Altered States of Consciousness

1. Sleep Deprivation2. Sleep Disorders3. Dreams

Sleep Deficit Scoring• 4 or less—Adequate sleep • 5 or 6—Most days adequate sleep. This may mean that

performance is less than 100 percent on certain activities. • 7 or 8—Evidence of a sleep debt that may cause a

noticeable reduction in work efficiency, errors in work. • 9 to 11—Large sleep debt. Likely to suffer from large,

random errors; small errors may be missed even if work is reviewed a second time.

• 12 to 14—The person’s general quality of life suffers. Perhaps the person is less interested in things formerly found fascinating and less inclined to spend time socializing, may also be a bit accident-prone and subject to temporary memory defects.

• 15 and above—Sleep debt is a major problem.

Sleep Deprivation

• Most adults need 7.5 – 9 hours of nightly sleep.

• 4/5 teens wish for more sleep on week nights.

• After a succession of 5-hour nights, we accumulate a “sleep debt.”

• Sleep debt need not be entirely made up, but cannot be made up in one long sleep.

Sleep Deprivation

• Sleep deprivation has consequences:– Depression– Difficulty studying– Diminished productivity– Weight gain– Slows reaction time– Irritability– Fatigue – Immunity deficiency

Major Sleep Disorders

Major Sleep Disorders

• Insomnia – recurring problems in falling or staying asleep.

• Narcolepsy - a sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times.

Major Sleep Disorders

• Sleep Apnea – a sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings.

CPAP machine makes for sounder sleeping and better

quality of life.Continuous Positive Airway Pressure

Major Sleep Disorders

• Night Terrors– a sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and the appearance of being terrified.– Not a nightmare– Occurs in first few hours of NREM-3– Mostly children– May sit up/walk around– Seldom wake up during episode– Seldom recall episode

Major Sleep Disorders

• Sleep Walking – somnambulism moving around or walking in one’s sleep.– Also occurs in first few hours of NREM-3– Mostly in children – 20% of 3-12 year-olds

– May sit up/walk around– Seldom wake up during episode– Seldom recall episode– A few homicide cases blamed on

sleepwalking.

Dreams

• “Hallucinations of the sleeping mind”• Hallucinations – false sensory

experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus.

What We Dream

• Common themes:– Failing in an attempt to do something,

being rejected, pursued or embarrassed– Some sort of story line from the previous

day’s experiences

What We Dream

• Two-track mind monitors our environment while we sleep– odors or sounds may be incorporated

into dreams

• We don’t remember recorded sounds while asleep– can’t listen to lectures or books on tape

and remember them

Why We Dream

• To satisfy our wishes– Freud and other psychoanalysts believed

dreams to be symbolic of inner conflicts.– A psychic safety-valve to discharge

unacceptable feelings

Why We Dream

• To file away memories– Brain scans link REM sleep and memory– Dreams help sift, sort and fix

experiences into memory– Students who study and sleep perform

significantly better than those who pull all-nighters

– “If you don’t get good sleep, and enough sleep after learning new stuff, you won’t integrate it effectively into your memories.”

Why We Dream

• To develop and preserve neural pathways– Infants, whose neural networks are fast

developing, spend a lot of time in REM.

Why We Dream

Why We Dream

• To make sense of neural static– Dreams are the brain’s attempt to make

sense of random neural activity.– Internal stimuli activate brain areas that

process visual images and the emotion area of the amygdala.

– However, frontal lobe areas of reason and behavioral inhibition are idle.

– Add together = dreams.

Why We Dream

• To reflect cognitive development– Dreams are a part of brain maturation– Prior to age 9, dreams like a slide show– Dreams overlap our waking cognition,

drawing on our knowledge & concepts– They simulate reality