Chapter 7 Altered States of Consciousness

Transcription

1 Chapter 7 Altered States of Consciousness Lesson 1 Sleep and Dreams How important is sleep to humans? Sleeps is a state of altered consciousness, characterized by certain patterns of brain activity and inactivity. Consciousness is a state of awareness. People can have different levels of awareness, from altered to nonaltered. Sleep is an altered state of consciousness. Why do we sleep? Psychologists are not sure why we sleep. Some people believe that sleep is restorative. A time when the brain recovers from exhaustion and stress Other people think we sleep to conserve energy Still others believe we sleep to clear our minds of useless information

2 Stages of Sleep When you fall asleep your temperature decreases, pulse rate drops, and breathing slows. There is an absence of concentrated thought with relaxation. Your body may twitch, your eyes roll, and brief visual images flash across your mind. You are entering Stage I of sleep. Early Stage Stage I- pulse slows, muscles relax, breathing becomes uneven, brain waves grow longer. This lasts up to 10 minutes. Sage II- your eyes roll slowly from side to side. You well be here for 30 minutes. You drift down into a deeper level of Stage III.

3 Later States Stage IV- deepest sleep of all, difficult to waken a sleeper in this stage If you awake you may be disoriented. Talking out loud, sleepwalking, and bed wetting may occur in this stage and leave no trace on your memory This stage is important to your physical and psychological well being. 70% of sleep time in Stages I-IV. Stage IV your muscles are even more relaxed, and your eyes begin to move rapidly. This is a more active sleep called rapid eye movement. REM sleep- pulse rate and breathing are irregular it is called active sleep. Stages I-IV are known as NREM or non REM During REM sleep almost all dreaming normally occurs. REM sleep lasts from 15 to 45 minutes, after which your return the descent to Stage IV.

4 REM sleep seems to serve psychological functions such as building efficient learning and memory. How Much Sleep? Human spend approximately 1/3 of their lives in sleep. Amount of sleep needed varies from person to person. Newborns need 16 hours a day half of this is in REM sleep. 16 yr. olds need from hours a day. Grad. Students need at least 8 hours a day. Adults 70 yrs. Old or older need only 5 hours a day People seem to have an internal biological clock that regulates the sleep-wakefulness cycle. Circadian rhythm is a biological clock that is genetically programmed to regulate physiological responses with in a time period of hours.

5 Sleep Disorders Sleep is an active state essential for mental and physical restoration. Sleep disorders may interfere with our quality of life and personal health, as well as endanger public safety because of their role in industrial or traffic accidents. Insomnia Everyone has had a sleepless night. Insomnia is a prolonged and usually abnormal inability to obtain adequate sleep, and it can take many forms. Anxiety, depression, overuse of alcohol or drugs can also cause insomnia. Sleep Apnea Sleep apnea causes frequent interruptions of breathing during sleep. A common symptom is a type of snoring. Narcolepsy Narcolepsy is characterized by a permanent and overwhelming feeling of sleepiness and fatigue. Nightmares and Night Terrors Nightmares are frightening dreams that occur during REM sleep.

6 Night Terrors occur during Stage IV sleep. Can last from 5 to 25 minutes Sleepwalking and Sleep Talking Sleepwalking occurs when a person is not completely awake. A person may walk or do other things without any memory of doing so. Sleepwalking is mostly associated with children but some adults do this too. Sleep talking is a common sleep disruption. This can occur during REM and NREM. Dreams We call the mental activity during sleep dreaming. Everyone dreams, although most people are able to recall only a few, if any, dreams. The first dreams are those that are left over thoughts from the day. As the nights wears on, dreams become longer and more vivid. The Content of Dreams We often incorporate our every day activities into our dreams. Dreams occur in a realistic time scale. Some dreams are negative enough to be nightmares.

7 Dream Interpretation Sigmund Freud believed that no matter how simple or mundane, dreams may contain clues to thoughts the dreamer is afraid to acknowledge in waking hours. However, some social scientists believe that Dreaming may serve no function whatsoever. Another researcher believes that dreaming is a problem solving technique. That the purpose of dreaming allows people a chance to review and address some of the problems of the day. And another believes that dreams are a way of removing certain unneeded memories. Day Dreaming Day dreaming requires low levels of awareness and involves fantasizing or idle but directed thinking, while we are awake. Day dreaming serves useful purposes such as reminding us of or preparing us for events in our future. Day dreaming may also increase our creativity by generating thought process.

8 Lesson 2 Hypnosis, Biofeedback, and Meditation Surgery without anesthesia sounds crazy but such operations have been performed by hypnotizing the patient. Doctors and therapists use hypnosis to help people quit smoking, lose weight, manage stress, overcome phobias diminish pain. What is Hypnosis? Hypnosis is a form of altered consciousness in which people become highly suggestible to change in behavior and thought. Participants may recall incidents they had forgotten or feel no pain when pricked with a needle. Hypnosis shifts our perceptions. Hypnotic trance is different from sleep. People under hypnosis are highly receptive and responsive to certain internal and external stimuli.

9 The hypnotist induces a trance by slowly persuading a participant to relax and to lose interest in external distractions. The participant is not under the hypnotist's control but can be convinced to do things they would not normally do. Mutual trust is important for hypnosis to be successful. Theories of Hypnosis Some psychologists do not believe in hypnosis. Others, like Ernest Hilgard believe that there is something special about the hypnotic state. Higard believes that consciousness includes many different aspects that may become separated, or dissociated, during hypnosis. Whether hypnosis is a special state of consciousness or not, it does reveal that people often have potential abilities that do not use. Use of Hypnosis Hypnosis can suggest things for their participants to remember or forget when the trance is over. This is known as posthypnotic suggestion.

10 Memory can also be aided or enhanced through posthypnotic suggestion. Posthypnotic suggestion is most useful when changing unwanted behavior like smoking or overeating. Hypnotic analgesia refers to reduction of pain reported by patients after they had undergone hypnosis. Therapists use hypnosis to help clients reveal their problems or gain insight into their lives. Biofeedback Biofeedback is a technique in which a person learns to control his/her internal physiological processes. Biofeedback has been used to teach people to control a wide variety of physiological responses including brain waves, heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature, and sweat-gland activity. Biofeedback used without drugs seems to help many people.

11 Meditation Meditation is when a person focuses his/her attention on an image or thought with the goal of clearing the mind and producing relaxation, or an inner peace. Transcendental meditation involves the mental repetition of a mantra, usually a Sanskrit phrase. Mindfulness meditation focuses on the present. Breath meditation is a concentration on one s respiration- the process of inhaling and exhaling. Meditation has been found to help people lower blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration rate. The benefits from meditation may result simply from relaxation!

12 Chapter 7 Lesson 3 Drugs and Consciousness * Today we will discuss drugs and drug abuse. *Marijuana is a psychoactive drug. *Psychoactive drugs interact with the central nervous system to alter a person s mood, perception, and behavior. *Other examples of psychoactive drugs are caffeine and alcohol. How Drugs Work * Drugs are carried by the blood stream and taken up in target tissues in various parts of the body. * Drugs act as neurotransmitters and attack to the ends of nerve cells, and send out their own chemical messages.

13 Marijuana * Used as an intoxicant among Eastern cultures for centuries. * Sale and possession of marijuana of is against the law!!! * The effects of the drug vary somewhat from person to person and also seem to depend on the setting in which the drug is taken and the user s past experience. *Marijuana is not a physically addictive drug, as heroine is, but people may become psychologically addicted, or dependent on the drug. * Marijuana can heighten a variety of unpleasant experiences. *Studies suggest that marijuana is more damaging to the lungs than cigarettes use. *Marijuana also disrupts memory formation, making it difficult to carry out mental and physical tasks. * Research also showed that adults using marijuana scored lower than equal-iq non users on 12th grade academic achievement test.

14 Hallucinations *Hallucinations- perceptions that have no direct external causes- seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, or feeling things that do not exist. * Hypnosis, meditation, certain drugs, withdrawal from a drug to which one has become addicted and psychological breakdown can produce hallucinations. * People hallucinate when dreaming and when deprived of sleep. * Periods of high emotion, concentration, or fatigue may also produce false sensations and perceptions. * For example; truck drivers Hallucinogens *Hallucinogens- drugs that produce hallucinations *AKA- psychedelics, because they create a loss of contact with reality. * Hallucinogens can create a false body image and cause loss of self, dreamlike fantasies and hallucinations * The best known and most extensively studied and most potent is LSD.

15 * What does LSD stand for? Lysegic Acid Diethylamide * During LSD trip person s expectations, mood, beliefs and the circumstances can affect the experience and sometimes make it terrifying * Perceptual hallucinations are very common with LSD. *Users may experience hallucinatory progressions, when simple geometric forms evolve into surrealistic impossibilities. * Other users may encounter distortions that make familiar objects almost unrecognizable. *Panic reactions are the most common of LSD s unpleasant side effects. * Likelihood of flashback experiences can occur months after taking LSD. Opiates * Narcotics that include opium, morphine, and heroine. * Opiates produce analgesia or pain reductions. * Regular use of opiates can cause physical addiction..

16 * An overdose of opiates results in a loss of control of breathing. People die from reparatory failure. Alcohol *Alcohol is the most widely used and abused mind-altering substance in the U.S. * The consumption of alcohol is encouraged by advertisements and by social expectations and tradition. * The immediate effect of alcohol is a general loosening of inhibitions. * Alcohol is a depressant that serves to inhibit the brain s normal function. * The effects of alcohol depend on the amount and frequency of drinking and the drinker s body weight. * While under the effects of alcohol a person can experience slurred speech, blurry vision, and impaired judgment. * Permanent brain and liver damage and a change in personality can result from prolonged heavy use of alcohol.

17 Drug Abuse and Treatment *Drug abusers are people who regularly use illegal drugs or excessively use legal drugs. * People abuse drugs for many reasons, such as to avoid boredom, to fit in with peers, to gain self-confidence, to forget about problems, to relax, or simply to feel good. *There are many risks to drug use, including danger of death or injury due to overdose or accident, damage to health, legal consequences, and destructive behavior. * Drug abuse can turn into an addiction. * Treatment steps 1. Drug abusers must admit there is a problem. 2. Drug abusers must enter a a treatment program or get therapy. 3. Drug abusers must remain drug free.