Chapter 5 Consciousness

Consciousness is an easy chapter. Consciousness is the degree that we are aware of our
surroundings. Forms of consciousness include awake, stages of sleep, comas, hypnosis,
meditation, dreaming and daydreaming and drug-altered states. The levels of consciousness
can be described using the iceberg analogy with the smallest, visible part being the conscious
mind. The preconscious mind, right below the surface, is that part of your mind you are not
thinking about right now but is easily accessible. Your phone number is there. The
unconscious mind is much larger and hidden beneath the water. According to the
psychoanalysts, this is where all your childhood frustrations and repressed sexual urges reside
while causing you anxiety today.

Right now, you are awake hoping I can summarize the entire textbook into 1 paragraph.
In a few minutes you might daydream. Daydreaming can help you sort through your thoughts,
plan what you might do if that boy/girl asks you what time it is, and may substitute for illegal
behaviors (like killing your stepfather).

Do dreams have meaning? I’d say they have a little, but don’t read them like a book in
English class. Freud and the psychoanalysts certainly thought they were an access point into
your unconscious mind. Freud believed that dreams are a disguised form of wish fulfillment.
They are a way to satisfy unconsciousness urges or resolve unconscious conflicts that are too
upsetting to deal with consciously. In contrast, the activation-synthesis theory sees dreams
as your brain synthesizes imagery to make sense of random neural activity, much like looking at
clouds and seeing pictures. The information-processing theory says our dreams help us sort
out our events of the day. Certainly, we have more REM sleep after stressful events.

Meditation is what many White people pay thousands of dollars to do so they can think
about nothing, even if they have to fly all the way to India. Many hippies in the sixties turned to
meditation because they rejected drugs but still wanted the “high.”

Hypnosis is a cooky but seemingly effective therapeutic technique. I’ve read stories
about dental work and surgeries done under hypnosis without anesthesia! Hypnosis is very
relaxing and can be effective for anxiety disorders (like OCD) and addictions. It was a Freudian
psychoanalytic technique that is now most likely not covered by your insurance. Patients claim
its effectiveness. I say even if it is due to a placebo effect, who am I to say it doesn’t work?
You need to know that some people have hypnotic susceptibility, meaning they are willing to
be hypnotized. One cannot be hypnotized against their will.

Ahhhh. . . sleep. I love sleeping so much, I dream about taking naps. We study sleep using an
EEG which measures electricity in our cerebral cortex. Using the electrical waves measured by
EEGs, scientists have determined our sleep stages. Different books have different labels for
REM and Stage 1, but don’t worry. Stage 1 is not sleep. It’s when you are trying to fall asleep
and you sometimes get “falling” hallucinations or kick uncontrollably. You fall asleep at Stage 2
and progress into the deeper stage 3 (Note: Stage 3 has delta waves on an EEG.) Then you
will go back up but this time instead of Stage 1 you will enter REM sleep. This is where your
eyes move back and forth because you are dreaming in REM sleep. REM sleep is also called
paradoxical sleep because your brain is so active it seems like you are awake. During REM
sleep you will have sleep paralysis, meaning your brain is active but your body will not.
Although stage 3 is called the deepest sleep, where your body repairs itself, your deepest sleep
also is considered (REM), which happens in the middle of the night and early in the morning.
Your need for sleep declines as you age, as does your melatonin production. Melatonin is a
hormone that’s produced at night to help you sleep.

Why are we tired? It might be because we mess with our circadian rhythms every
weekend. Circadian rhythms are our 24 hour seep/awake cycle. Circa means about while
dian means day. We stay up late on weekends and sleep late. Then on Monday morning, we
get up on time with a sleep debt that we will have to pay next Saturday morning. Staying up
late on weekends is similar to flying to California; it feels good until Monday morning which feels
like jet lag. It’s worse for people with sleep disorders like insomnia, the inability to fall or stay
asleep. Another sleep disorder is sleep apnea, which happens when the septum at the top of
your mouth blocks your air passage and wakes you up several times per night, none of which
you remember. Narcolepsy is rare, but it’s when people fall instantly into Stage 3 under
stressful events.

You need to know about drugs. Depressants like alcohol slow down your nervous
system. Stimulants like cocaine and caffeine speed up your nervous system. Hallucinogens
like LSD can create sensations that are not there. Marijuana (THC) is difficult to classify, but it
is technically a hallucinogen. Your body can develop a tolerance to drugs (legal or not),
meaning a higher dosage is necessary for the same effect. When addicted to drugs (like sleep
meds), withdrawal is the painful or uncomfortable feeling you get when you stop taking the
drug.

Look at the section titled Drug Classification Based on Effect in this hyperlink