States of Consciousness

Dr. Ali M. Salem

What to learn
• What are the different states of consciousness?

•What happens when we sleep, and what are the meaning and function of dreams?

•What are the major sleep disorders, and how can they be treated?

•What is hypnosis, and are hypnotized people in a different state of consciousness?

• What are the effects of meditation?

 Consciousness

• Consciousness : is the awareness of the sensations, thoughts, and feelings we

experience at a given moment.
•Consciousness is our subjective understanding of both the environment around us
and our private internal world, unobservable to outsiders.
•In waking consciousness , we are awake and aware of our thoughts, emotions, and
perceptions.
• All other states of consciousness are considered altered states of consciousness .
•Among these, sleeping and dreaming occur naturally; drug use and hypnosis, in
contrast, are methods of deliberately altering one’s state of consciousness.
Sleep; Functions of Sleep:
 Altered state of consciousness:
Sleep; Functions of Sleep:
•Let me sleep on it. And I’ll give you an answer in the morning.”
• Sleep is a requirement for normal human functioning.

• Experiments with rats show that total sleep deprivation results in death.
•Sleep plays an important role in helping us to analyze and make meaning of our waking
experiences.
•It may turn out to be a reasonable strategy for coming to solutions for our problems.
•Also, Sleep is important for turning information into long term memory.
•REM sleep may play a role in learning and memory, allowing us to rethink and restore
information and emotional experiences
•The release of growth hormones is associated with deep sleep (stage 3 and 4).
 Sleep Stages
•People progress through a series of stages of sleep during a night’s rest— known
as stage 1 through stage 4 and REM sleep —moving through the stages in
cycles lasting about 90 minutes.

• Each of these sleep stages is associated with a unique pattern of brain waves.
 Sleep stages: EEG during sleep
Use an EEG machine to measure phase
stages of sleep.
There are three Before
phases sleeping

During
sleeping
Non rapid
Eye
Movement

Rapid Eye Movement

[Dreaming phase]
Sleep Stages During a Night
 Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep
• Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep: Sleep occupying 20% of an adult’s
sleeping time, characterized by increased heart rate, blood pressure,
and breathing rate; eye movements; and the experience of dreaming.
• Most characteristic of this period is the back-and-forth movement of
their eyes, as if they were watching an action-filled movie.
• Paradoxically, while all this activity is occurring, the major muscles of
the body appear to be paralyzed.
• In addition, and most important, REM sleep is usually accompanied by
dreams, which—whether or not people remember them—are
experienced by everyone during some part of their night’s sleep
 The Function and Meaning of Dreaming
• Although dreams tend to be subjective to the person having them, there are
common elements that frequently occur in everyone’s dreams.
•Unconscious wish fulfillment theory : Freud’s theory that dreams represent
unconscious wishes that dreamers desire to see fulfilled.
• Latent content of dreams: According to Freud, the “disguised” meanings of
dreams, hidden by more obvious subjects.
• Manifest content of dreams: According to Freud, the apparent story line of
dreams.
• Freud tried to get people to discuss their dreams, associating symbols in the
dreams with events in the past.
•Dreams-for-survival theory : The theory suggesting that dreams permit information that is
critical for our daily survival to be reconsidered and reprocessed during sleep.
•Certain dreams permit people to focus on and to consolidate memories, particularly dreams
that pertain to “how-to-do-it” memories related to motor skills.
•Activation-synthesis theory focuses on the random electrical energy that the brain produces
during REM sleep.
•This electrical energy randomly stimulates memories stored in the brain.
•Because we have a need to make sense of our 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.
 Sleep Disorders
•Insomnia: it is difficulty of sleeping.
•Insomnia is a problem that affects as many as one-third of all people.
•20 million people suffer from sleep apnea.
• Sleep apnea is a condition in which a person has difficulty breathing while sleeping.
• The result is disturbed sleep, and a significant loss of REM sleep, as the person is
constantly reawakened when the lack of oxygen.
• Some people with apnea wake as many as 500 times during the course of a night,
although they may not even be aware that they have wakened.
•Such disturbed sleep results in extreme fatigue the next day.
•Sleep apnea also may play a role in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) , a
mysterious killer of seemingly normal infants who die while sleeping
 How to treat insomnia

• Exercise during the day (at least six hours before bedtime) and avoid naps .
•Relaxation techniques
•Choose a regular bedtime and stick to it .
•Avoid drinks with caffeine after lunch .
•Drink a glass of warm milk at bedtime .
•Avoid sleeping pills .
• Try not to sleep . A better strategy is to go to bed only when you feel tired. If
you don’t get to sleep within 10 minutes, leave the bedroom and do something
else, returning to bed only when you feel sleepy.
 Hypnosis
• People under hypnosis are in a trancelike state of heightened susceptibility to the
suggestions of others.
•In some respects, it appears that they are asleep.
•Yet other aspects of their behavior contradict this notion, for people are attentive to the
hypnotist’s suggestions and may carry out bizarre or silly suggestions.
• Despite their compliance when hypnotized, people do not lose all will of their own.
•They will not perform antisocial behaviors, and they will not carry out self destructive acts.
• People will not reveal hidden truths about themselves, and they are capable of lying.
•Moreover, people cannot be hypnotized against their will.
 Uses of Hypnosis

•In hypnosis, there is high suggestibility, increased ability to recall and construct
images.
•It can be used in controlling pain . Patients suffering from chronic pain may be
given the suggestion, while hypnotized, that their pain is gone or reduced.
•It sometimes helps people stop smoking through hypnotic suggestions that the
taste and smell of cigarettes are unpleasant.
•Hypnosis sometimes is used during treatment for psychological disorders. For
example, it may be employed to heighten relaxation, reduce anxiety, increase
expectations of success, or modify self-defeating thoughts
 Meditation

•Meditation: is a learned technique for refocusing attention that brings about

an altered state of consciousness.
•The key to the procedure is concentrating on it so thoroughly that the meditator
becomes unaware of any outside stimulation and reaches a different state of
consciousness.
• After meditation, people report feeling thoroughly relaxed.
•They sometimes relate that they have gained new insights into themselves and
the problems they are facing.
•The long-term practice of meditation may even improve health.
Thank you