STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness Defined
-

The awareness of external events and the internal sensations, including

awareness of the self and thoughts about ones experiences.
Used to organize behavior

Stream of Consciousness
-

A continuous flow of changing sensations, images, thoughts and feelings.

Cognitive neuroscience view
Is generated be a set of action potentials in the communication
among neurons just sufficient to produce a specific perception,
memory, or experience in our Awareness (Kock and Mormann, 2010)

Levels of Awareness
-

Higher-Level Awareness
Lower-Level Awareness
Altered States of Consciousness
Subconscious Awareness
No Awareness

1. Higher-Level Awareness
-

Controlled processes
Represent the most alert states of human consciousness, in which
individuals actively focus their efforts toward a goal;
Requires selective attention;

2. Lower-Level Awareness
-

Automatic processes
States of consciousness that require minimal attention and do not
interfere with other ongoing activities.
Daydreaming
Involves a low level of conscious effort;

3. Altered States of Consciousness

-

Mental states that are noticeably different from normal awareness;

Produced by drugs, trauma, fatigue, possibly hypnosis and sensory
deprivation;

4. Subconscious Awareness
-

Creativity and insights occur when a subconscious connection between

ideas is so strong that it is forced to pop-out into awareness.
Creative ideas often incubated for some time below the threshold of
conscious awareness

Sleep and Dreams

-

When people are asleep they still remain aware of external stimuli

5. Unconscious
-

Generally applied to someone who has been knocked out by a blow,

anesthesized, or fallen into deep, prolonged unconscious state.
Reservoir of unacceptable wishes, feelings, and thoughts that are beyond
conscious awareness.

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE BRAIN

Biological Rhythms and Sleep
-

Biological rhythms
Periodic physiological fluctuations in the body;
Controlled by a biological clocks;
Annual or seasonal cycles
Twenty-eight-day cycles
Twenty-four-hour cycles
Circadian rhythms
Monitored by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN,
hypothalamus)
Pineal Gland > Melatonin increases = sleep
Pineal Gland > Melatonin decreases = awake
Serotonin (high = sleepy, low = awake)
Body temperature (high = awake, low = sleepy)
Desynchronizing the Biological Clock
Jet travel
Changing work shifts
Insomnia
Experiences of disasters
Microsleeps
Brief sidesteps into sleep lasting only seconds
Sleep deprivation
Loss of sleep is a serious problem
Study of Van Dongen, et. al., 2003
4 groups (4, 6, 8 hrs and no sleep group)

within

the

Why Do We Need Sleep?

-

Restoration
Adaptation
Growth
Memory

Stages of Sleep
-

Correspond to a massive
throughout the brain.

electrophysiological

changes

that

occur

Stages of Sleep
-

Beta waves
Alert and awake;
Reflect wakefulness;
No pattern, desynchronized;
Alpha waves
Relaxed but awake;
Has pattern;
Stage 1 (NREM)
Theta waves;
Slow in frequency and greater in amplitude than alpha waves;
Hypnogogic images or hallucinations
Stage 2 (NREM)
Theta waves continue but are interspread with a defining
characteristic
Theta with spindles
Stage 3 and 4 (Deep non-REM)
Delta and Theta waves
Deep Sleep
REM sleep
Active stage of sleep
Often called the paradoxical sleep
Associated with dreaming (Shafton, 1995)
REM paralysis
Hypnopompic hallucinations

Need for REM sleep

-

Physical fatigue
Recovered during NREM
Emotional stress (Horne and Staff, 1983)
Recovered during REM

Sleep and Disease

-

Stroke and asthma attacks are common during the night and early
morning;
Neurons that control sleep interact closely with the immune system;
Sleep problems afflict most people who are mental disorders including
those with depression

Sleep Disorders
-

Insomnia
The inability to sleep
Somnambulism
Sleep walking occurring during the deepest stages of sleep.
REM Behavior Disorder
When a persons muscle movement fails making him/her thrash
around and act out nightmares.
Nightmare (REM)
A frightening dream that awakens a dreamer from REM sleep

Night terror (NREM)

A state of panic experienced while asleep
Characterized by sudden arousal from sleep and intense fear;
Accompanied by many physiological reactions.
Narcolepsy
The overpowering urge to sleep
A person falls immediately into REM sleep during the day without
warning
A kind of sleep seizure
Sleep Apnea
A sleep disorder in which individuals stop breathing because the
windpipe fails to open or because brain processes involved in
respiration fail to work properly;