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4 States of Consciousness
CHAPTER PREVIEW

Consciousness Sleep & Psychoactive

Dreams Drugs

Hypnosis Meditation

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THE NATURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

What is consciousness?
Awareness - Prefrontal cortex
of external events and internal - Anterior cingulate
sensations which occurs under - Association areas
conditions of (global brain workspace)
Arousal = ways that awareness is regulated:
alert v. relaxed/drowsy
- Reticular activating system
THEORY OF MIND
Knowledge that People Think, Feel, Perceive, and Have
Private Experiences

– False Belief Task – social competence

– Theory of Mind Module – TOMM
– Individuals with autism – one theory suggests a
deficit in TOMM

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LEVELS OF AWARENESS

Higher-Level Consciousness
Controlled processing
• are managed by the
prefrontal cortex
– Executive function
• Planning, problem solving
• Actively focus efforts
toward a goal
– Requires attention
LEVELS OF AWARENESS

Lower-Level Consciousness
– Automatic processes
• Require little attention/conscious effort
• Do not interfere with other ongoing activities
– Daydreaming
• Wandering thoughts
• Fantasy, imagination, rumination
• Potentially useful
(reminding, solving)

© Paul Bradbury / age fotostock

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LEVELS OF AWARENESS

Altered States of Consciousness

– Drug states
– Fatigue, illness, trauma,
deprivation
– Meditation, hypnosis
 LEVELS OF AWARENESS
• Subconscious Awareness
– Incubation (subconscious processing)
– Parallel processing
– Sleep and dreams
Low levels of consciousness of outside world
Reversible loss of consciousness
• No Awareness
– Unconscious (censored) thought—Freud
– Mental processes outside awareness
LEVELS OF AWARENESS

Rubberball/Alamy Stock Photo

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SLEEP AND DREAMS

Sleep: a natural state of rest for the body and mind that
involves the reversible loss of consciousness.
 BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS
Periodic Physiological
Fluctuations
Annual or seasonal
1. 24-hour cycles =
circadian rhythms
• Monitored by
suprachiasmatic
nucleus
• Controlled by biological
clocks
BIOLOGICAL CLOCKS

• Desynchronizing the Clock

– Jet lag
– Shift-work problems
– Insomnia

• Resetting the Clock

– Bright light
– Melatonin
WHY DO WE NEED SLEEP?

• Adaptive Evolutionary Function

– Safety
– Energy conservation/efficiency

• Restorative Function
– Cellular growth and repair

• Brain Plasticity
– Enhances synaptic connections
– Memory consolidation
SLEEP DEPRIVATION

Recommendation: 7-9 hours of sleep per

night
Chronic sleep deprivation results in…
– Decreased alertness and cognitive
performance
– Inability to sustain attention
– Less complex brain activity
– Adverse effects on decision making
Good sleep practices important especially in
the context of COVID-19 pandemic
STAGES OF SLEEP

Stage W (Wakefulness)
Beta waves (alert)
• High frequency
• Low amplitude
• Desynchronous
High-frequency patterns that
reflect concentration and
alertness
STAGES OF SLEEP

Stage W (Wakefulness)
Alpha waves (relaxed)
• Increase in amplitude
• More synchronous

Lower-frequency patterns associated

with being relaxed or drowsy

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STAGES OF SLEEP

Stage N1 (Shallow sleep)

Theta waves
• Slower frequency
• Greater amplitude than alpha
Light sleep lasting up to 10 minutes;
includes theta waves (low frequency,
low amplitude)

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STAGES OF SLEEP

Stage N2
Theta waves continue
• Deeper sleep characterized by
occasional “sleep spindles”
(brief high-frequency waves),
lasting up to 20 minutes

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STAGES OF SLEEP

Stage N3 (Deep sleep)

Delta waves
• Slowest frequency and
highest amplitude
• Deep sleep when sleeper
is difficult torouse; delta
waves—large, slow brain
waves—occur

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STAGES OF SLEEP

Stage R (REM Sleep)

• EEG similar to relaxed wakefulness
• Instead of reentering stage N1
sleep, the individual shows EEG
patterns similar to those of relaxed
wakefulness; most dreaming
occurs in this stage; lasts for about
10 minutes in first sleep cycle of
the night and up to 1 hour in the
last.
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REM SLEEP

• Rapid-Eye-Movement Sleep
– Rapid eye movement
– Dreaming

• Non-REM Sleep (Stages N1-N3 )

– No rapid eye movement
– Little dreaming

Allan Hobson/Science Source

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SLEEP CYCLES
• Typically five cycles per
night
• 90-100 minutes per cycle
• Sleep patterns change
during the night
• Typical night includes
– 60% - Stages N1 & N2
light sleep
– 20% - Stage N3 deep
sleep
– 20% - REM sleep

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SLEEP AND THE BRAIN

• Reticular Formation
– Critical role in sleep and arousal

• Neurotransmitters (NT)
– Serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine
– GABA receptors help regular the process of sleep
– Levels vary across sleep stages

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SLEEP ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN
SLEEP AND DISEASE

• Stroke and asthma attacks are

more common at night and early
morning.
• Infectious diseases induce sleep.
• Sleep deprivation hampers
immune response.
• Sleep problems are common in
those with psychological and
other disorders.
SLEEP DISORDERS
• Insomnia
• Sleepwalking and sleep talking
• Nightmares and night terrors
• Narcolepsy
• Sleep apnea
THEORIES OF DREAMING

• Historical and Religious Significance

• Freud’s Psychodynamic Approach

– Manifest content: the surface content of a
dream, containing dream symbols that
disguise the dream’s true meaning.
– Latent content: a dream’s hidden content;
its unconscious and true meaning.
• Cognitive Theory
– Information processing and
memory
• Activation-Synthesis Theory
– Brain makes “sense” out of
random brain activity
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS
• Act on nervous system to:
– Alter consciousness
– Modify perceptions
– Change moods
• Some people use psychoactive drugs as a way to deal with life’s
difficulties.
• Drinking, smoking, and taking drugs reduce tension, relieve
boredom and fatigue, and help people to escape from the harsh
realities of life.
• Some people use drugs because they are curious about their
effects.
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS

• The use of psychoactive drugs,

whether it is to cope with
problems or just for fun, can carry
a high price tag.
• These include
– losing track of one’s
responsibilities
– problems in the workplace and in
relationships
– drug dependence
– increased risk for serious,
sometimes fatal diseases.

Design Pics / Don Hammond

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 PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS
• Continued use of psychoactive drugs
leads to
– Tolerance: the need to take increasing
amounts of a drug to get the same
effect.
– Physical dependence: the physiological
need for a drug that causes unpleasant
withdrawal symptoms.
– Psychological dependence: the strong
desire to repeat the use of a drug for
emotional reasons.
– Addiction: a physical or psychological
dependence, or both, on a drug.
– Substance use disorder: a
psychological disorder in which a
person’s use of psychoactive drugs
affects their health, ability to work, and
ability to engage in social relationships. © McGraw Hill LLC
 DRUGS AND THE BRAIN

• How does the brain become addicted?

– Psychoactive drugs increase dopamine levels in the brain’s reward
pathways.
– This reward pathway is located in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and
nucleus accumbens (NAc).
– Only the limbic and prefrontal areas of the brain are directly activated by
dopamine, which comes from the VTA. Although different drugs have different
mechanisms of action, each drug increases the activity of the reward pathway
by increasing dopamine transmission.
– The neurotransmitter dopamine plays a vital role in the experience of rewards.
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PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS

• Three main categories of psychoactive drugs

• All have the potential to cause health or behavior problems or
both.
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS:
STIMULANTS
• Stimulants are drugs that tend to increase central
nervous system activation and behavioral activity.
• Among the most widely used stimulants are

Stimulants

MDMA
Amphetamines Cocaine Caffeine Nicotine
(EXTACY)

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PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS:
STIMULANTS

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COCAINE AND NEUROTRANSMITTERS
Cocaine and
Neurotransmitters
Cocaine concentrates in areas of the
brain that are rich in dopamine
synapses such as the ventral
tegmental area (VTA) and the nucleus
accumbens (NAc).
(Top) What happens in normal
reuptake. The transmitting neuron
releases dopamine, which stimulates
the receiving neuron by binding to its
receptor sites. After binding occurs,
dopamine is carried back into the
transmitting neuron for later release.
(Bottom) What happens when
cocaine is present in the synapse.
Cocaine binds to the uptake pumps
and prevents them from removing
dopamine from the synapse. The
result is that more dopamine collects
in the synapse, and more
dopamine receptors are activated.

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PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS:
DEPRESSANTS
• Depressants are psychoactive drugs that slow down
mental and physical activity.
• Among the most widely used depressants are

Depressants

Alcohol Barbiturates Tranquilizers Opiates

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PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS:
DEPRESSANTS

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PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS:
HALLUCINOGENS
•Hallucinogens are a diverse group of drugs that have powerful effects
on mental and emotional functioning, marked most notably by
distortions in sensory and perceptual experience.

Hallucinogens
(Synthetic)

Phenyl cyclohexyl MDMA

LSD piperidine
(Ecstasy or X)
(PCP)
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS:
HALLUCINOGENS
HYPNOSIS

• Hypnosis is marked by…

– Altered attention and

expectation

– Unusual receptiveness
to suggestions

Steve Allen/Getty Images

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HYPNOSIS
Four Steps in Hypnosis
1. Distractions are minimized
2. Told to concentrate on something
specific
3. Told what to expect
4. Certain obvious events/feelings are
suggested

There are individual variations in

ability to be hypnotized.
Steve Allen/Getty Images
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EXPLAINING HYPNOSIS
• Divided State of Consciousness
– Obedient to hypnotist
– Hidden observer

• Social Cognitive Behavior

– Normal conscious state
– Social expectations for how to act
hypnotized

Steve Allen/Getty Images

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USES OF HYPNOSIS
Hypnosis may used to…
– Treat various health issues
• alcoholism
• smoking
• somnambulism
• depression
• migraines

Effective??

– Reduce experience of pain

Steve Allen/Getty Images

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 MEDITATION
A peaceful state of mind, not occupied by
worry
– Focused attention
• Focused attention means bringing one’s
awareness to one’s inner life and attending
to one’s thoughts. It means being
psychologically present as one thinks
– Open monitoring
• refers to the capacity to observe one’s
thoughts as they happen without getting
preoccupied by them; that is, through open
monitoring, the person is able to reflect
without becoming attached to a particular
thought or idea.
MEDITATION

Mindfulness meditation used to treat a

variety of conditions
(e.g., depression, chronic pain).
• Using mindfulness meditation, a technique
practiced by yoga enthusiasts and Buddhist
monks, Munroe (cancer patient) focused on
her pain.
• By doing so, she was able to isolate the pain
from her emotional response to it and to
her cancer diagnosis.

©Erin Koran © McGraw Hill LLC

MEDITATION
Lovingkindness meditation
• Lovingkindness meditation is a popular practice aiming to
develop loving acceptance of oneself and others, fostering
warmth, friendliness, compassion, and joy.
• Research shows it leads to increased social connection,
positive emotions, and better stress coping, potentially
combating prejudice.

©Erin Koran © McGraw Hill LLC