Chapter 7- Consciousness

Consciousness

Your awareness of, and responsiveness to, your surroundings and mental processes.

preconscious

consists of those things we aren’t thinking about currently but can easily call to mind

Attention

focused consciousness

attention span

Harnessing attention over time and maintaining focus

Selective Attention

Intentional focusing of consciousness toward a particular stimulus, while filtering out the rest.

Inattentional Blindness

The failure to detect unexpected objects, even though they are fully visible.

Change Blindness

The failure to notice obvious variations in their environment.

Circadian Rhythm

The body’s default schedule that regulates bodily functions such as wakefulness, hormone levels, and body temperature across a 24-hour cycle.

REM

A period of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, a still body, and an active brain, including dreaming.

Insomnia

the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep despite being tired.

Sleep apnea

a disorder where someone stops breathing for a period of time and often wakes up gasping for air.

Night terrors

where people flail their arms and scream in terror while in a deep sleep, then wake with little memory for it happening.

Lucid Dreaming

A dream in which you become aware that you’re dreaming and can then control your actions within the dream.

Manifest Content

A dream’s superficial content. What you actually see or experience in a dream.

Latent Content

A dream’s underlying or hidden meaning. The true meaning behind what you see or experience.

Altered Consciousness

A state of consciousness that occurs any time you are outside of your typical mental state of being fully awake, aware, and alert.

Flow

A state that occurs when an individual becomes so fully immersed in an experience that everything else seems unimportant.

Mindfulness

A present-centered feeling achieved by being fully aware of and accepting of one’s own thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations.

Meditation

The deliberate practice of focused attention that promotes greater awareness.

Hypnosis

A state of consciousness in which a person is highly susceptible to suggestion

Psychoactive Drug

Any chemical compound that alters our consciousness, mood, or perception.

Depressants

have a mellowing or calming effect that slows breathing and heart rate and are often used to facilitate sleep or relieve pain. When used excessively, these drugs (e.g., alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, toxic inhalants) can cause difficulty operating machinery, memory loss, brain damage, coma, or death.

Stimulants

boost energy, elevate mood, and suppress appetite. Stimulants a re commonly used (e.g., caffeine, nicotine) and prescribed (e.g., Ritalin), but there are also illegal forms (like amphetamines, cocaine, MDMA/ecstasy, and methamphetamine). When users discontinue stimulants, they typically experience a “crash” that can be accompanied by irritability and headaches.

Opioids

most often used for pain management because they mimic the body’s own endorphins. Opioids (e.g., codeine, heroin, morphine, and opium) have several severe side effects such as vomiting, headache, nausea, body ache, tremors, and severe abdominal pain.

Hallucinogens

drugs that promote hallucinations and otherwise alter consciousness. Hallucinogens (e.g., DMT/ayahuasca, LSD, PCP, peyote, psilocybin/mushrooms, salvia) encourage distorted perceptions, feelings of altered time, and spiritual experiences. Side effects can include feelings of panic, fear, paranoia, or a prolonged sense of dread.