Chapter 5: States of Consciousness

1. Consciousness
-refers to a person’s awareness of the sensations, thoughts, and feelings
that he is experiencing at a given moment. It is the subjective
understanding (not observable to others) of both the environment around us
and our private world. It can range from our perceptions while fully awake up to
the dreams we have during sleep.

2. The NORMAL, WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS

- It can vary from an active to passive state
IN ACTIVE STATE:
- We systematically carry out mental activity, thinking, and considering the
world around us. We may also perform some kind of silent self-talk (“shall I
take another serving?”)
IN PASSIVE STATE:
- We do not intentionally focus on anything. Thoughts and images come to us
more spontaneously.
Vigilance
Refers to a state where there is a readiness (alertness) for new stimuli. There are ways
by which people can be alert, to keep from falling back into vacant staring people can
orient themselves to their tasks, where they are, what time it is; they squirm, scratch,
adjust clothing, and tap their fingers.
3. MODIFICATIONS of the WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS
- Waking consciousness can be subjected to various degree of distortion by
excessive fatigue, lack of sleep, disease (fever), and by drugs. Dependent on
the severity of the distortions, some altered states of consciousness may
appear. Some of them are:
 Alteration in thinking which becomes shallow, illogical, or impaired.
 Disturbed sense of time
 Loss of self control
 Sense of ineffability
4. SLEEPING (Living in darkness)
4.1 The function of sleep
- One of the most important behaviors of man. It is necessary for human
functioning. A lack of sleep makes people irritable; affecting their
concentration leading to a lower performance on all tasks, and it slows
substantially the sensory reaction time. It is reasonable to have “rest and
relaxation” to revitalize oneself, “to charge one’s batteries” this is referred to
as “restorative function of sleep.”
- However, there are arguments that suggests that the restorative function is
not the full or sole explanation why people need sleep. Indeed, if sleep
only had a restorative function, it could be expected that the amount of sleep
would be proportionate to the amount of previous activity (lost energy that
needs to be restored). But, even when people are less active, and even
leisurely inactive, they need their sleep and they do not sleep less as what
they say are used to.
- Furthermore, as people grow older, they generally need less and less sleep.
It is hard to see why, by getting older there would be “lesser” need to restore
energy, or that lesser energy is used up. Hence, there must be something
more that explains the phenomenon of sleep.
4.2 The Circadian Rhythms
- We cycle back and forth between wakefulness and sleep is an example of
our body’s circadian rhythms.
- It came from Latin “circa diem” or around the day. It refers to biological
processes that occur repeatedly on approximately a twenty-four-hour
cycle. Sleep and waking, occur naturally to the beat of an internal
pacemaker which works on cycle of about 24 hours. Body temperature is
also an example of circadian rhythm.
- Circadian rhythms are complex. Example, sleepiness occurs not just in the
evening, but throughout the day in regular patterns. Most of us get drowsy in
the early afternoon regardless of whether we have eaten a heavy lunch. The
dip in alertness is due to solely to time of the day.
- Circadian cycles are powerful. As anyone who has worked a night shift
knows well. Even after a full nights work people often have trouble sleeping
during the day.
- Circadian rhythms can be modified. People who have suffered from a jet
lag will testify. However, psychologists have recently developed a promising
way of changing circadian cycles by resetting the internal clocks through a
timing of the light. A bright light as strong as the sunlight produced on a
cloudy day produces a clear resetting of the subject’s circadian rhythms. He
has now at night a greater alertness and better thought processes. It does
seem likely that the lights trick the part of the brain associated with circadian
rhythms into thinking that night is actually day. Attention is called on the
intensity of the light as a necessary condition, because the ‘normal’ lighting
does not do the trick. These findings have enormous practical implications
for people on nightshifts, travelers across different time zones.
4.3 The Stages of Sleep
Much of the knowledge of what happens during sleep comes from the analysis
of brainwaves by the electroencephalogram (EEG) which evaluates the
electrical activity within the brain. Instruments that measure muscle and eye
movements. People progress during a night’s rest through several cycles,
each of them made up of four distinct stages of sleep. Each cycle lasts about
90 minutes and had unique brain wave pattern.
4.3.1 Stage 1-Sleep
- Moving from waking state in which they relax with their eyes closed
sometimes called, stage 0 sleep into stage 1 sleep. Characterized by
relatively rapid, low-voltage brain waves. This is the transition between
wakefulness and sleep, the EEG pattern is quite similar to when people are
awake and fully alert. During this stage, images sometimes appear; it is as if
people were viewing still photos but dreaming DOES NOT occur here.
4.3.2 Stage 2- Sleep
- Sleep becomes deeper characterized by slower, more regular wave
pattern. However, there are momentary interruptions of sharply pointed
waves called “sleep spindles” because of their configuration. It becomes
difficult to awaken a person from this stage which makes up about half of the
total sleep of people in their early twenties.
4.3.3 Stage 3-Sleep
- Brain waves become slower with an appearance of higher peaks and lower
valleys in the wave pattern.
4.3.4 Stage 4-Sleep
- The brain waves are even slower and more regular and people are least
responsive to outside stimulation. It takes about half and hour to go from
stage 1-Stage 4. At least in the beginning of the night, the sleeper stays in
stage 4 for some 30-40 minutes.
After this, he retraces the journey, returning from stage 4 through stages 3 and 2 and
1. This sleep cycle repeats itself 4-6 times during the night. However, in the course of
the night, people tend to sleep less and less deeply, at first with a shorter time in stage
4, and later by not reaching anymore stage 4. In the first half of the night, the sleep is
dominated by stages 3 and 4. The last half of the night is characterized by the lighter
changes (1 and 2) as well as by the phase of sleep during which dreams occur.
4.3.5 The REM Sleep (the dreaming phase)
- Several times, at the end of each sleeping cycle (returning from higher stages
back to stage 1) something curious happens: the heart rate increases and
becomes irregular, the blood pressure and breathing rises, and male even
male infants have erections. Most characteristic of this period is the back-
and-forth movement of the eyes. The duration of Rapid Eye Movement is
quite short at the end of the first sleep cycles of the night, but becomes
longer towards the morning. The total duration is a little over 20% of an
adult’s sleeping time.
- Paradoxically, while all this activity is occurring, the major muscles of the
body act as if they are paralyzed, and it is hard to awaken the sleeper. In
addition, REM sleep is usually accompanied by dreams. It is experienced by
everyone. In about the 80% of awakenings during the REM sleep, the people
reported that they were dreaming. Reports on dreams after being awakened
from a non-REM sleep stage, are very few.
- REM sleep plays an important role in everyday human functioning. People
deprived of REM sleep (by being awakened every time they begin to display
the physiological signs of the stage) show a rebound effect when
subsequently allowed to rest undisturbed. With this effect, REM-deprived
sleepers spend significantly more time in REM sleep than they normally
would. It is as if the body requires a certain amount of REM sleep in order to
function properly.
5. Dreaming
5.1 What are dreams?
- Are successions of images that occur during the REM-sleep. Most of the
dreams people have referring to everyday events. But people more easily
remember afterwards the more exciting ones. Unusually, frightening dreams
called nightmares are not readily forgotten in the morning. And even more
frightening than nightmares are called night terrors instances in which a
sleeping individual experiences a profoundly frightening emotion. Often, the
fear is so real that people cannot go back to sleep immediately.
5.2 Why do people dream?
- Many hypotheses have been set up, and different interpretations but no
theory has thus far given final and comprehensive explanation. Among the
most important theories we can mention:
 The Unconscious Wish Fulfillment Theory (Freud-1900)
-Dreams represent unconscious wishes that a dreamer wants to fulfill.
Since these wishes are threatening to the dreamer’s conscious
awareness, the actual wishes called the latent (deeper meaning)
content of the dream are disguised. The manifest content (we share
to someone) of the dream- the story in the dream- has the first glance
little do with its latent content which can only be discovered through a
process of dream analysis.
 The Reverse Learning Theory (1983)
- dreams have no meaning whatsoever. Instead, they represent a kind
of reverse learning, in which we flush away unnecessary information
that we have accumulated during the day. Like a “mental
housecleaning”
 The Dreams-for-Survival Theory (1990)
 -Dreams do have meaning. It permits information critical for our daily
survival. They represent concerns about our daily lives illustrating
uncertainties, indecisions, ideas, and desires of our lives.
 The Activation-Synthesis Theory (1988)
-The most influential current explanation for dreaming considers
dreams as a by-product of fundamental biological activity. The
brain produces random electrical energy during the REM sleep,
possibly due to changes in the production of particular
neurotransmitters. This electrical energy randomly stimulates
memories lodged in various portions of the brain. Because we have a
need to make sense of the world, even while asleep, the brain takes
these chaotic memories and weaves them into a logical story line,
filling in the gaps to produce a rational scenario.

It believes that the particular scenario that a dreamer produces, is a

clue to the dreamer’s fears, emotions, and concerns.

IN conclusion, these theories about dreams clearly illustrates that dream researchers
have yet to agree on the fundamental meaning of dreams. However, it seems likely that
the specific content of our dreams is unique to us and in some way represents
meaningful patterns and concerns. Dreams may provide clues on some levels of
consciousness are most important to us.
5.3 Daydreams
- Are fantasies that people construct while awake. Daydreams are more under
people’s control and therefore their content is often more closely related to
immediate events in the environment.
- Daydreaming seems to be normal of waking consciousness. Indeed, fantasy
may contribute to the psychological well being of some people by enhancing
their creativity and by permitting them to use their imagination to understand
what other people are experiencing.
6. Sleep Disturbances
6.1 Insomnia: Inability to get sleep to sleep or to stay asleep. It can be due to
breakup of a relationship, test score, loss of a job. But in some cases, there is no
obvious reason or cause. Some people are simply unable to fall asleep easily.
6.2 Sleep Apnea: Characterized by difficulty in breathing and sleeping
simultaneously. The result is disturbed sleep and is constantly awakened when
the lack of oxygen becomes great enough to trigger a waking response. Sleep
apnea may account for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) a mysterious
killer of seemingly normal infants who die in sleeping.
6.3 Narcolepsy: an uncontrollable need to sleep for short periods during the day. A
narcoleptic will suddenly drift intro sleep no matter what the activity. People with
narcolepsy go directly from wakefulness to REM sleep skipping other stages.
The causes are not known although there may be a genetic component.
6.4 Sleep walking (somnambulism) and Sleeptalking (somniloquacity): Fairly
harmless that occur during the stage 4 and more frequent in children than adults.
Sleepwalkers and sleeptalkers have a vague consciousness of the world around
them and a sleepwalker may be able to walk around some obstructions in a
crowded room in an agile fashion. Moreover, the conventional wisdom that one
shouldn’t awaken sleepwalkers is wrong; no harm will come from waking them
up.
Other sleep disorders:
1. Bruxism- teeth grinding
2. Myoclonus- sudden movements like kicking and boxing you cannot control
 3. Enuresis- bedwetting, at puberty, the release of urine or semen.

7. Sleeping better
Some suggestions to have a proper and better sleeping are:
 Exercise during the day
 Choose a regular bedtime
 Do not use your bed as an all-purpose area- leave studying, reading, eating,
watching TV to some other area.
 Avoid drinks with caffeine after lunch- their effects can linger for as long as 8-12
hours.
 Drink a glass of warm milk at bedtime- it contains tryptophan which can help
people go to sleep.
 Avoid sleeping pills- they may be effective temporarily but in the long run they
may disrupt the normal sleep cycle.
 Try not to go to sleep- Do not try too hard to fall asleep. A better strategy is that,
go to bed only when you feel tired. If you don’t get sleep within 10 minutes, get
out of bed and do something else, return only if you feel tired. This is done
through the night but in the morning, get up at your usual hour and do not take a
nap during the day.
 Learn systematic relaxation can help to unwind from the day’s stresses and
tensions.
8. Hypnosis and Meditation as ALTERED STATES of CONSCIOUSNESS
8.1 Hypnosis
- state of heightened susceptibility to the suggestions of others. The person is fully
attentive to the hypnotist’s suggestions which he carries out even when they may be
bizarre or silly.
- People do not lose all will of their own when hypnotized. They will not perform
antisocial behaviors, and will not carry out self-destructive acts. They will not reveal
hidden truths about themselves, and they are capable of lying. Moreover, people
cannot be hypnotized against their will.
- About 5-20% of the population cannot be hypnotized at all, while 15% are very easily
hypnotized. The ease with which a person is hypnotized is related to a person’s high
ability to concentrate and to become completely absorbed in what he is doing, unaware
of what is happening around him.
- Hypnosis is a state of consciousness that differs significantly from other states, that is
why it is called an “altered state of consciousness” The characteristics that differentiate
people under hypnosis from others are:
 An increased ability to recall and reconstruct images,
 A lack of initiative
 Changes in electrical activity in the brain
Psychologists working in many different areas have found hypnosis to be reliable,
effective tool. Among the applications are:
 Control of pain. Patients suffering from chronic pain may be given suggestions,
while hypnotized that their pain is eliminated or reduced. Evident practice in
“faithhealing.” Hypnosis has proved to be particularly useful during childbirth and
dental procedures.
 Psychotherapy. It has given good results to decrease anxiety, to modify
thoughts that are self-defeating, to remove tensions and induce relaxation.
  Law enforcement uses. Witness and victims are sometimes better able to recall
details of a crime when hypnotized. Its legal status is still unresolved, as in some
cases, the accurate recall of specific information increases but so do errors.
IN conclusions, hypnosis may have many applications and may effective to some who
can be easily hypnotized but to those who cannot, it offers little to no help at all.
8.2 Meditation
- people regulate their own state of consciousness. It is a learned technique for
refocusing attention that brings about an altered state of consciousness. The key
is to concentrating so thoroughly on particular initial stimulus that the meditator
becomes unaware of any outside stimulation and a different state of consciousness is
reached.
- People are reported to have a feeling of great relaxation.
- The initial stimulus for meditation can vary: some techniques (ex. Transcendal
Meditation) involve repeating a mantra a sound word, or syllable over and over
again. In other forms, the focus is on a picture (mandala), a flame, or a specific part of
the body.