Altered States of ConsciousnessAltered States of Consciousness

Sleep & Dreaming

May 2015

• Go to Sleep Deprivation PPT….

Take a look at the ‘Exploring Psychology on page 183…Loosing Sleep’

• In 1959 – Peter Tripp – a NY Disc Jockey stayed awake for 200 hours (yes, that’s about 8-days & 8-hours) raising money for Charity.

• What do you think? Could you do that? Should you even try?

How Important is Sleep to Humans ?

• SLEEP is VITAL to our Mental Health

• Consciousness – State of awareness, including a person’s feelings, sensations, ideas & perceptions.

• Sleep is an altered state of consciousness characterized by both brain activity & non-activity

• Consciousness can range from alertness to non-alertness

– An example of alertness – • Fully awake & attention focused on

something• Remember:– Sigmund Freud spoke that our Minds are

like an iceberg. Our Conscious mind is that which is above the surface. Our Preconscious level is that which is at the surface and our Unconscious is that which is below the surface. 90% of an iceberg is below the surface of the water.

Why do we sleep?

• Allows people to ‘charge their batteries.’• Gives the brain time to recover from exhaustion & stress.• Type of primitive hibernation; we sleep to conserve energy.• Sleep is an adaptive process – early man slept in order to

avoid being eaten.• Use the time to clear our minds of useless information.• Some people say we sleep in order to dream.

Sleepers & Sleeping

Before you sleep:

I. Awake – Your begin to fall asleep, your body temperature falls, pulse rate drops & your breathing becomes slow and even:1. Your eyes gradually close2. Brain’s Alpha Waves on an EEG show an absence

of concentration & relaxation.

Alpha Waves….

Stages of Sleep:

1. Pulse slows down further, your muscles relax, both your breathing & brain waves become uneven. If you’re awakened now, you’ll claim “I was

drifting off.” This phase lasts for 7-10-minutes. Marked by the presence of Theta Waves

Light sleep between being fully awake & asleep

2. Your brain waves occasionally shift from low-amplitude—high frequency waves to high-amplitude—low frequency waves. These are called Sleep Spindles

Your eyes roll side-to-side Lasts about 30-minutes

3. Large amplitude Delta Waves begin to sweep your brain every second or so – Transitional phase between Light & Deep Sleep

4. This is your deepest level of sleep. It is difficult to awaken someone in this stage.1. Large, regular Delta Waves occur more than 50%

of the time.2. If awakened, you may feel disoriented.3. Talking out loud, sleepwalking & bed-wetting

occur at this level, but leave no trace on memory.

REM Sleep:• Rapid Eye & Movement– Pulse & breathing rates become irregular, levels of

adrenal & sex hormones in your blood rise.– Face & Fingers can twitch, but your larger muscles

are paralyzed, in order to protect yourself from harm – ‘you can’t leap out of bed’

– Your brain waves appear to indicate that you are fully awake.

– REM Sleep lasts between 15-minutes(early) and 45-minutes (later)

Sleep Cycle:• Your go through Stages 1-2-3-4-REM every 90-

minutes or so.• Each time your stay in Stage 4 gets shorter,

while REM sleep gets longer until you wake up. We go through the Cycle 4 or 5 times each night.– At no point does your brain become completely

inactive.– REM sleep functions to help build efficient

learning & memory processes.

Sleep Cycle:

Think – But Don’t Copy:

• Babies can sleep through a circus. Older kids may fight bedtime. And teens -- good luck getting them out of bed on a weekend.

• But what about you -- the grown-up? Your sleep life is still changing -- and not just because time is passing.

How Much Sleep do we need?

• Humans spend about 1/3 of their lives asleep.• The amount needed to function varies from individual to

individual & also involves the time of ‘your’ life.– Newborns sleep 16-hours a day, mostly in REM What do they dream about?

– On average 16-yr olds need 10-11 hours/day– Graduate students need 8-hours/day– An average adult needs between 7.5 and 8 hours of sleep per night.

“But many people can function with 6 hours' sleep, and there also some who need 9 hours or more”

– Those over 70-years need about 5-hours/day.

Child Sleep Chart:

Have you noticed that you are tired at some times of the day, but fully awake at others?

• People have Internal Biological Clocks called Circadian Rhythm– Rhythm of activity & inactivity lasting

approximately 1-day or 24.18 hours.– This rhythm controls our physiological responses– It is our environment & our 24-hour day which

controls our cycles.

Missed Sleep:

• When we don’t get enough our Circadian Rhythm is disrupted & this throws off our bodies until we ‘recharge.’

• Jet Lag – Condition which occurs when your circadian rhythm does not match external clock time.– Typically you are tired & disoriented. It usually

takes One-Day for Each Hour of time change to reset your rhythm.

Too many Time Zones lead to Jet Lag