Chapter 6
States of
Consciousness
And Sleep
Chapter Topics
This chapter is concerned with:
 the quality of our mental experience.
 the way that experience is altered by
 sleep.
 psychoactive drugs.
Consciousness is…
 alertness; being awake
vs. being unconscious
 self-awareness; the
ability to think about
self
 having free will; being
able to make a
“conscious” decision
 a person’s mental
content, thoughts, and
imaginings
To explore the nature of
consciousness, it helps to
first choose a definition.
Many psychologists define
_________________ as:
“our awareness of
ourselves and our
environment.”
Aren’t animals aware of their
environment?
If so, is our awareness different?
Ape Awareness Video
Conscious vs. Unconscious Activity:
The Dual-Track Mind
Conscious “high”
track:
our minds take deliberate
actions we know we are
doing
Examples: problem
solving, naming an object,
defining a word
Unconscious “low” track:
our minds perform automatic
actions, often without being
aware of them
Examples: walking, acquiring
phobias, processing sensory
details into perceptions and
memories
Consequences of a Dual-Track
Conscious/Unconscious Mind
Take Attention Test
__________
__________
Selective
Inattention
 _______________
______________
 Change blindness
 Choice blindness
Selective Attention
 There are millions of bits
of information coming at
our senses every second.
 So, we have the skill of
selective attention; our
brain is able to choose a
focus and select what to
notice.
Selective Attention and
Conversation
 The good news: we can focus
our mental spotlight on a
conversation even when other
conversations are going on
around us. This is known as
the __________________.
 The bad news: we can
hyperfocus on a conversation
while driving a car, putting the
driver and passengers at risk.
Selective Attention:
what we focus on,
what we notice
Selective Inattention:
what we are not focused
on, what we do not notice
_______________________refers to
our failure to notice part of our
environment when our attention is
directed elsewhere.
Selective Inattention:
 inattentional blindness
 change blindness
 Darren Brown-Video
________________
The Switch
Two-thirds of people didn’t notice
when the person they were giving
directions to was replaced by a
similar-looking person.
Who Dunnit? Video
Sleep as a State of Consciousness
When sleeping, are we fully
unconscious and “dead to
the world”?
Or is the window to
consciousness open?
Consider that:
 we move around, but how do
we stop ourselves from falling
out of bed?
 we sometimes incorporate
real-world noises into our
dreams.
 some noises (our own baby’s
cry) wake us more easily than
others.
How Do We Learn About
Sleep and Dreams?
 We can monitor EEG/brain
waves and muscle
movements during sleep.
 We can expose the
sleeping person to noise
and words, and then
examine the effects on the
brain (waves) and mind
(memory).
 We can wake people and
see which mental state
(e.g. dreaming) goes with
which brain/body state.
Why do we sleep?
What determines the quantity and rhythm of sleep?
The amount and
pattern of sleep
is affected by
biology, age,
culture, and
individual
variation.
Light and the
brain regulate
sleep, thanks to
the action of the
suprachiasmatic
nucleus,
decreasing
melatonin levels
when we see
light.
 Age: in general, newborns need 16 hours of
sleep, while adults need 8 hours or less
 Individual (genetic) variation: some people
function best with 6 hours of sleep, others with
9 hours or more
 Culture: North Americans sleep less than
others, and less than they used to, perhaps
because of the use of light bulbs
 The circadian rhythm is hard to shift (jet lag).
 This rhythm can be affected by light, which
suppresses the relaxing hormone __________.
Why do we sleep?
What does sleep do for us?
1. Sleep ___________ our ancestors from
predators.
2. Sleep _________________the brain and
body.
3. Sleep builds and __________________.
4. Sleep facilitates creative
________________________
5. Sleep is the time when
_____________________ are active.
Sleep Stages and Sleep Cycles:
What is Measured?
Stages and Cycles of Sleep
Sleep stages refer to distinct patterns
of brain waves and muscle activity that
are associated with different types of
consciousness and sleep.
Sleep cycles refer to
the patterns of shifting
through all the sleep
stages over the course
of the night. We
“cycle” through all the
sleep stages in about
90 minutes on
average.
There
are
four
types
of
sleep.
Not yet asleep: Beta and Alpha waves
Alpha waves are the relatively slow brain waves
of a relaxed, awake state.
Falling asleep
 Yawning creates a brief boost in
alertness as your brain metabolism is
slowing down.
 Your breathing slows down.
 Brain waves become slower and
irregular.
 You may have hypnagogic (while
falling asleep) hallucinations.
 Your brain waves change from alpha
waves to NREM-1.
Non-REM Sleep Stages
Getting deeper into sleep…but not dreaming yet
NREM-1
NREM-2
NREM-3
REM Sleep
Eugene
Aserinsky’s
discovery
(1953):
dreams
occurred
during
periods of
wild brain
activity and
rapid eye
movements
[REM sleep].
What happens during
REM sleep?
 Heart rate rises and
breathing becomes rapid.
 “_______________” occurs
when the brainstem blocks
the motor cortex’s
messages and the muscles
don’t move. This is
sometimes known as
“paradoxical sleep”; the
brain is active but the body
is immobile.
 Genitals are aroused (not
caused by dream content)
Dreams
the stream of images, actions, and
feelings, experienced while in REM sleep
What We Dream About: the “hallucinations
of the sleeping mind”
 Dreams often include some negative event or
emotion, especially failure dreams (being
pursued, attacked, rejected, or having bad luck).
 Dreams do NOT often include sexuality.
 We may incorporate real-world sounds and other
stimuli into dreams.
 Dreams also include images from recent,
traumatic, or frequent experiences.
Theories about Functions of Dreams
Theory
Wish fulfillment
(Freud’s psychoanalytic theory)
_____________
_____________
Physiological
function
Activationsynthesis
Cognitivedevelopmental
theory
Explanation
Lacks any
Dreams provide a “psychic safety valve”;
scientific
they often express otherwise unacceptable
support;
feelings, and contain both manifest
dreams may be
(remembered) content and a latent
interpreted in
content (hidden meaning).
many different
But why
do we
ways.
sometimes
Dreams help us sort out the day’s
dream about
events and consolidate our
This may
be
things
we have
memories.
true,not
but it
Regular brain stimulation from REM experienced?
does not
The
sleep may help develop and
explain
why we
individual’s
preserve neural pathways.
experience
brain is
meaningful
REM sleep triggers impulses that
weaving
the
dreams.
evoke random visual memories,
stories, which
which our sleeping brain weaves
still tells us
into stories.
something
Does not
Dream content reflects the
about
the
address
the
dreamers’ cognitive
dreamer.
neuroscience of
development—his or her
dreams.
knowledge and understanding.
Sleep Across the Lifespan
Effects of
____________
____________
Research shows that
inadequate sleep can
make you more likely
to:
 lose brainpower.
 gain weight.
 get sick.
 be irritable.
 feel old.
 susceptible to
accidents
Sleep Disorders
Are these people
dreaming?
 Night terrors refer to
sudden scared-looking
• ___________: persistent
behavior, with rapid
inability to fall asleep or stay
heartbeat and
asleep
breathing.
• Narcolepsy (“numb seizure”):
sleep attacks, even a collapse  Sleepwalking and
sleeptalking run in
into REM/paralyzed sleep, at
families, so there is a
inopportune times
possible genetic basis.
• _______________(“with no
These behaviors,
breath”): repeated awakening
mostly affect
after breathing stops; time in
children, and occur in
bed is not restorative sleep
NONREM-3 sleep.
They are not
considered dreaming.