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Variations of Consciousness: Exploring the Depths of the Mind

Dive into the different levels of consciousness, from the conscious mind to the creative and intuitive subconscious, and discover the mysteries of sleep and dreams. Explore the purpose of daydreams and the power of the subconscious mind. Uncover the hidden workings of your mind with this fascinating study on variations of consciousness.

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Variations of Consciousness: Exploring the Depths of the Mind

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  1. CHAPTER 5 VARIATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

  2. So….What is the Point?(Unit objectives) • We want to know the answers to these essential questions. • What is the difference in conscious and unconscious thought? • Can you take information in without being aware of it? • Are there different levels of information processing? • What is the purpose of daydreams and fantasies? • Why do we sleep? • Why do we dream?

  3. The Conscious Mind • The conscious mind, accounts for 10% of our mind, It is working right now as you are reading this. • It is your attention span. • Choices and decisions made by the conscious mind. • Where we spend most of our time. • Logical and analytical

  4. Consciousness • Def: awareness of ourselves (thoughts & internal sensations) and our environment (external stimuli) • Continually flows like a stream in one direction • Subjective; your thoughts are different from other people’s • I will give you a stimulus to think of….let’s see how your “stream” of thoughts work.

  5. The Conscious mind performs 4 functions: . The conscious mind • analyzes and is a problem-solves/evaluateswhatever novel concern, situation or issue has its attention • makes decisions. • exercises will power. Also is the place of working memory. It is the memory we use every day to function. • Conscious decisions are influenced by the data stored in our subconscious mind. • Relatively slow in comparison to subconscious

  6. Where we all live, however, is in the level below awareness, the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind accounts for the other 90%.

  7. The Subconscious Mind • The subconscious mind, can be compared to a computer; stores the data for all the experiences we have ever had. • The subconscious mind is creative, intuitive, irrational, and emotional. • Functions: automatically controls bodily functions; breathing, heart beating, eyes blinking, immune system and organs, muscles, bones and tissues from the cellular level to its inter-relatedness as a whole body functioning.

  8. The Subconscious Mind • irrational thoughts can work for you or against you. • Because it's illogical it can make you into anything you want to be (i.e., rich, famous, slender, happy._ • It can also keep you stuck in negative behavior. • Contains values, core beliefs about your self • Just like a computer operates only on it's programming, so does your subconscious mind. • Also like a computer, your subconscious mind can be reprogrammed. • We are constantly reprogramming our subconscious mind through our experiences and self-talk. If our internal dialogue is saying we are fat, a smoker, a success, a failure; then that is what we become.

  9. Sleep and Dreams • Biological Rhythms • periodic physiological fluctuations • Circadian Rhythm • the biological clock • regular bodily rhythms, such as of wakefulness and body temperature, that occur on a 24-hour cycle • Jet Lag

  10. Premenstrual Syndrome 3 Recalled mood is worse than earlier reported Negative mood score 2 1 Premenstrual Menstrual Intermenstrual Menstrual phase Recalled mood Actual

  11. Sleep Stages Every 90-100 minutes we pass through a cycle of 5 distinct sleep stages (total of 25 years on average) • Stage 1-light sleep that last for about 5 minutes, may experience fantastic images similar to hallucination; hypnic jerks • Stage 2- lasts approx. 20 min., sleep spindles occur when rapid, rhythmic brain wave activity… sleep talking usually happens in this stage • Stage 3-transitional sleep stage (now includes stage 4 sleep) • Stage 4- combined with stage 3 is called the slow-wave sleep (when pituitary releases growth hormone),in which delta waves occur; at end of the stage is when children wet the bed or people sleep walk (This is now called stage 3 sleep, but AP Exam will still call it stage 4)

  12. Sleep Stages • After about an hour of sleep you re-ascend to stages 3 and then 2 (spend ½ night sleep in these stages) and you enter into REM sleep • Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep • Initially like alpha waves of Stage 1 • Breathing become rapid and irregular • Every ½ minute or so your eyes dart around; can observe • When we consolidate memories of recent life events • recurring sleep stage, but can be prevented by alcohol & sleeping pills • vivid dreams • “paradoxical sleep” • muscles are generally relaxed, but other body systems are actives

  13. Sleep and Dreams • Measuring sleep activity: • EOG: electrooculagram • EMG: electromyogram • EEG: electroencephalogram

  14. Brain Waves and Sleep Stages • Alpha Waves • slow waves of a relaxed, awake brain • Delta Waves • large, slow waves of deep sleep • Hallucinations • false sensory experiences that occur without sensory stimuli

  15. Awake Sleep stages 1 2 3 REM 4 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hours of sleep Stages in a Typical Night’s Sleep

  16. Minutes of Stage 4 and REM Decreasing Stage 4 25 20 15 Increasing REM 10 5 0 1 2 5 6 7 8 3 4 Hours of sleep Stages in a Typical Night’s Sleep

  17. Sleep Deprivation • Effects of Sleep Loss • fatigue • impaired concentration & memory • depressed immune system • greater vulnerability to accidents • promotes obesity

  18. Accident frequency More sleep, fewer accidents Less sleep, more accidents 2,800 2,700 4,200 2,600 4000 2,500 3,800 2,400 3,600 Spring time change (hour sleep loss) Fall time change (hour sleep gained) Monday before time change Monday after time change Sleep Deprivation

  19. WHY DO WE SLEEP? • Research link to pituitary growth hormone that restores brain tissues and consolidate memories, protective role in human evolution • Length of sleep patterns may be genetically influenced • Allowed to sleep unhindered, most humans sleep 9 hours (Coren, 1996) • Sleep debt: a succession of 5 hour sleep nights in a row will create sleep debt; brain keeps track of the lost sleep for approx 2 weeks- will want it made up.

  20. WHY DO WE SLEEP? • We spend about 25 years of our life in sleep & 6 years in dreams • People stop snoring when they dream; when REM starts; snoring stops. • The invention of the light bulb lost 2 hours of sleep; stay up till 11:00 instead of 9:00 • Ascending Reticular Activating System (ARAS) • Incoming nerve fibers in the reticular formation that influence physiological arousal • We produce the chemical adenosine which inhibits certain neurons; during sleep adenosine declines.

  21. Sleep Disorders • Insomnia • persistent problems in falling or staying asleep • Narcolepsy • uncontrollable sleep attacks • Sleep Apnea • temporary cessation of breathing during sleep • momentary re-awakenings • 30% of oxygen lost; dangerous • Somnambulism: sleep walking, not acting out a dream, stage 3-4 occurrence (slow wave), effected by stress, often accident prone • REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) • Troublesome dream reenactments

  22. Sleep stages Awake 1 2 3 REM 4 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hours of sleep Night Terrors & Nightmares • Night Terrors • occur within 2 or 3 hours of falling asleep, usually during Stage 4 • high arousal-- appearance of being terrified • seldom remembered • Childhood: as age less stage 4 and thus less night terrors (same with sleep-walking)

  23. Sleep: When, What, Why?Go Formative Activity https://goformative.com/formatives/iCLjJrYnAaX4eQSwY/view

  24. Dream Facts • Spend 6 years of our life dreaming. • 8 out of 10 dreams are marked by negative emotions. • We commonly dream of repeated failure to do something. • More commonly we dream of events in our daily lives: work, taking tests, family, friends. • Women dream of males and females equally often. • 65% of the people in male’s dreams are males. • Sexual dreams are less common than believed • 1 in 10 dreams in young men reported as sexual • 1 in 30 dreams in young women reported as sexual

  25. Types of dreams Falling Being attacked or pursued Trying repeatedly to do something but failing School, studying, teachers Sexual experiences Frequency reported 83% 77% 71% 71% 66% Dreams

  26. Dreams 1. As Information Processing helps facilitate memories 2. As a Physiological Function periodic brain stimulation 3. REM Rebound REM sleep increases following REM sleep deprivation 4.Cognitive Problem-Solving View- Rosalind Cartwright dreams are a way to work out every day problems; cont. to solve problems at night without constraint 5.Activation-Synthesis Model (Hobson and McCarley) Dreams are byproducts of bursts of neural activity in the subcortical area of the brain. Brain getting neural impulses that are not important or useful so it simply tries to make sense of them by weaving storylines. 6. Wish Fulfillment: (Freud) 7. Emotional Cross-connection (contexualizing) (Hartmann)

  27. Dreams: Freud • Dreams • sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind • hallucinatory imagery • discontinuities • incongruities • delusional acceptance of the content • difficulties remembering

  28. Dreams: Freud • Sigmund Freud--The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) • wish fulfillment • discharge otherwise unacceptable feelings • Manifest Content • remembered story line; actual dream • Latent Content • underlying meaning

  29. Dreaming for Memory Consolidation • New studies confirm that we sleep to remember. • The brain regions that buzz as rats learn to navigate a maze, or as people learn to perform a visual-discrimination task, buzz again later during REM sleep (Louie & Wilson, 2001; Maquet, 2001) • Students who sleep more (enter REM more) learn better when tested on memory of task next day.

  30. The Nature and Functioning of Dreaming • Ernest Hartmann, M.D. • Dreaming contextualizes a dominant emotion or emotional concern • Demonstrated most clearly after stress or trauma • Cross-connects or weaves in an emotional state • Connects old memories to recently experienced material • Puts together two different events or people or places or parts of our lives (part of your house you live in and a childhood bedroom or friend’s house)

  31. Culture and Dreaming • Dreams are not taken vary seriously in Western cultures • In non-Western cultures, dreams are important • New Guinea, dreams are considered to be as important as time awake and can be held responsible for their dreams • Others believe dreams tell about the future • Falling, being pursued, sex (universal)

  32. Dream Symbols • Fear, Terror: tidal waves, house burning and can’t get out, a gang of men, being chased and can’t get away • Helplessness, Vulnerability: children, dolls, drowning, hurt animals lying in the road • Guilt: letting child play by themselves or get run over by a car, can’t find a child, left a child. • Grief: A mountain has split, A huge tree has fallen down, in a huge barren empty space, ashes strewn all about.

  33. TYPES OF DREAMS • Lucid dreams: you are aware of the dream state while you are in it • False Awakenings: you are in a dream state but you think that you are awake and the events are really happening • Dream Incubation: you set out to have a dream and try to manipulate the dream events • Nightmares: negative dreams with high emotional content • Recurring dreams: same dream, same content • Day Dreams: occur during waking hours /monotony; people who have good imaginations; people who are violent, delinquent, or use drugs have fewer vivid fantasies

  34. HYPNOSIS

  35. What Is Hypnosis? • a state of consciousness one enters and leaves naturally all the time during your day-to day experiences.  • It feels very much like day dreaming • A state between sleeping and waking.  • Hypnosis is a guided fantasy.  • People who are more open to suggestions can be hypno • In this state (also called alpha) your brain wave vibration rate slows down, giving you access to your Subconscious Mind.  • Conscious Mind is still aware of what is going on & implies human susceptibility to dangerous behavior

  36. HYPNOSIS There is nothing mysterious about hypnosis. There are five components necessary to induce hypnosis. Motivation - You must want to be Hypnotized Relaxation - Hypnosis is a state of deep relaxation. Concentration - You will use your ability to concentrate. Imagination - You will use your vivid imagination. Suggestion - You will hear and respond to suggestions. Its application is based solely on the relationship between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

  37. The subconscious mind, having no power to reason, accepts and acts upon any fact or suggestion given to it by the conscious mind. Advertisers understand this. They use television programs to induce a hypnotic trance and then provide you hypnotic suggestions, called commercials! HYPNOSIS

  38. Hypnosis • Hypnosis • a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur • The procedure used is called a Hypnotic induction

  39. Hypnosis • Posthypnotic Amnesia • supposed inability to recall what one experienced during hypnosis • induced by the hypnotist’s suggestion

  40. Hypnosis • Un-hypnotized persons can also do this

  41. Hypnosis • Orne & Evans (1965) • hypnotized group told to dip hand in fake acid, then throw the “acid” in assistant’s face • control group instructed to “pretend” • unhypnotized subjects performed the same acts as the hypnotized ones

  42. Hypnosis • Posthypnotic Suggestion • suggestion to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized • used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors

  43. Hypnosis • Dissociation • a split in consciousness • allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others • Hidden Observer • Hilgard’s term describing a hypnotized subject’s awareness of experiences, such as pain, that go unreported during hypnosis

  44. Explaining Hypnosis

  45. Hypnotic Behavior • Some resistance to pain • Reduction of inhibitions • Auditory and visual hallucinations • Some people are actually in a normal state but they act out the role of the hypnotized person; called role-playing theory of hypnosis Hypnosis does NOT result in total loss of control

  46. Drugs and Consciousness • Psychoactive Drug • a chemical substance that alters perceptions and mood • Physical Dependence • physiological need for a drug • marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms • Psychological Dependence • a psychological need to use a drug • for example, to relieve negative emotions

  47. Big effect Response to first exposure Drug effect After repeated exposure, more drug is needed to produce same effect Little effect Large Small Drug dose Dependence and Addiction • Tolerance • diminishing effect with regular use • Withdrawal • discomfort and distress that follow discontinued use • Intensity depends on the level of drug tolerance

  48. Psychoactive Drugs • Depressants • drugs that reduce neural activity • alcohol, barbiturates, opiates • slow body functions

  49. Depressant Drugs:The Lethal Combo • Alcohol • affects motor skills, judgment, and memory • reduces self awareness • Barbiturates • drugs that depress the activity of the sympathetic nervous system & reduce anxiety but impairing memory and judgment • Tranquilizers/sedatives

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