Altered States of Consciousness

1. Altered States of Consciousness

2. Important Vocabulary • Counsciousness • REM sleep • Circadian rhythm • Insomnia • Sleep apnea • Narcolepsy • Nightmares • Night terrors • Sleepwalking

3. Sleep • In 1959, New York DJ Peter trip stayed awake for 200 hours to raise money for charity • 50 hours- mild hallucinations • 100 hours- delirious (a doctor’s jacket was a tangle of furry worms • 150- disoriented and paranoid • 200- completely delusional • (thought a doctor was an undertaker

4. Stages of Sleep • Early stages • Stage 1 (10 minutes) • pulse slows, breathing becomes uneven, theta waves • Stage 2 (30 minutes) • Eyes role side to side • Stage 3 (10 minutes) • Delta waves, last step before REM • Late Stage • Stage 4 • Difficult to wake someone up here • Can be groggy, disoriented • Delta waves occur almost 50% of the time • Talking in your sleep, sleepwalking • REM • Similar brain patterns to being awake • “active sleep” • This is where dreaming takes place

5. Sleep Disorders • Insomnia • Inability to sleep (typically mental anxiety) • Sleep Apnea • Frequent interruptions of breathing • Sleeper is actually choking • Physical causes (enlarged tonsils, obesity, repeated infections in throat) • Sleepwalking / Talking • It is NOT dangerous to wake sleep walkers / talkers • Can engage them in conversation • Usually harmless • Narcolepsy • Sudden and overwhelming feeling of sleepiness • “Sleep attacks” • Brief periods of REM during attacks • Nightmares / Terrors • Frightening dreams, usually awaken with memory • Terrors- screaming, sweating, rapid heart rate, awake disoriented and usually without memory of the dream

6. Levels of Consciousness (Freud) • People who are fully aware with their attention focused on something are conscious of that “something.” • A person who is not completely aware is in a different level of consciousness–an altered state of consciousness. • Sleep is considered an altered state of consciousness

7. Why do we sleep? • Sleep is characterized by unresponsiveness to the environment and limited physical mobility. • Some people believe that sleep is restorative; it allows people to “charge up their batteries.” • Other people believe it is a type of primitive hibernation: we sleep to conserve energy. • Still other researchers believe we sleep to clear our minds of useless information.

8. Dreams • What are dreams? • Memories, fears, random electrical bursts in the brain? • Dream Interpretation • Dating back 7,000 years • Freud • Fear to acknowledge • Inuit • Reflections of past and future • Social Scientists • Review and address a problem from the day

9. Daydreaming • Daydreaming requires a low level of awareness and involves fantasizing or dreaming while we are awake • Situations that require little attention or when we are bored. • Daydreaming serves useful purposes such as reminding us of or preparing us for important things in our future. • Some psychologists believe daydreaming allows us to control our emotions.