SLEEP, HYPNOSIS, AND DRUGS

1. SLEEP, HYPNOSIS, AND DRUGS CHAPTER 7

2. CONSCIOUSNESS • Define: consciousness is our awareness of ourselves and our environment.

3. STAGES OF SLEEP • 5 distinct stages repeating every 90-100 minutes • Stage 1: Also known as “twilight sleep,” duration ~5 minutes, often includes vivid images, sensations of falling or floating (known as hypnagogic sensations), muscle twitches and jerks will often occur • Stage2: duration ~20 minutes, experiences include rapid, rhythmic brainwave activity, sleep talking may occur during this stage. Sleep spindles, spindle shaped patterns shown on a EEG, are measured during this stage

4. STAGES OF SLEEP • Stage 3: transitional sleep. It is a mix of stage 2 and stage 4 characteristic brain waves • Stage 4 ~30 minutes, brain emits large, slow delta waves, difficult to wake during this stage of sleep, typically when bed wetting and sleep walking will occur in children. Auditory cortex is still responsive, but only some sounds will wake us like our name or a baby’s cry.

5. STAGES OF SLEEP • You then ascend out of stage 4, through stage 3 and 2 and enter REM sleep (rapid eye movement). • REM sleep: duration ~10 minutes, brain waves become rapid and sharp, much like being in stage 1 sleep. Heart rate increase, breathing becomes rapid and irregular, eyes dart around, sexual arousal, dreams occur that are often story-like and emotional. Everyone dreams, just some don’t remember them.

6. STAGES OF SLEEP • The motor cortex is active during REM sleep, but the brainstem blocks its messages leaving muscles so relaxed you are almost paralyzed. AKA “paradoxical sleep” • The cycle repeats itself with stage 4 getting progressively shorter and then disappears and REM gets longer.

7. REM Rebound • REM rebound is the lengthening and increasing frequency and depth of REM sleep which occurs after periods of sleep deprivation. When people have been prevented from experiencing REM, they take less time than usual to attain the REM state. • Common to those who take certain sleep aids, it is also often seen in the first few nights after patients with sleep apnea are placed on CPAP. • Alcohol can also have an impact on REM sleep; it suppresses it during the first half of the night, leading to a rebound four to five hours after sleep onset

8. DREAMS • Freud: Dreams is the outlet for our unacceptable feelings and desires. He believed the manifest content of the dream is a censored version of the latent (hidden) content which he believed was usually of a sexual nature. He felt they were the key to our inner conflicts.

9. DREAMS • Information processing theory claims that dreams may help us sift, sort and fix the day’s experiences into our memories. This is supported by studies that show REM increases following stressful experiences or intense learning periods.

10. DREAMS • Activation-synthesis theory claims that the associate brain activity of REM sleep stimulates the sleeping brain developing and preserving the neural connections. Neural activity from the brainstem spreads upward and dreams are the brain’s way of making sense of the impulses. Essentially, this is the energy’s by-product/waste…”brain poo”

11. COMMON SLEEP DISORDERS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES • Insomnia: persistent problems in falling or staying asleep. • Narcolepsy: experience periodic, overwhelming sleepiness; in severe cases the person will collapse into immediate REM sleep with loss of muscle tension. High risk of automobile accidents. Not a very common disorder. Some breeds of animals are more predisposed…narcoleptic goats/sheep/some dogs

12. COMMON SLEEP DISORDERS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES • Sleep apnea: (typically occurring in overweight men) intermittent stopping of breathing during sleep, their body awakens them to breathe resulting in disrupted sleep. Suffers are less rested, irritable, also at risk of increased traffic accidents. • Night terrors: (typically occur in children) person may sit up or walk around, talk incoherently, experience doubling of heart rate and breathing rates, and appear terrified. Sufferers seldom remember the episode. These are not nightmares because it occurs during stage 4 sleep. Nightmares are simply scary dreams. (REM)

13. DIFFERENT THEORIES OF HYPNOSIS • Mesmer first “mesmerized” his patients by passing magnets over their bodies in order to alleviate them of their ailments. • At one time it was believed that those hypnotized were able to conduct superhuman feats, but today we know this to not be true.

14. DIFFERENT THEORIES OF HYPNOSIS • What is known: • The power is in the hypnotized individual to be open to suggestion. To some degree everyone is “suggestible.” Anyone who can turn attention inward, relax, and imagine, is able to experience some degree of hypnosis, and if lead to expect hypnotic responses, one likely will. (1989 UConn experiment)

15. DIFFERENT THEORIES OF HYPNOSIS • People will perform unlikely acts both under hypnosis and also when asked to act hypnotized.

16. DIFFERENT THEORIES OF HYPNOSIS • In terms of therapy, hypnosis and positive suggestions, like placebos, change people’s expectations, but unlike placebos, involve no deception. • Hypnosis can relieve pain. Some theories suggest this is dissociation of the sensation from the emotional state of pain. Another theory is selective attention, focus on something else (think athletes and Lamaze).

17. DIFFERENT THEORIES OF HYPNOSIS • Is it an altered state of consciousness? Since similar behaviors have been seen in un-hypnotized people, it implies that hypnosis is not an altered state. Social influence theory suggests that hypnotized subjects are caught up in a role they are playing. Divided-consciousness theory suggests it is caused by splitting our awareness/attention, like being on autopilot.

18. SUSPICIOUS OF HYPNOSIS • Age regression under hypnosis has not been adequately supported. • Hypnosis cannot change the rules of how we form, store, and retrieve information

19. SUSPICIOUS OF HYPNOSIS • It has been used to aid in recall of information during criminal investigations, and whether legitimate or not, it has not been proven harmful. Typically not admissible information for court, though. It is unpredictable, and visions and memories under hypnosis can be constructed/forced.

20. ADDICTION, TOLERANCE, WITHDRAWAL • Addiction is the physical and psychological need for a drug. • People rarely become addicted to psychoactive drugs used for medicinal purposes. • Therapy is not always needed to overcome addictions. • “Addiction-as-a-disease” mentality may cause more harm than good if people choose to use it as a crutch for overcoming their habits. Highly debatable topic.

21. ADDICITON SERVICES • Local Al-Anon contact information and meeting schedules: Al-Anon Family Groups meet in most U.S. and Canadian communities. Community-based Al-Anon Information Services and Web sites can connect you to local Al-Anon groups in the U.S. and Canada. Or call 888-4AL-ANON (888-425-2666) from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, Monday – Friday. • HOW TO FIND A.A. MEETINGS • This Web site does not provide A.A. meeting information directly. • To search for local A.A. resources within the U.S. and Canada, please Click hereTo search for local A.A. resources outside the U.S. and Canada, please Click here.Many local A.A. Web sites also provide meeting information. An internet search of “Alcoholics Anonymous” and the name of a town or region will almost always yields helpful results.Telephone numbers for Alcoholics Anonymous are often listed in local telephone directories.We encourage you to contact the nearest A.A. office for local A.A. information.

22. ADDICTION, TOLERANCE, WITHDRAWAL

23. ADDICTION, TOLERANCE, WITHDRAWAL TOLERANCE • Tolerance occurs when the drug user requires larger and larger doses to experience the drug’s effect. • People who drink Alcohol on a regular basis become tolerant to many of the unpleasant effects, and thus are able to drink more before suffering these effects. Yet even with increased consumption, many such drinkers don't appear intoxicated. Because they continue to work and socialize reasonably well, their deteriorating physical condition may go unrecognized by others

24. ADDICTION, TOLERANCE, WITHDRAWAL WITHDRAWAL Alcohol Withdrawal symptoms include but are not limited to: • Withdrawal is the body’s response to the absence of a drug to which it has grown accustomed • Drug Withdrawal has many variables. Everything from the type of drug, quantity of regular use, to the length of time the drug was abused, factors into how intense or mild an individuals drug withdrawal experience will be • Sweating or Rapid Pulse • Increased Hand Tremor • Insomnia • Nausea or Vomiting • Physical Agitation • Anxiety • Transient Visual, Tactile or Auditory Hallucinations or • Illusions • Grand Mal Seizures

25. PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS • 3 categories of psychoactive drugs (chemicals that change perceptions and moods): • 1. Depressants: calm neural activity and slow body functions (examples: alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) • induce sleep, relieve stress, and subdue anxiety, reduced social inhibitions, impaired ability to divide attention, slow reflexes, impaired judgment and concentration, impaired vision and coordination, slurred, mumbled or incoherent speech, a wide variety of emotional effects, such as euphoria, depression, suicidal tendencies, laughing or crying for no apparent reason, death may result from respiratory failure

26. PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS • 2. Stimulants: excite neural activity and arouse body functions (examples: caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, and cocaine) • wakefulness, increase activity, decrease appetite, feelings of euphoria, well-being and self-confidence suffer convulsions, possibly faint or pass into a coma, heartbeat will increase, heart arrhythmia, cardiac arrest., death can also occur from sudden respiratory failure.

27. PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS • 3. Hallucinogens: distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input. (examples: marijuana, PCP, LSD) dilated pupils, elevated body temperature, increased heart rate and blood pressure, appetite loss, sleeplessness, tremors, headaches, nausea, sweating, heart palpitations, blurring of vision, memory loss, trembling, and itching. A user of hallucinogenic drugs will also experience a number of psychological alterations in the brain.