CONSCIOUSNESS

Definition Consciousness is the state of being conscious; awareness of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc. Being alert and awake; not sleeping or comatose

Consciousness has been compared to a stream — constantly shifting and changing while remaining continuous and unbroken. People have been trying for eons to alter their states of consciousness, whether for enlightenment, relaxation, or escape. As a result, several different ways of accomplishing this have been discovered.

Consciousness Simplified The easiest way to understand consciousness is to think of it as awareness: It is your awareness of your thoughts, memories, feelings sensations, and environment.

Biological Rhythms Humans and animals all have an internal “clock” that regulates the ebb and flow of consciousness. The most obvious change in consciousness that you experience daily is the cycle from sleeping to waking. In addition, you're probably also very familiar with the daily change in your levels of mental alertness. For most people, peak mental alertness occurs in the morning around 10 A.M. and again in the evening around 8 P.M.

Biological Rhythms These clocks are known as circadian rhythms and represent the psychological and biological fluctuations that occur on a roughly twenty-four-hour timetable. A tiny cluster of approximately 20,000 neurons known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) serves as the master control panel for this daily cycle of consciousness.

Biological Rhythms Sunlight is perhaps the best example of an environmental stimulus that helps regulate the circadian rhythms. When levels of sunlight start to decrease at the end of the day, the visual system transmits this information to the SCN, triggering a message to increase production of a hormone known as melatonin. This hormone causes the body to slow down activity levels and leads to increased sleepiness.

Levels of Consciousness There are varying degrees of how aware you are of materials and things going on within your body and your environment these varying degrees determine the levels of consciousness Conscious Preconscious Unconscious Subconscious Nonconscious

Levels of Consciousness: CONSCIOUS Conscious is the term used to describe your active awareness. For example, if you stub your toe on your way to answer the door you are actively aware of the coffee table that you just ran into You are aware of the pain shooting up from your injured toe You are aware of the swear word escaping your mouth You are aware of the sound each time the doorbell rings You are conscious of all these things.

Levels of Consciousness: PRECONSCIOUS The preconscious stores memories that you do not have a use for at the present moment but that you can retrieve in the future if needed. You are aware of these memories, but it is not an active awareness until a trigger requires you to retrieve a memory and put it to use, thus becoming conscious of it. For example, you know when your birthday is, but you aren't actively aware of that information until you need to retrieve it. It stays within your preconscious, and then when someone asks you when your birthday is, you activate that memory, bring it to your conscious, and answer the question.

Levels of Consciousness: SUBCONSCIOUS The subconscious handles the information and mental processes needed to perform routine activities that do not require conscious thought. For instance, let's say you are writing a paper for a psychology class. While you are conscious of the words you are typing, your subconscious handles the typing itself. You have already learned how to type and that information was stored in your subconscious, so your fingers can find the appropriate keys in an automatic response to the words you want to type.

Levels of Consciousness: UNCONSCIOUS The unconscious stores those memories you are unaware of. You may be wondering how the unconscious is even known to exist if the information stored there is unknown to the individual. Often, these memories can be brought to the surface when a person is taken into an altered state of consciousness, such as in hypnosis. During hypnosis, an individual can recall unconscious memories, such as a conversation that the individual heard but was unaware of hearing while under anesthesia in an operating room. Levels of Consciousness: UNCONSCIOUS

Levels of Consciousness: NONCONSCIOUS The nonconscious part of your mind stores information that you are not aware of but is necessary for you to live out your daily life. For example, you get up every morning, carry out your daily activities, and sleep at night, and all the while your heart is beating. You are not aware of the information being mentally processed within your body to maintain that heartbeat, but you don't have to be, as your nonconscious handles that.

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