1. Consciousness – our awareness of ourselves and our environment. States of Consciousness Consciousness is the CEO of the mind. It is nature’s way of keeping us from thinking and doing everything at once, because we can only provide our conscious attention to one new task at a time. Try desk tapping routine…

2. The most common form of consciousness is when we are awake and aware… but there are altered states… States of Consciousness Spontaneous: 1.Daydereaming 2.Drowsinesss 3.Dreaming Physiological (physically) created: 1.Hallucinations 2.Orgasm 3.Food or oxygen starvation Psychologically (mentally) created: 1.Sensory deprivation 2.Hypnosis 3.Meditation

3. 3 Rhythm of Sleep Circadian Rhythm: 24-hour cycle includes sleep and wakefulness Melatonin: sleep-inducing hormone Light triggers melatonin decrease in morning Increases at night, helps aid sleep Illustration © Cynthia Turner 2003 http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/otherendo/pineal.html

4. Sleep Sleep is a state of consciousness. We are less aware of our surroundings. We go through 5-stage cycle every 90 minutes Circadian Rhythm An EEG machine is used to measure stages of sleep

5. The Sleep Cycle:

6. The Sleep Cycle: Stage 1 Kind of awake and kind of asleep. Only lasts a few minutes. Produces mild hallucinations (sensory firing, with no stimuli), like a feeling of falling (why your body might slightly jerk).

7. The Sleep Cycle: Stage 2 Lasts about 20 minutes Begin to show sleep spindles Short bursts of rapid brain waves Recent research by Matthew Walker and his research team at the University of California Berkley shows that sleep spindles are associated with refreshment of our ability to learn. This research showed that the greater the number of sleep spindles produced by napping participants, the more they were refreshed to perform on a learning task. Further, the brain areas most involved were the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. These are areas that are critical for learning. The implications of this research are significant. For example, getting too little sleep and cutting off a portion of spindle activity may result in decreased ability to learn. It also has implications for the effects of early school start times on students' ability to learn at an optimal pace - a topic I have addressed in the past and will again in my next post.

8. The Sleep Cycle: Stages 3 and 4 Really large and slow waves (on EEG) of sleep. Hard to awaken and you will be very groggy. Vital for restoring body’s growth hormones and good overall health. You are asleep, but brain still processes stimuli: can hear truck and will sleep, but respond to crying infant. Will sleep in bed, but not fall out We still process information, although we are not consciously aware From stage 4, your brain begins to speed up and you go to stage 3, then 2….then ……

9. REM Sleep Rapid Eye Movement Brain is very active. Dreams usually occur in REM. Body is essentially paralyzed. – Brain is working, but the signals are being blocked (by brainstem) from reaching your body