Altered States of Conscious

Consciousness

• Waking Consciousness– Alert– Aware– Think, feel, sense and act

• Altered States– Alertness drops– Awareness lessens

EEG Waves of Wakefulness

• Awake, but non-attentive - large, regular alpha waves

1 second

Alpha waves

Awake, nonattentive

1 second

Beta waves

Awake, attentive

• Awake and attentive - low amplitude, fast, irregular beta waves

Altered States Of Consciousness

• Altered States– Intentional/Deliberate

• Drug Usage• Hypnosis• Meditation

• Alternative States– Natural and

Spontaneous– Occur without intent

• Sleep• Dreaming • Daydreaming

Functions of Sleep

• Restoration theory - body wears out during the day and sleep is necessary to put it back in shape

• Preservation and protection theory - sleep emerged in evolution to preserve energy and protect during the time of day when there is little value and considerable danger

Sleep

• Necessary for physical and emotional well-being

• Needed for muscle restoration

• Needed for memory consolidation

• Average amount of sleep depends on the person but 8 hours for most

EXAMPLES OF TOTAL DAILY SLEEP TIME IN MAMMALS

Mammal Total Daily Sleep Time (in hours)

Giraffe 1.9

Roe deer 3.09

Asiatic elephant 3.1

Pilot whale 5.3

Man 8.0

Baboon 9.4

Domestic cat 12.5

Laboratory rat raffe 13.0

Lion 13.5

Eastern chipmunk 15.8

Little brown bat 19.9

Causes of Sleep

• Pineal Gland– Triggered by the Reticular Activating System– Associated to seratonin triggering sleep hormone– Releases Melatonin that causes sleep– Light affects melatonin release

Circadian Rhythm

• Natural body clock

• 25 Hour Clock

• Jet lag is caused by the rhythm being off from the standard schedule

• Monday morning blues are caused by staying up late and changing your circadian rhythm

Types of Sleep

• NREM– 1-4– Light to Deep sleep

• REM• We cycle through the stages 4-5 times a

night• Cycles lasts 90 minutes and changes as

the nights goes along

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

• Electrodes placed on the scalp provide a gross record of the electrical activity of the brain

• EEG recordings are a rough index of psychological states

Sleep Stages

• STAGE 1 – Alpha Waves- Hypnogogic sleep Jerk awake– Alpha activity decreases, activation is scarce, and the EEG consists mostly

of low voltage, mixed frequency activity, much of it at 3-7 Hz. REMs are absent, but slow rolling eye movements appear. The EMG is mod. to low.

• STAGE 2- 50% of sleep – Theta Waves– Against a continuing background of low voltage, mixed frequency activity,

bursts of distinctive 12-14 Hz sinusoidal waves called "sleep spindles" appear in the EEG. Eye movements are rare, and the EMG is low to moderate.

• STAGE 3 – Theta and Delta Waves– High amplitude (>75 mV), slow (0.5-2 Hz) waves called "delta

waves" appear in the EEG; EOG and EMG continue as before

– blood pressure drops; breathing slower; energy regained; and hormones are released for growth and development in both 3 and 4 (25% of sleep)

Sleep Stages

• STAGE 4- Delta Waves– There is a quantitative increase in delta

waves so that they come to dominate the EEG tracing.

– Stage becomes shorter as the night goes on – Deep Sleep – Often difficult to wake– Night Terrors and sleepwalking

REM Sleep• First occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep and

increases over later part of night • Necessary for providing energy to brain and body; brain is

active and dreams occur as eyes dart back and forth • Bodies become immobile and relaxed; muscles shut down

– Paradoxical Sleep

• Breathing and heart rate may become irregular; important to daytime performance and may contribute to memory consolidation

• Most dreams and nightmares occur in REM• 25% of sleep• REM periods get longer as the night goes on• REM sleep decreases as we age

REM Rebound

• When regular REM sleep is denied due to drugs/alcohol or staying up causes excessive REM the next night

• Often irregular or excessive dreaming

Tips for good sleep

• Avoid caffeine (coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate) and nicotine (cigarettes, tobacco products) close to bedtime.

• Avoid alcohol as it can lead to disrupted sleep. • Exercise regularly, but complete your workout at

least 3 hours before bedtime. • Establish a regular relaxing, not alerting, bedtime

routine (e.g. taking a bath or relaxing in a hot tub). • Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark,

quiet and preferably cool and comfortable.

Sleep Problems

• Somnambulism - sleepwalking

• Nightmares - frightening dreams that wake a sleeper from REM

• Night terrors - sudden arousal from sleep and intense fear accompanied by physiological reactions (e.g., rapid heart rate, perspiration) that occur during slow-wave sleep

Sleep Disorders

• Insomnia• Sleep Apnea• Narcolepsy• Cataplexy• Bruxism

– Teeth grinding

• Myoclonus– Leg kicking

• SIDS• Incubus Nightmare

Insomnia• 1/3 of Americans suffer each night from insomnia• Often caused by

– stress or excitement – Distorted circadian rhythm– Use of stimulants– Depression– Anxiety

• Can be relieved by – concentrating on something else– Better sleep schedule– Avoiding stimulants– Relaxation training

• Often leads individuals down the sleeping pill path– Drug dependency insomnia

Sleep Apnea• Sleep apnea is a breathing disorder characterized by brief

interruptions of breathing during sleep.

• It owes its name to a Greek word, apnea, meaning “want of breath.” • There are two types of sleep apnea: central and obstructive.

– Central sleep apnea, which is less common, occurs when the brain fails to send the appropriate signals to the breathing muscles to initiate respirations.

– Obstructive sleep apnea is far more common and occurs when air cannot flow into or out of the person’s nose or mouth although efforts to breathe continue.

• Breathing pauses are almost always accompanied by snoring between apnea episodes, although not everyone who snores has this condition.

• The frequent interruptions of deep, restorative sleep often leads to excessive daytime sleepiness and may be associated with an early morning headache.

Narcolepsy

• Uncontrollable sleepiness

• Suddenly fall asleep inappropriately

• Recent discoveries indicate that people with narcolepsy lack a chemical in the brain called hypocretin, which normally stimulates arousal and helps regulate sleep.

• Often treated with stimulants

Cataplexy

• Daytime REM-like paralysis

• Uncontrollable paralysis often associated with excitement/intense emotion

• May be in conjunction with narcolepsy

Consciousness and Its Variations

• Dreams and Mental Activity During Sleep– The Brain During REM Sleep– REM and Memory Consolidation– What Do We Dream About?– Why Don’t We Remember Our Dreams?– Nightmares– Lucid Dreams– The Significance of Dreams

• Sigmund Freud: Dreams as Fulfilled Wishes• The Activation-Synthesis Model of Dreaming• Some Observations About the Meaning of

Dreams

Dreams and REM Sleep

• Everyone dreams several times a night– true dream - vivid, detailed dreams consisting of

sensory and motor sensations experienced during REM

– sleep thought - lacks vivid sensory and motor sensations, is more similar to daytime thinking, and occurs during slow-wave sleep

Dreams and REM Sleep• What are true dreams for? • Although research has yet to answer this question, a

prevalent view today is that dreams don’t serve any purpose at all, but are side effects of REM– to exercise groups of neurons during sleep

– some are in perceptual and motor areas

• REM occurs in other mammals and to a much greater extent in fetuses and infants than adults

• REM sleep may help consolidate memories

Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis

• Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley

• The brain is activated during sleep and then generates and integrates (synthesizes its own sensory and motor information

• Explains how external sounds enter our dreams

• We are trying to make sense of all the sensory data hitting us and thoughts from the day and combining them

Psychodynamic Dream Theory• Freud and Jung

– Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams

• Wish fulfillment of repressed thoughts– Dreams allow us a safe place to see our wishes and desires fulfilled

without societal retribution or ego damage

• Dream symbols– Manifest symbols

• Obvious symbols that are acceptable to our superego

– Latent • Hidden symbols represent others or things that are not acceptable and must

remain hidden to protect the ego from guilt

– Condensation• Single character may represent several people – like authority figures

– Displacement – redirect to a safe outlet• Angry at parents – wrecks car in dream

– Symbolization – Secondary elaboration- adding logical sequence to dream and add detail

Lucid Dreaming

• Stephen Le Berge– Stanford Sleep Center

• To become aware that you are dreaming

• Potential to control and direct your dreams to solve problems or make sleep more pleasant

Hypnosis and Meditation• Hypnosis

– Narrowed awareness and increased openness to suggestion– Came from Franz Mesmer

• Cure disease by passing magnets over the body and used the power of suggestion

– Inducing Hypnosis• Focus attention on words• Relax and tired• Let go – accept suggestions• Use their vivid imagination

– Effects of Hypnosis• Sensory and Perceptual Changes• Posthypnotic Suggestions• Habit Control• Memory• Pain Relief

Meditation

• There are various types of meditation

• prayer is probably the best known,

• TM (Transcendental Meditation)

• Zen meditation

• Buddhist meditation

• Taoist meditation 

• Biofeedback

Commonalities • All these practices have one thing in common• they all focus on quieting the busy mind • The intention is not to remove stimulation but rather

to direct your concentration to one healing element • one sound – Transcendental Meditation

– Ohm - Mantra• one image – Mandela • one's breath - Zen • Biofeedback - previously seemed an impossible degree

of control over a variety of physiologic events.• When the mind is "filled" with the feeling of calm and

peace, it cannot take off on its own and worry, stress out, or get depressed.

Benefits of Meditation

• Brings about a healthy state of relaxation by causing a generalized reduction in multiple physiological and biochemical markers

• decreased heart rate• decreased respiration rate• decreased plasma cortisol (a major stress

hormone)• decreased pulse rate• increased EEG (electroencephalogram) alpha, a

brain wave associated with relaxation.

Psychoactive Drugs• Psychoactive Drugs

– Common Properties of Psychoactive Drugs•Biological Effects of Drugs•Psychological and Environmental Influences

– Why Do People Abuse Drugs?•To alter their current state of reality

(consciousness)•To be someone else•To change how you feel•To forget•To relax •To party

Psychoactive Drugs• Drugs can cause two types of dependency

– Physical• Need the drug to feel physically better

• Withdrawals can occur which are unpleasant– Shakes, fever, vomiting, cold sweats, pain and cramps

• Tolerance – needing more of the drug to achieve the same results (high)

• Physical dependence can be broken in a short period depending on the drug

– Psychological • Need for the drug to maintain emotional or psychological well-being

• Rewarding qualities of the drug reinforce its usage

• Most psychologists like to define addiction as any compulsive habit pattern used to make the feel emotionally better or allows them to cope

• Psychological addiction can take a lifetime to break

Types of Usage

• Drugs usage can be classified in 5 way– Experimental

• Onetime curiosity

– Social-recreational• Occasional for pleasure or recreation

– Situational• To stay up, to relieve boredom, or to grieve a loss

– Intensive• Daily use

– Compulsive• Intense use and extreme dependency

• The Depressants– Alcohol, Barbiturates, and Inhalants

• The Opiates– Poppies, Demerol, Heroin and Morphine

• The Stimulants– Caffeine, Nicotine, Amphetamines, and

Cocaine

• Psychedelic Drugs– Mescaline, LSD, Peyote, PCP and

Marijuana

Effects of Alcohol

• In medium doses,alcohol produces:

• slur speech • cause drowsiness • alter emotions• In high doses,

alcohol produces: • vomiting • breathing difficulties • unconsciousness • coma

• In low doses,alcohol produces:

• a relaxing effect

• reduces tension

• lowers inhibitions

• impairs concentration

• slows reflexes

• impairs reaction time

• reduces coordination

Alcohol

• Chronic drinking can lead to dependence and addiction to alcohol and to additional neurological problems.

• Typical symptoms of withholding alcohol from someone who is addicted to it are shaking (tremors), sleep problems and nausea.

• More severe withdrawal symptoms include hallucinations and even seizures.

Marijuana

• Whether marijuana can produce addiction is controversial. • Also controversial is whether marijuana causes long-term

mental abnormalities. • It is interesting to note that there are NO documented cases

of a fatal overdose produced by marijuana. • However, because there is a high level of tar and other

chemicals in marijuana, smoking it is similar to smoking cigarettes.

• The lungs get a big dose of chemicals that increase the chances of lung problems and cancer later in life.

Effects of Marijuana

• In low to medium doses, marijuana causes:

• relaxation

• reduced coordination

• reduced blood pressure

• sleepiness

• disruption in attention

• an altered sense of time and space...a good reason not to drive or operate machinery while under the influence.

• In high doses, marijuana can cause:

• hallucinations • delusions • impaired memory • disorientation.

LSD• The behavioral effects that LSD can produce include: • Feelings of "strangeness"

• Vivid colors

• Hallucinations

• Confusion, panic, psychosis, anxiety

• Emotional reactions like fear, happiness or sadness

• Distortion of the senses and of time and space

• "Flashback" reactions - these are the effects of LSD that occur even after the user has not taken LSD for months or even years.

• Increases in heart rate and blood pressure

• Chills

• Muscle weakness

Heroin• Short Term Effects • Analgesia (reduced pain)• Brief euphoria (the "rush" or

feeling of well-being)• Nausea• Sedation, drowsiness• Reduced anxiety• Hypothermia• Reduced respiration; breathing

difficulties• Reduced coughing• Death due to overdose - often

the exact purity and content of the drug is not known to the user. An overdose can cause respiration problems and coma

• Long Term Effects • Tolerance: more and more drug

is needed to produce the euphoria and other effects on behavior.

• Addiction: • psychological and

physiological need for heroin. People are driven to get more heroin and feel bad if they do not get it.

• People begin to crave heroin 4 to 6 hours after their last injection.

Heroin

Withdrawal• About 8-12 hours after their last heroin dose,

addicts' eyes tear, they yawn and feel anxious and irritable.

• Excessive sweating, fever, stomach and muscle cramps, diarrhea and chills can follow several hours later.

• These withdrawal symptoms can continue for 1 to 3 days after the last dose and can last 7 to 10 days. In some cases, full recovery can take even longer.

Methadone

• Methadone is a drug that blocks the effects of heroin and has been used for several decades to treat heroin addiction.

• Methadone can be swallowed (rather than injected) and it blocks heroin withdrawal symptoms and does not have euphoric or sedative effects.

Effects of Cocaine• A dose of between 25 to

150 mg of cocaine is taken when it is inhaled. Within a few seconds to a few minutes after it is taken, cocaine can cause:

• a feeling of euphoria • excitement • reduced hunger • a feeling of strength

• After this "high" which lasts about one hour, users of cocaine may "crash" into a period of depression.

• Crash causes cocaine users to seek more cocaine to get out of this depression and results in addiction.

• Withdrawal from cocaine can cause the addict to feel depressed, anxious, and paranoid.

• Various doses of cocaine can also produce neurological and behavioral problems like:

• dizziness

• headache

• movement problems

• anxiety

• insomnia

• depression

• hallucinations