Consciousness Flashcards
consciousness
A state of awareness of ourselves and of the world around us
States of consciousness
- Focused awareness
- Drifting consciousness
- Divided consciousness
Focused awareness
- A state of heightened alertness in which one is fully absorbed in the task at hand
- Fully absorbed into something, all of your concentration is on one thing.
Ex. exams
Drifting consciousness
A state of awareness characterized by drifting thoughts or mental imagery.
Divided consciousness
A state of awareness characterized by divided attention to two or more tasks or activities performed at the same time
Daydreaming
A form of consciousness during a waking state in which one’s mind wanders to dreamy thoughts or fantasies.
Images in your head
Inattentional Blindness
The failure to notice something right in front of your eyes because your attention is directed elsewhere
Altered state of consciousness
States of awareness during wakefulness that are different than the usual waking states.
Circadian rhythm
A pattern in fluctuations in certain bodily functions that happens on a regular basis
Melatonin
- Helps the body to fall asleep
- Secreted chemical that makes you sleepy, or puts you in a deeper sleep
- Affects the sleep wake cycle
- Helps with jetlag
- Doesn’t do much if you have insomnia
Jet lag
- A disruption of sleep–wake cycles caused by the shifts in time zones that accompany long-distance air travel.
- Asking your circadian rhythm to adjust
- Changes your sleep wake cycle
- Messes up all your patterns
The stages of Sleep
- Each cycle takes 90 minutes
- Cycles vary for each person
- Wake up sensitivity varies for each person as well
- Stages 1 to 4 (Non REM sleep)
Stage 1: - Small, irregular waves
- Easy to wake up
Stage 2:
`- Sleep Spindles - Easy to wake up
Stage 3: - Delta waves appear
- Harder to wake up
Stage 4: - Mostly delta waves
- Hard to wake up
REM sleep
Stage 5: - Rapid, somewhat irregular waves
- Brain activity is similar to being awake
- Really hard to wake up
- Dreaming
- Muscles are as if you are paralyzed
(PARADOXICAL SLEEP)
REM
Rapid Eye Movement
The stage of sleep that involves rapid eye movements and that is most closely associated with periods of dreaming.
Sleep Paralysis
- Awakened dream
- Body is paralyzed
- Eyes open in between stages 4-5, the brain is transitioning to a dream so your brain is awake but your body is paralyzed.
- This transition causes you to see a vision of a monster which is really just a dream vision with your eyes open.
Why we sleep
- Restorative function
- Conserve energy
- Consolidating new memories
- Normal mental functioning
- Strengthening the Immune system
Sleep deprivation
- Sleep deprivation
- Health hazards
- Irritability
- Negative impact on attention, learning, memory and creativity
Sleep – Wake disorders
A diagnostic category of psychological or mental disorders involving disturbed sleep patterns.
Insomnia
- Difficulty falling asleep, remaining asleep, or returning to sleep after nighttime awakenings.
Causes: Substance abuse, psychological illness, mental disorders, physical illness, chemical imbalance, environmental factors.
Sleep Apnea
- Temporary cessation of breathing during sleep
- Blockage of breathing while sleeping
- Use a mask to get oxygen
Narcolepsy
- A sleep–wake disorder characterized by sudden unexplained “sleep attacks” during the day.
- A rare disorder where you fall asleep randomly
- Stay away from dangerous tasks
nightmare disorder
- A type of sleep–wake disorder involving a pattern of frequent, disturbing nightmares.
- When you have constant nightmares
- A serious disorder
- Due to psychological reasons
Night terror disorder
- A type of sleep– wake disorder involving repeated episodes of intense fear during sleep, causing the person to awake abruptly in a terrified state.
- When you wake up in the middle of a nightmare gasping for air.
- Terrorizes you
- Seen a lot in kids, could be caused by environmental factors, growing up.