Consiousness



Consiousness

Awareness inside and outside your body:

Sleep and Dreams

Daydreaming

Drugs

Hypnosis

States of Consciousness

Circadian Rhythms

Body natural body clock.

Naturally 25 hours, but we adapt to astronomical clock.

Particularly stressful for people who do shift work.

People get tired at 2pm and 4 am.

If you buy stocks on dark days and sell on light days, you’ll make money over time (SAD).

Seasonal affective Disorder (SAD)

PMS

Women who believe their periods to be bad, often are confirming their own biases. Symptoms that aren’t period related, are explained by periods, but those same symptoms at different times aren’t. Recalled pds. worse than reported at time.

Rhythms

When we Spring Forward, accidents increase. When we Fall back, they decrease.

Boys NEVER NEVER NEVER TRY TO USE THIS INFORMATION IN A DISCUSSION WITH FEMALES: it may cost you your life.

Sleep Patterns

People need on the average 9 or 10 hours sleep without outside cues.

People need less sleep as they get older.

REM sleep, or dream sleep, is required for functional sleep.

Drugs, alcohol, or interruptions can disrupt REM sleep creating REM rebound and/or sleep dept.

Sleep Patterns: Reset every 90 minutes.

Awake but relaxed, Twilight. Alpha Sleep

Stage 1: first 5 minutes

Stage 2: Sleep (much of night)

Stage 3 Transitional

Hallucinations, weird fantasies, jumping around, floating

Sleep spindles occur

Transition to Slow wave.

Stage 4 Sleep

REM: rapid eye movement

Delta level, slow wave sleep. Night terrors, sleepwalking, bedwetting, decreases as night goes on. Also associated with growth

Dream (nightmare) sleep, increased sympathetic system, brain waves between awake and level 1, increases from 10 minutes to 90 min by end of night. Genital Arousal occurs here, in both males (50%) and females.

Sleep Talking

Can occur in all sleep stages, not stage-dependent.

REM Sleep

Is Paradoxal sleep, because your brain and body is very active, but body has low muscle tone. (Brain stem blocks cortex messages to body.)

Babies get more than older people, probably because of all the learning.

REM sleep increases as the night progresses: 15 minutes, then 30, then 1 hour. (wide variation of this, but as an example.

Activation-synthesis: your brain learns while in REM: consolidates the days learning and memory.

This is dream Sleep, as well as nightmares.

REM Sleep

Without REM sleep no true rest occurs. When awaked during REM sleep, even those with 10 hours, don’t feel rested.

Memory consolidation occurs during REM sleep.

Babies need more REM than older children

Sleep: Why?

Non-grazing big mammals sleep longer, maybe to keep up away from predators.

Rebuild cells?

Refresh Neural connections?

Sleep Disorders

Apnea: stopping breathing while sleeping: may be life-threatening.

Narcolepsy: uncontrollable sleep attacks

Insomnia: most common, inability to sleep. 50% of people get it. Often caused by changed sleep habits. Usually temporary.

REM REBOUND

When deprived of sleep, when you go back to sleep, you go immediately to REM to try and catch up. Often creating more nightmares. This pattern is called REM Rebound

Insomnia Causes

Upsets to circadian rhythms

Exercising to close to Sleep

Stress

Alcohol usage

Natural circadian rhythms

Depression

Sleep Debt

Sleep debt causes

irritability

inability to concentrate (although you can perform well on short tests)

lack of energy

REM rebound-can even occur while awake if sleep deprived enough.

Lack of Sleep is also associated with obesity and impaired memory.

Insomnia Treatment

Relax, read a book, drink milk.

Avoid Exercise right before bed.

Don’t drink or take sleeping pills, they disrupt circadian rhythms.

Meditation/relaxation/taking hot baths.

Dreams

Usually normal everyday events spliced together in a bizarre fashion.

Only 1 in 10 have sexual content in males, 1 and 30 in girls, although boys usually get erections and girls get clitoral erections even without sexual content in the dream. Usually lasting throughout most of the night. Girls dream about 50/50 gender; men 65% about men.

Dreams

We incorporate outside stimuli into our dreams.

You cannot be taught subliminally when you dream.

Lucid Dreaming is controlling your dreaming, dreaming about what you want and controlling outcomes.

Common Dream Themes

Naked Dreams

Chase Dreams

Getting lost dreams/can’t get there.

Teeth dreams

Test Dreams

Flying dreams (stage 1)

Falling dreams (stage 1)

Why we Dream: Theories

Activation-Synthesis Bursts of random firings brain is trying to make sense of. Explains the discontinuity of dreams.

Information-processing: Consolidating memories/learning of days events, while disposing of excess information not needed.

Dream Theory

Physiological Function: Stimulate neural connections so they won’t be lost.

Dreams

Freud thought dreams had

Manifest content, the storyline, and

Latent content, the hidden symbolic meaning.

Famous work: Interpretation of Dreams

Dreams were expression of unresolved sexual conflicts.

Erotic Desires expressed in Dreams

Daydreaming

Daydreaming allows us to plan the day, fantasize and exercise our creativity…perhaps let out aggression or rehearse.

Young people do it more that older people.

95% of people have sexual fantasies.

Men are more anonymous and less romanitc and have more sex fantasies than women.

Daydreaming

Einstein said it was more important to him than absorbing knowledge.

People prone to violence and drug abuse, have less vivid fantasies than those who don’t.

Lucid Dreaming

Is Controlling your dreams or writing the script for your dream. Be pretty cool if you could do it.

Hypnosis: What is it? Two Theories

Social Phenomenon: We do it to please the hypnotist. Trying to please.

Believers in this theory thing subjects are “conscious role players.”

When told to throw “acid” in experimenter face, complied. But, so did not hypnotized subjects.

Divided Consciosness theory

Disassociation, we can divide our consciousness similarly when we drive and think. The result we use part of our mind, although

we may have a hidden observer who feels the pain, but keeps us from doing something harmful or illegal..

Hypnosis What it Can’t do.

People will not do things against there will. Things they do are related to Milgram’s obedience studies on what people will do for people in power.

Will not regress or retrieve deeply repressed memories. These retrieved memories are combinations of memory and suggestion. Relaxation may help in recall however

Hypnosis and Therapy

May aid in psychosomatic illnesses, because you believe it will.

Beyond relaxing, not much more.

Hypnosis: What it can do?

It can distract you from pain. People who put hand in ice water don’t report “feeling the pain,” although they are aware that it exists. (Perhaps closing the gate) This supports the disassociative qualities of hypnotism. Same principle as Lamaze for childbirth. Distraction and disassociation makes you feel less pain.

Hypnotism

Everyone can be hypnotized, although about 20% are more hypnotizable than others.

People with Rich fantasy lives are more susceptible to be hypnotized: about 4% can’t sort fantasy from reality.

Post hypnotic suggestion

Can make people think of something they’ve been told to think of upon certain cues. Used for smoking cessation and diet programs.

Think Flip Orley and people seeing through people’s clothes.

Drug and Alcohol Terms

Tolerance: user needs more and more of a substance to get “high.”

Physical dependence: need the drug or experience physical withdrawal symptoms.

Psychological dependence: need drug or don’t feel like yourself.

Withdrawal: psychological or physical reaction to absence of drug.

Drugs and Addiction 3 Myths

Taking addictive drugs lead to immediate and irrevocable addiction. Even morphine taken as painkiller doesn’t usually lead to addiction. (about 10% of time)

Addiction can’t be overcome alone. Many people simply age out of addiction or quit on there own. Programs have little or no more success than individuals trying on their own.

Drug and addiction-Myths

That the definition of addiction can be extended to other repetitive, pleasure-seeking behaviors. Shopoholics are not the same as alcoholics.

Addiction correlates

Risk taking little boys more likely than others.

Children of alcoholics have higher rates.

Ability to “hold” alcohol a key indicator.

Age of first use correlates:

Under 15, 60% chance of alcohol problems

Over 21, drops to 7%.

Addiction in culture

Higher levels in Irish, Native American populations.

Lower among Jews and Italians.

Lower drug use in African-American than white community (drinking, cocaine and cigarettes).

Depressants: Alcohol

Alcohol is a depressant to the system, all the time, it depresses the sympathetic nervous system.

Alcohol tends to magnify all our tendencies. Helpful people become more helpful, aggressive more aggressive, sexual or sexual wannabes, more sexual.

People become more self-disclosing.

Alcohol cont

Drinking excess amounts lead to blackouts-interfering with REM and memory consolidation from short-term to long=term memory.

Alcohol reduces self-awareness (disassociate)-those who want to suppress feelings of inadequacy , its like someone else is that beast.

Alcohol cont.

Forces attention toward immediate time and away from long-term consequences, leading people to do the irresponsible.

Subjects given fake alcohol acted and felt in ways similar to real drinkers. They blamed the “drinks” for their behavior. Expectations influence the behavior of drinkers,

Alcohol addicts

Alcohol addicted people experience debilitating withdrawal symptoms, including diarrhea, vomiting and hallucinations.

Children of alcoholics can hold more liquor in their first experience than non COAs suggesting a genetic link.

Alcoholics

Feel life is meaningless and are directionless..

Feelings of failure.

Genetic link.

Being able to hold alcohol on first drinks huge predictor of future alcohol problems.

Peer influence

Depressants: Barbiturates or Downs

Sleeping pills, tranquilizers, valium:

All act to suppress the sympathetic nervous system, mimicking the effects of alcohol. Taken together you may find yourself in a coma.

Has a calming, anti-anxiety effect.

Ineffective as sleeping pills because of their effect on REM sleep.

Opiates

Heroin, morphine, Opium.

Depress the entire neural system.

Give feeling of “blissful pleasure,” some first time users report having orgasms from use.

Highly physically addictive. Tolerance builds quickly. Withdrawal creates awful symptoms. Brain stop producing endorphins.

Psychoactive Drugs: Stimulants

Nicotine, Methamphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy.

Increase heart rate, respiration, breathing,pupils dilate, appetite diminishes

Feelings of euphoria, confidence, well-being followed by a corresponding crash.

Stimulants: Speed/Coke

In high doses can deplete natural stores of neurotransmitters. (serotonin, dopamine.

Ecstasy: an amphetamine with mild hallucinogenic effects, can cause dehydration and brain damage in serotonin system.

Stimulants: Cocaine and Speed

The most highly psychologically addictive.

Rats will hit a lever 1000s of times to get cocaine to the exclusion of food.

Hallucinogens

LSD, ecstasy, peyote, mescaline, psilocybin, Marijuana.

Common to see visual distortion of things that are there.

In rare cases, real hallucinations, flashbacks.

Heavily influenced by emotional state, and personality explaining bad trips.

Marijuana

Active Ingredient is THC

Mostly commonly used of the illegal drugs.

Classified as a hallucinogenic because of distortion of time experienced by users.

Stored long-term in body, so one of few drugs that you don’t build tolerance for.

Has medical use as an anti-nausea drug and to release pressure on eye of glaucoma patients.

Drug Use in High School

Just say “NO”

Near Death: going toward the light: heaven or hallucination?

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