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and body
temperature is as low as they will go
After about an 1.5 hours of sleep ascends to stage 3, 2,
and back to stage 1—process that takes about 40 minutes
Heart rate and blood pressure increase, yet the
muscles are more relaxed than at an other point and
the person is very difficult to wake up
The eyes move rapidly under closed eyelids—Rapid Eye
Movement (REM) stage of sleeping is distinguished from
all other stages of sleep
Non-REM (NREM): non rapid eye movement stages of
sleep that alternate with REME stages during sleep cycle
REM sleep is also known as Paradoxical Sleep because
although brain activity can me measured, heart rate and
blood pressure, and other physiological functions are not
active
The person is deeply asleep and is incapable of moving
REM sleep is also where most dreaming occurs, but some
dreaming does occur during NREM
THE sequence of sleep stages repeats itself all night
Sleep Disorders
Sleep Walking, Sleep talking, and Night Terrors
Sleep walking and talking usually occur during
stage 4
Common among children and adults
Waking a sleep walker is NOT dangerous, but
difficult
Sleep Terrors or Night Terrors are nocturnal fright has causes
them to suddenly sit up in bed, and often scream out in fear
Different from nightmares
During night terrors generally cannot be woken up and
comforted, often happens when someone is very tired
Typically in children 4-12 out adults can get them too
Adults who have them typically suffer from a personality
disorder, or abuses drugs and alcohol
Insomnia, Apnea and Narcolepsy
Insomnia: difficulty falling asleep to remaining asleep
throughout the night
Afflicts 35 million Americans
Most episodes grow out of stressful events and are
temporary
People with frequent sleep disruption can take
medication but sides effects may cause anxiety,
memory loss, hallucinations and violent behavior
Apnea: breathing difficulty during the night and
feelings of exhaustion during the day
Afflicts 10-12 million Americans
Associated with berthing difficulties and snoring
at night
In severe cases the person can stop breathing
after falling asleep
Narcolepsy: hereditary sleep disorder characterized by
sudden nodding off during the day
Experience muscle loss after experiencing any sort of
emotion
Ex: after a joke and laughing brings on a muscle
paralysis and then collapses
Another symptom is immediate entry into REM sleep,
which produces frightening hallucinations
Dreams
Section 3
Introduction
Dreams: vivid visual auditory experiences that occur primarily
during REM periods of sleep
Average person has 4-5 dreams a night, accounting for 1-2
hrs of total time sleeping
Consists of a sequential story or series of stories
Stimuli both external (sounds) and internal (mood, hunger
pangs) may modify an on going dream
Often dreams are so vivid they are hard to distinguish from
reality
What do we dream?
Vary widely what we dream about, their feelings associated
with their dreams, and hoe often they remember their dreams
Dream content is related to where you are in your sleep cycle,
what you are doing before you sleep, your gender, your age
and even your socioeconomic status
Men: dream more about weapon, unfamiliar characters,
male characters, aggressive interactions and failure
outcomes
Women: dream more about being the victims of aggression
Vary by age
(2-5 yrs) tend to have brief dreams, may involve animals, but
images are usually unrelated on one another and seldom
have any emotion, narrative, or story line
(5-9 yrs) become longer, a few narrative, story like dreams
(7-9 Yrs) when most dreams take on a narrative form
(9-15 yrs) become more adult like, narrative follow well
developed story lines, other people play important roles, and
there are many verbal exchanges
Why do we dream?
Dreams as Unconscious Wishes
Freud believed that dreams represent wishes that have not
been fulfilled in reality
People dreams reflect the motives guiding their behavior—
motives they may not be consciously aware of
Dreams permit people to express their primitive desires that
are relatively free of moral controls
Ex: someone who is not consciously aware of hostile
feelings towards sister my dream of murdering her
Dreams and Information processing
We reprocess information gathered during the day as a
way of strengthening out memory of information crucial
to survival
Given so much sensory information need a change to
sort through it (what it all means) and place it where it
belongs in our memory
Dreams and Neural Activity
Alan Hobbs proposed that dreams are just a result of
neurons misfiring and are meaningless
Dreams and Waking Life
Research has shown that what people dream about is
generally similar to what they think about and do while
awake
Ex: athlete may dream about competitions past, present
and future
Do we need to dream?
Freud suggested that dreams serve as a psychic
safety valve and if not given the chance to dream
their lives would be significantly affected
Study: participants were woken up each time they
entered REM sleep and became anxious, testy, and
hungry
Difficult concentrating and even hallucinated
during waking hours…all these side effects vanished
after they were able to experience REM sleep again
Drug-Altered Consciousness
Section 4
Introduction
 Psychoactive Drugs—chemical substances that change moods and perceptions–
are almost universal in culture
 Most drugs used today, legally or illegally, have been used for thousands of years
Ex: Marijuana dates back to 2737 B.C.
Alcohol has the longest history of widespread use
 Today’s drug problem differ from the problem is other societies and times
Motives have changed—used to be used for religious rituals, as medicines, now
used recreationally
Drugs themselves have changed—stronger than those from other cultures and
times and new synthetic drugs are appearing regularly
Ex: “club drugs” like “Ecstasy”
Substance Use, Abuse, and Dependence
Use is difference from abuse and dependence
On any given day most adults use some form of
psychoactive substances—mediations, coffee
Substance abuse: pattern of drug use that diminishes the ability
to fulfill responsibilities at home, or at work, or at school, that
results in repeated used of drug dangerous situations, or that
leads to legal difficulties related to drug use
Substance Dependence: pattern of compulsive drug
taking that results in tolerance, withdrawal symptoms
for a least a year
Withdrawal Symptoms: unpleasant physical or
psychological affects that follow the
discontinuance of a dependence- producing
substance
Depressants: Alcohol, Barbiturates,
and Opiates
Depressant: chemicals that slow down behavior or cognitive
process
Alcohol
Typical Effects: depressed physical and psychological
functioning
Effects of Overdose: disorientation, loss of conscious, death
at extremely high BAC levels
America's #1 drug problem
Highly addictive
Potentially devastating long term effects– can harm
every organ in the body , impairments with motor
skills, problem solving and abstract thinking
At least 14 million Americans have a problem with
drinking
Barbiturates and Tranquilizers: potentially deadly depressants, first
used for their sedative properties, now used to treat conditions of
epilepsy and arthritis
Typical Effects: depressed reflexes and impaired motor
functioning, tension reduction
Effects of Overdose: shallow respiration, clammy skin, dilated
pupils, weak and rapid pulse, coma and possible death
Known as “downers” and used alone and may be used with
heroin and other drugs to boos their effects
Opiates: opium and heroin, that dull the senses and induce
feelings of euphoria, well-being, and relaxation
Typical Effects: Euphoria, “rush” of pleasure, little
impairment
Effects of Overdose: Slow shallow breathing . Clammy
skin, nausea, vomiting, pinpoint pupils, convulsions, coma
and possible death
Resembles endorphins, natural pain killers
Stimulants: Caffeine, Nicotine,
Amphetamines, and Cocaine
Simulants: stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and
produce feelings of optimism and boundless energy
Caffeine occurs naturally in coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate
and often added to cola drinks and over the counter
medications
Can become addictive
Heavy users may experience withdrawal symptoms
like fatigue, headaches, and difficulty
concentrating
Excessive use can lead to insomnia, gastrointestinal
problems, and elevated blood pressure
Nicotine: additive ingredient in tobacco
Most dangerous and addictive stimulant today
Despite well-know health risks and strong social
pressure millions of Americans continue to smoke
Youth 12-17 who smoke are 12x’s more likely to try
other drugs
16x’s to drink heavily compared to nonsmoking
peers
Amphetamines: stimulant drugs that initially produces a
rushes of euphoria often followed by sudden “crashes”
and sometimes severe depression
Increase alertness
Users believe they cannot function without them
Chronic, excessive use may lead to personality changes,
paranoia, anxiety, insomnia, homicidal and suicidal
thoughts, and aggressive , violent behavior
Methamphetamine—”speed” or “crystal meth”
Produced in labs with ingredient form over the
pharmaceutical counter
Ecstasy
Belief that drug makes you love and trust one another
and puts you in touch with our own emotions
Short-term effects—clenching teeth, faintness, chills or
sweating, damages neural connections
 Cocaine: derived from coca plant, that while producing a sense of
euphoria by stimulating the sympathetic nervous system, also tends to
leave to anxiety, depression, and addictive cravings,
1885, widely used as a topical anesthetic for minor surgeries, 1900’s
cure for alcohol and morphine addiction
1970’s became popular again on Wall Street allowed them to work
late hours
Amphetamine of the wealthy
Cheaper, smokable version names “Crack” made its way to the
inner city
Body constantly wants more
Hallucinogens and Marijuana
Hallucinogens: distort visual and auditory perception
LSD: Hallucinogen or “psychedelic” drug that
produces hallucinogens and delusions similar to those
occurring in psychotic state
“bad trips” or unpleasant experiences, may be set
off by change in dose or an alteration in setting or
mood
May not realize the experience is happening
because of the drug, and panic
Do not produce withdrawal effects
Tolerance rapidly builds
After time, users get tired of the experience and
decrease, discontinue their use
Marijuana: mild hallucinogen that produces a “high” often
characterized by feelings of euphoria, a sense of well-being,
and swings in mod from relaxation to feelings of anxiety and
paranoid
Far less potent that LSD
Has direct psychological effects, bloodshot eyes, dry mouth,
coughing, increased thirst and hunger, mild muscular
weakness often in form of drooping eye lids
Major dangers: potential respiratory and
cardiovascular damage,
Lose the ability to remember and coordinate
information
Explaining Abuse and Addiction
Biological Factors
There is evidence of genetic basis for alcohol abuse
Americans view substance abuse as a biological
problem
Often a result of “bad “ genes, that requires medical
treatment
Many health professionals share this viewpoint
Psychological, Social, and Cultural Factors
Expectations
Studies have shown that some people use or abuse
alcohol because they expect that helping them drink will
help them escape or reduce negative feelings
Family setting
The family setting in which a child grows up shapes the
attitudes and beliefs of drugs
Culture
Plays a significant rile in determining drug use and drug
experiences
EX: Muslim and Mormon societies alcohol is forbidden
EX: Other cultures is traditional to drink wine with family
meals
Today’s drug problem can be interpreted as a reflection
of mainstream cultural norms
Meditation and Hypnosis
Section 5
Meditation
Meditation: any of the various methods of
concentration, reflection or focusing of thoughts
undertaken to suppress the activity of the sympathetic
nervous system
Zen Meditation: concentrates on respiration
Transcendental Meditation: practitioners intone a
mantra or a chat, specially selected for each
person
Used to treat certain medical problems
Stress often leads to muscle tension and to relive the pain
meditated
Some people have stopped using drugs after taking up
meditation
People who claim to meditate regularly claim emotional
and spiritual gains
Increased sensory awareness, well-being and found
peace within self and universe
Hypnosis
 Hypnosis: trancelike state in which a person responds readily to suggestions
 Individuals vary in their susceptibility to hypnosis
 Cannot force someone to do something foolish, embarrassing or dangerous against their will