Consciousness, Sleep, and Hypnosis

Consciousness

• Moment-to-moment awareness of self & environment, encompassing not just perceptions but also emotions, thoughts, and sensations.

• Characteristics: subjective experiences that are private and personal; dynamic as they can change rapidly; and self-reflective, allowing individuals to think about their own thoughts and experiences.

• Central to sense of self; involves finite mental resources, indicating that attention and consciousness can be stretched thin across multiple tasks.

Detecting Consciousness

• Self-Report: Ask about feelings or thoughts through interviews, questionnaires, or introspective methods, revealing insights that can be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively.

• Observable Behavior: Noting responsiveness to external stimuli, which can include facial expressions, gestures, and verbal reactions.

• Biological Responses: Utilizing neuroimaging techniques such as EEG (electroencephalography) and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to indirectly measure brain activity associated with conscious states, providing insights into how consciousness differs in various states (e.g., wakefulness vs. sleep).

Types of Consciousness

• Awake: Normal state of consciousness, characterized by active engagement with the environment.

• Dreams: State of consciousness occurring in REM sleep, often involving vivid imagination and symbolic narratives.

• Drug-altered: Consciousness influenced by psychoactive drugs, affecting perception, mood, and behavior in varying degrees.

• Hypnosis: An altered state of consciousness where an individual is more susceptible to suggestion and heightened focus.

Sleep

• Average sleep duration: 8-9 hours/night, varying by age and individual needs. Quality of sleep often matters more than quantity.

• Stages of Sleep: Includes several cycles of NREM (non-REM) and REM sleep, with deeper sleep occurring in the initial hours followed by increased REM activity as the night progresses. Stages are important for different physiological and cognitive functions.

Circadian Rhythms

• Cycle of approximately 24 hours, regulating sleep-wake cycles and various bodily functions.

• Governed by the SCN (suprachiasmatic nucleus) affecting melatonin levels, influencing sleep patterns and overall physical health.

Why Sleep?

• Restorative: Physiological repair to tissues and organs, strengthens the immune system, and helps regulate hormones through processes like the release of growth hormones.

• Learning & Memory: Benefits linked to REM sleep, which facilitates memory consolidation, problem-solving, and creativity enhancement.

• Evolutionary: Provides energy conservation and safety benefits; historically allowed for survival in predator-rich environments during night hours.

Sleep Disorders

• Insomnia: Characterized by difficulty falling or staying asleep, often leading to daytime dysfunction and affecting emotional well-being.

• Nightmares: Scary, vivid dreams that occur during REM sleep that can be distressing and lead to sleep disturbances.

• Sleepwalking: Occurs in deep sleep stages, common in children, where individuals perform activities while still asleep, often not remembering the events upon waking.

• Narcolepsy: A condition characterized by uncontrollable daytime sleepiness, often triggered by strong emotions like laughter or anger, that can disrupt daily functioning.

Dreams

• Common during REM sleep; subjective experiences that vary significantly between individuals.

• Models of Dreams:

  • Activation-Synthesis: Proposes that dreams result from random brain activity during sleep, leading to dreams being a byproduct rather than meaningful experiences.

  • Problem-Focused: Suggests dreams relate to current concerns, providing a platform for problem-solving and emotional processing.

  • Cognitive Model: Incorporates elements of thought and memory, leading to diffuse and often unfocused dream narratives, reflecting waking life thoughts and concerns.

Consciousness-Altering Drugs

• Psychoactive substances: Alter perception, mood, and behavior, often leading to significant changes in thoughts and emotions.

• Types:

  • Depressants: Slow down the central nervous system (e.g., alcohol, opiates), leading to relaxation and euphoria but also impairing cognition and motor function.

  • Stimulants: Speed up CNS activity (e.g., caffeine, nicotine), increasing alertness and energy but may lead to anxiety and insomnia on withdrawal.

  • Hallucinogens: Distort sensory experiences, altering perceptions of reality (e.g., LSD, psilocybin), influencing mood and cognitive processes in unpredictable ways.

  • Marijuana: Acts uniquely with both euphoric effects and cognitive alterations, potentially impacting various aspects of memory, attention, and mood.

Hypnosis

• Influence through suggestion: Occurs without full awareness and can lead to altered states of consciousness, enabling therapeutic practices such as pain management.

• Theories:

  • Dissociation Theory: Proposes a split in consciousness that allows individuals to experience altered states independently of their conscious awareness.

  • Bowers' Theory: Suggests no actual split occurs; rather, heightened focus on certain stimuli suppresses others, influencing experience.

  • Sociocognitive: Emphasizes the role of social and cognitive expectations in guiding hypnotic behavior, acknowledging the influence of the individual's motivation and context.

• Key Points:

  • Variable susceptibility to hypnosis; some individuals cannot be hypnotized effectively.

  • Performance possible without hypnosis if motivated and engaged, indicating that suggestibility does not require a trance-like state.

  • Hypnosis does not reliably improve memory or recall past events accurately but can enhance pain tolerance and aid in psychological treatments.