1. Variations in Consciousness

2. What is consciousness? Awareness of ourselves and our environment.
Count the passes
Intoxication

3. States of Consciousness:
Sleep

4. Biological Rhythms
Variations in consciousness shaped biological rhythms
internal chemical units that control regular cycles in the body

5. Biological Rhythms Types of cycles/rhythms
Circadian Rhythm – Humans experience 24-hour cycles of varying alertness (sleep), body temperature, and growth hormone secretion.
Disruptions: jet lag and shift rotations
Ninety-minute cycles: We go through various stages of sleep in 90-minute cycles.

6. The Stages of Sleep
Stages 1-4 = Non-REM Sleep (NREM) – No rapid eye movement
Stages 1-2: Early light sleep; slow, regular wave form called theta waves.
Hypnic jerks and sleep spindles
Lasts minutes
Stages 3-4: Deep sleep starts
some non-vivid dreams
Roughly 30 minutes

7. The Stages of Sleep
Stage 5: REM Sleep Rapid eye movement, occurs during dreaming
Characteristics
occurs every 90 minutes (on avg) in humans
increases in length as night progresses
paralyzed body
lucid dreams

8. Sleep Deprivation What is the purpose of sleep?
Recuperation, remembering, growing
What happens if we don’t sleep?
Fatigue
Impaired concentration.
Emotional irritability.
Depressed immune system.
Hallucinations and paranoia
60 Minutes

9. Sleep Deprivation
Study of sleep deprivation in college students (Pilcher & Walters, 1997)
Participants complete cognitive test after either 8 hours of sleep or 24 hour sleep deprivation
All subjects asked to rate their effort, concentration, and estimated performance on the task

10. Sleep Deprivation Results of college student study:
Sleep deprived subjects performed worse than those who received 8 hours sleep
Although sleep deprived subjects performed worse on the task, they rated their own effort, concentration, and performance higher than the sleep group!

11. Sleep Deprivation (Continued)
23% of individuals have fallen asleep while driving
59% of train engineers have fallen asleep on duty
Nuclear disasters at Three Mile Island & Chernobyl, Crash of Exxon Valdez all blamed on part in lack of sleep
Estimation - accidents due to sleep deprivation cost the U.S. economy:
$56 billion per year
52 million work days per year
24,000 deaths per year (Coren, 1996)

12. Sleep Deprivation

13. Sleep Disorders Read your sleep disorders reference manual
Highlight key symptoms
In groups, on a separate sheet of paper
Write down Case History # ____
Provide your sleep disorder diagnosis
What symptoms of the disorder does this person demonstrate?

14. Sleep Disorders (Continued)
Narcolepsy – disease marked by sudden and irresistible onsets of sleep during normal waking periods
wakefulness to REM sleep for about minutes
cause unknown
Rusty
Sleep apnea – frequent, temporary halt of breathing for seconds while sleeping
prevalent in 5% men yrs old
CNS ceases to function, causing diaphragm to stop moving or loss of muscle tone in tongue and throat

15. Sleep Disorders Insomnia – chronic problems getting adequate sleep
- difficulty falling asleep
- difficulty remaining asleep
- persistent early-morning wakening
Prevalence:
15% adults report severe insomnia
15% adults report mild/occasional
Increases with age
“Sleep-state-misperception”:
5% insomniacs show sound sleep patterns

16. Insomnia (Continued) Causes of Insomnia: Treatments: Sedative pills
Anxiety
Tension
Stress
Depression
drugs (cocaine)
Treatments:
Sedative pills
short term vs. long term
Problems:
overdose, dependency, de-sensitization, carry-over effects

17. Sleep Disorders (Continued)
Somnambulism (Sleep Walking) - person arises and wanders while asleep
tends to occur in first 2 hours of sleep
causes unknown
Not related to emotional or psychological problems
Occurs mostly in children, peak at yrs
It IS safe to awaken people gently from sleepwalking

18. Sleep Disorders (Continued)
Nightmares – anxiety-arousing dreams, lead to awakening from REM sleep
correlation between stress and nightmares
prevalent in 10% adults
persistent nightmares in children may
reflect emotional disturbance
Night terrors – abrupt awakenings from Non-REM sleep accompanied by intense arousal and panic
most common in children 3-8
not indicative of emotional disturbance

19. What We Dream And Why We Dream
Dreams
What We Dream
And
Why We Dream

20. What do we Dream?
Negative Emotional Content: Eight out of 10 dreams have negative emotional content.
Failure Dreams: People commonly dream about failure, being attacked, pursued, rejected or struck with misfortune.
Sexual Dreams: Contrary to our thinking sexual dreams are sparse. Sexual dreams in men are 1 in 10; and in women 1 in 30.
Dreams of Gender: Women dream of men and women equally, men dream men more than women.
OBJECTIVE 18-9| Describe the most common content of dreams.

21. Why do we dream?
Wish Fulfillment: Sigmund Freud suggested the dreams provide a psychic safety valve to discharge unacceptable feelings. The dream’s manifest (apparent) content may also have symbolic meanings (latent content) that signify our unacceptable feelings.
Information Processing: Dreams may help sift, sort, and fix day’s experiences in our memories.
OBJECTIVE 18-10| Compare the major perspectives on why we dream.

22. Why do we dream?
Activation-Synthesis Theory: Suggests that in the brain engages in a lot of neural activity that is random. Dreams make sense of this activity.
Cognitive Development: Some researchers argue that we dream as a part of brain maturation and cognitive development.
All dream researchers believe we need REM sleep. When
deprived of REM sleep, and then allowed to sleep,
we show increased REM sleep called REM Rebound.

23. Dream Theories
Summary