sleep and consciousness Flashcards
What is consciousness?
- moments to moment awareness of internal and external states
- bodily sensations and thoughts
Benefits of low level conciseness
- Too much consciousness would be too overwhelming for us
- Helps us ignore irrelevant information
- our brains would have to process too much sensory information
- Give our brains a chance to refuel
- Our brains don’t have an infinite amount of resources to be highly aware of everything going on
- Ignore irrelevant information
- Ensure that we are not over taxing out cognitive resources
- every time our brains are being highly aware, it is depleting our cognitive resources (brain fuel)
levels of attention
- in the scene of hamilton there is alot oc visual stimuli competing for our attention
- in a play, the spot is light is used to cue audience where their awareness should be
- Our attention could still be grabbed even if there is a spot light (novel stimuli) for example, smoke rises on stage during a play, which indicated potential danger
Cocktail party effect
- During low levels of awareness your brain is attuned to stimuli that will be potentially meaningful to you
- our brain picks up information without us having to do anything
Mindfulness
- Rooted in Buddhist and Hindu teachings
- journey towards enlightenment, concept of sati to attention, awareness, and being present
- Sati: awareness that rises from paying attention on purpose, in the present moment without judgement
- skill that is developed
- formal and informal
- savouring every bite of food, appreciating the texture
- or chores like washing dishes
What issues can mindfulness treat?
Mindfulness is used to treat depression, anxiety, and addiction
benefits of having low awareness
saves cognitive reserves
low consciousness is similar to?
low consciousness is like floating and drifting in a rubber raft, very little control
high consciousness is similar to?
high consciousness, is when you have control, and you are steering yourself with a raft
Who invented Hypnosis? and how?
Franz Anton Mesmer
through Animal Magnetism
What does hypnosis do?
- Alters state of consciousness
- Heightened suggestibility
What is the induction method?
relaxation calmness and wellbeing
what changes the effects of hypnosis?
a patient’s empathy
potential clinical applications for hypnosis
- addiction
- pain (16% vs.50% reduction in pain)
What is hypnosis?
- an altered state of consciousness with heightened suggestibility.
- increased focus on a singular stimulus and a
reduced awareness to peripheral stimulus.
Theories of hypnosis
- dissociation (Ernest Hilgard)
- Sociocognitive theories
what theories of hypnosis did Ernest create
Sociocognitive theories
what are the sociocognitve theories
- hypnosis does not involve an altered state of consciousness
- beliefs and expectations
- people are role playing
what is the Myth of Hypnosis
-
Hypnosis can make you do things you don’t want
- hypnosis may have “some” impact on suggestibility
-
Hypnosis is a sleep like state
- brain waves
- People under hypnosis are unaware of their surroundings
- can recall events
what is Deja vu
- French for “already seen”
- relatively common phenomenon
- association with the paranormal
Scientific explanations
- Neuropsychology
- people who experience seizures that originate in temporal lobe will experience deja vu
- memory
- triggering memory from our past that is now reaching consciousness
- empirical studies
what did Dr.Anne cleary want to test
wanted to empirically test the concept of deja va
how did Dr. Anne Clearly test Deja vu
Putting people in virtual reality and testing if they notice the spatial resemble
Who was more likely to get Deja Vu?
more common in people who travel and watch movies
how does deja vu happen when to people how watch a lot of tv ?
watching a movie scene where a character had done that exact same thing before
can deja vu occur because we in fact actually experienced the situation before but forgot ?
yes
can we predict correctly when we experience deja vu?
- could not predict the turn accurately
- deja vu illusion
- when you feel like you could predict the next turn even though you can’t
- a failure to recall specific memories
Sleep and dreams
- we spend 1/3 of our lives asleep
- sleep helps us restore energy
- helps process our experiences that solidifies them in memory
- gain insights on our problems
- leaves us feeling refreshed an alert
what is Circadian rhythm
Cyclical changes in out bioligical process that occur roughly in a 24 hour basis
Triggered by light
suprachiasmatic nucleus: releases melatonin
what are some Disruptions
- nights shits
- jet lag
- daylight saving time
consequences
- Increased car accidents
- work accidents
- heart attack
- stroke
how many stages of sleep are there
- there are four sleep stages in your sleep.
what is the first stage of sleep
- theta waves -4-7x per second
- 5-10 minutes
- bizarre dream like images
- hypnic myocolonia
- involuntary twitch of one or more muscles that occur
what is the second stage
- sleep spindles - burst f electrical activity (12-14 cycles per second)
- k complexes
- sharp rises and decreases in brainwaves
- 65 % of our sleep is spent here in stage 2
what is stage 3 and 4
- brain waves occurring once or twice every second
- alcohol supresses delta waves
- deep sleep
what happens after stage 3 and 4?
our brains briefly work their way back to stage 2 before ramping up neural activity and we enter REM sleep
what is RREM sleep
- brain is active, as if we were awake
- but our bodies are paralyzed
- eye moves rapidly
- short
- dreams
what was the REM disorder
- 1 in 200 people will act our their dreams
- animals with damage to their brain stem or have the area surgically removed will act out their dreams
why do we dream
-
Freud: dream protection theory
- wishful fulfillment - fulfill wishes that should be unacceptable to society - repress aggressive instincts
- Freud would be interested in the underlying of the dream ex. falling = losing control
what is a manifest content
content of the dream itself
what is lantent content
meaning - needs interpretation
Freud: dream protection theory
- wishful fulfillment
- manifest and latent content
Activation synthesis theory
- neurological theory
- even though we are sleeping our neurons in the brain are still sending messages
- the brain combines these various signals into a story or dream
- a way to make sense of neuronal activity
Agonists
- increase activity of NT’S
- increases endorphins that helps us manage pain : like heroin
Antagonists
- decrease activity of NT’S
- Blocks natural NT’S from doing their jobs
- An example of this would be antipsychotics, which inhibits dopamine and thus is used to help in the treatment of schizophrenia.
what is Dopamine
reward and pleasure
Mesolimbic dopamine pathway
- ventral tegmental area (dopamine producing area)
- Nucleus accumbens - prefrontal cortex
function of survival
food and work
What does alcohol do to you?
- inhibits function of central nervous system
- low dose: relaxation, elevated mood, dampens inhibition (liquid courage)
- High dose: sedation, death
alcohol is a
CNS depressant
Second most widley used drug
- found throughout history and in virtually all cultures
How do depressants work?
- Depressants work by inhibiting the function of the central nervous system.
- slows down the body’s physiological processes
How does alcohol work?
- makes it less likely for other neurons to send along its action potential
- binds to glutamate receptors dampening its excitatory signals.
Buzz zone
- 2 standard beers
- BAC (blood alcohol levels) 00 to .05.
- feel relaxed, happy, and have some mild motor impairment.
drunk zone
- 4 beers in an hour
- Our motor skills would be impaired
- reaction time,
- judgments would be further
impaired - and we may have the drunk walk going on
Elevated risk zone
- 5 beers in an hour for females and 6 for males,
- BAC around .12 to .15
- washroom puking, you definitely
- won’t be walking at this point, and there is a
- high risk of injury from falling or from poor decision making
High risk zone
- At 7 beers in an hour for females, and 8 for males,
- Blackout is likely, you may lose consciousness
- risk of choking on your vomit.
Cocaine
- Coca plant: Albert Nieman
- works on dopamine
- norepinephrine and
- serotonin (blocks re-uptake)\
Wonder drug
- became popular in the 1800s
- treat: headaches, toothaches, and exhaustion
Coca cola
- Coca cola used to contain
cocaine
Cannabis
Has properties of hallucigen, depressant, and stimulants
- 1964: Dleta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
- Anandamide
Opiates
- Greek word for stupor
- commonly known as opioids
- derived from the poppy plants
- Opiate (natural) :morphine, heroin codeine
- opioids (synthetic): Fentanyl, methadone
Effects of opioids
- opioids can create feelings of pleasure,
relaxation, and contentment. - brain stem
- which controls things your body does
automatically, like breathing. Here, opioids can slow breathing, stop coughing, and
reduce feelings of pain
- which controls things your body does
