Unit 4: States of Consciousness

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Unit 4 States of Consciousness

• Daydreaming, Sleep, and Dreams

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Objectives

• Discuss positives/negatives of daydreaming
• Follow up on dream experiment
• Discuss circadian rhythms
• Take a dream survey
• Begin dream journal project

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Affecting Dreams

• Journal 1 How did your experiment work out?
• Cartwright suggested drawing attention to a
  personal problem should make it more likely it
  would be the focus of a nights dreaming
• 17 volunteers repeated I wish I were not so
  ____ as they fell asleep
• Awakened several times during sleep for reports
• 15 of 17 dreamt about what they wanted to change
  about themselves
• Conclusion dreaming is a means of exploring
  wants and wishes in a way you cannot while awake

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Daydreams

• Explore secret life and desires
• Momentary escape
• Comes in waves about every 90 minutes
• Peaks between noon and 2 p.m.
• Average person spends 50 of time fantasizing
• Themes
• Thoughts and images of unfulfilled goals and
  wishes
• Emotions from the gap between where we are now
  and where we want to be

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Daydreamers

• Positive
• Pleasant, playful, entertaining scenarios
• Negative goal-oriented people
• Frustration, guilt, fear of failure, hostility,
  self-doubt, envy
• Scattered
• Purposeful curious people
• Solve problems, think ahead, develop insights

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Effects of Daydreams

• Positive
• Retreat from normal world
• Stress reliever
• Remind us of neglected personal needs
• Work through feelings/desires
• Encourage creativity and problem solving
• Negative
• Interfere with reality
• Make problems worse
• Replaces human interaction
• Interferes with success in life

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Circadian Cycles

• Adaptation to 24 hour solar cycle of light and
  dark
• Info obtained by neurons from the eye
• Neurotransmitters released to control
  temperature, metabolism, blood pressure,
  hormones, hunger
• Jet lag is an example of feeling biological
  clock

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Dream Survey

• Compared to 1,000 survey responders
• 95 remember at least some of their dreams
• 68 reported having a recurring dream
• Popular themes
• Falling
• Being chased
• Returning to childhood home
• Flying
• Naked in public
• Unprepared for an exam
• 39 claimed controlling the course of a dream
• 28 died in a dream
• 45 dreamt about celebrities
• Stark, E. (1984, October). To sleep, perchance
  to dream. Psychology Today, p. 16.

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Functions of Dreams

• Unconscious wishes (Freud)
• Motives guiding behavior (ones you arent aware
  of)
• Free of moral controls
• Obvious/manifest content
• Saying goodbye to someone
• Hidden/latent content
• Killing that someone

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Functions of Dreams

• Information processing
• Reprocess info obtained during the day
• Scan new info to decide how to incorporate with
  existing memories
• Decide what information to store and toss
• Where info should be stored in the brain
• Strengthens memories
• Cleans neural pathways
• Emotional processing
• Work through problems in dreams
• Healthy part of processing difficult emotions
• Resulting from divorce, grief, crisis

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Sleep

• Sleep losing awareness and failing to respond to
  something that you would if awake
• Restorative function for mind and body
• Boosts immune system
• Better problem solving abilities
• Conserve/restore energy

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Sleep Cycles - NREM

• Twilight Irregular, low-voltage brain waves
• Relaxed wakefulness like lying on a beach
• Falling sensation waking you up
• Stage 1 Brain waves are tight and very low
  similar to when you are excited but rest of body
  is in a state of rest
• Lasts only a few moments
• Might not know you were asleep if awaken

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Sleep Cycles - NREM

• Stage 23 Continuing to fall into a deeper state
  of rest
• Harder to awaken
• Heart rate, blood pressure, temperature continue
  to drop
• Stage 3 Delta waves begin to appear
• Stage 4 Delta waves (very slow)
• Lowest point of rest
• 15-20 min segments
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vwc3ox2SHG5wNR1

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Sleep Cycles

• At this point, you begin to ascend (from stage 4
  to 3, 2, and 1)
• Takes about 40 minutes
• REM resemble awake signs but muscles most
  relaxed
• Hard to awaken in this state
• Eyes move rapidly
• Voluntary movement of muscles are paralyzed
• Many dreams occur during this stage
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vmNdRoeVthVM

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Sleep Cycles

• Stage 1 to 4 and then back again
• First REM occurs when you first return to Stage 1
• First REM is about 10 minutes
• Entire sleep cycle (Stage 1 to 4 and then back to
  Stage 1-REM) takes about 90 minutes
• 4-5 full sleep cycles per night
• Early sleep, more time in Stages 34
• Shifts to more time in Stage 1-REM with each
  cycle
• REM sleep time decreases with age

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How Much Sleep?

• Infants 13-16 hours in first year
• 50 time is REM
• Adult 6-8 hours
• 1-2 hours is REM (20-25)
• Elderly 4-6 hours

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Do You Get Enough Sleep?

• Tally Yes and No Responses
• Do you often fall asleep while watching TV?
• Is it common for you to fall asleep after large
  meals or while relaxing after dinner?
• Do you often fall asleep or fear nodding off
  during boring lectures, tedious activities, or in
  warm rooms?
• Do you need an alarm clock to wake up in the
  morning?
• Do you often press the snooze button on your
  alarm clock to get more sleep?
• Do you struggle to get out of bed in the morning?

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Do You Get Enough Sleep?

• Do you often feel tired, irritable, or stressed
  out during the day?
• Do you have trouble concentrating or remembering?
• Are you easily distracted or feel slow while
  performing tasks that require thinking, problem
  solving, or creativity?
• Do you sometimes feel drowsy or fear nodding off
  while driving?
• Do you need a nap to help you get through the
  day?
• If you answered yes to 3 or more you need more
  sleep than what you are getting!

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Sleep Issues

• 50 million Americans suffer from long-term sleep
  disorders
• 20 million experience occasional sleep problems
• Link between lack of sleep and several disorders
• Heart disease, asthma, stroke

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Sleep Disorders

• Sleeptalking Stage 4
• Sleepwalking Stage 4
• Boys are more likely to walk then girls
• Nightmares REM
• Usually memorable in the morning
• Night Terrors Transition between NREM stages
• Frightened, screaming

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Sleep Disorders

• Insomnia Inability to fall asleep
• Afflicts 35 million Americans
• Causes
• Stress
• Depression
• Interpersonal difficulties
• Biological issue
• Anxiety about insomnia
• Treatment behavioral or drugs

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Sleep Disorders

• Apnea Difficulty breathing while sleeping
• 10-12 million Americans
• Stop breathing once asleep
• Lack of CO2 jolts person to almost awake
• Occurs hundreds of times at night
• Long time health issues
• Narcolepsy Falling asleep at any time
• Hereditary
• Muscle paralysis occurs followed by a collapse
  into REM
• Causes frightening hallucinations as person is
  partly awake

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Coming Up

• This is so much fun, what is next??
• Drugs, drugs, drugs
• Meditation
• Hypnosis