1. Sleep Disorders, Dreams, Hypnosis and More!
AP Psychology 12
Ms Carey
Unit 5
States of Consciousness

2. Sleep Disorders
10-15% of all adults complain of INSOMNIA- persistent problems falling or staying asleep.
People who do suffer from insomnia all have the following in common:
More stressed
Overestimate by double how long it took to fall asleep
Underestimate how long they were asleep
Are anxious or excited right before bed.

3. How to Cure Insomnia?
The Most Common ‘Quick Fixes’ for true insomnia are:
Sleeping Pills
Alcohol
- Both of these reduce REM sleep and leave a person feeling ‘blah’ the next day.
Natural Alternatives – Melatonin, put phones away 
HOWEVER….there are rarer but more troubling sleep disorders than insomnia…

4. NARCOLEPSY (from Narco (numbness) and Lepsy (seizure)
Is a sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times.
The periods last less than 5 minutes but often occur during regular activity.
1 in 2000 people suffer from narcolepsy
They have discovered a gene in dogs that cause narcolepsy
Human cause: absence of a hypothalamic neural center that produces the neurotransmitter HYPOCRETIN.
It is now diagnosed as a BRAIN DISEASE

5. You Tube Clips
Narcolepsy
Play Clips…

6. SLEEP APNEA
Is a sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and consequent momentary reawakenings.
Reports: 1 in 20 people (mostly over-weight men) suffer from this disorder.
Most are unaware they have this disorder.
Many suffers snore loudly and have high blood pressure.

7. NIGHT TERRORS
Night Terrors are sleep disorders characterized by high arousal and appearance of being terrified; unlike nightmares, night terrors occur during
Stage 3/4 Sleep within 2-3 hours of falling asleep and are seldom remembered. BUT CAN OCCUR IN ANY STAGE!

8. Sleep Walking & Talking
Runs in families- genetic
Young children are most likely to sleep walk or talk during Stage 4 Sleep (but can in any stage)
As we grow older Deep Stage 4 Sleep diminishes and so do night terrors and sleepwalking most of the time.
It is rare to have people sleepwalk over 40 years old.

9. DREAMS
What is a dream?
It is a sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind.
Dreams are noted for their hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and incongruities, and for the dreamers delusional acceptance of the content and later difficulties remembering it.
REM DREAMS
Are ‘hallucinations of the sleeping mind’- vivid, emotional, and bizarre.
We spend roughly six years of our life in dreams
Men and Women: 8 of 10 dreams are negative emotions
Women: dream of women and males equally (50/50)
Men: 65% of characters in dreams are male

10. FREUD AND DREAMS Freud’s Wish-Fulfillment Dream Theory
In his landmark book The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) Freud offered ‘the most valuable of all the discoveries it has been my food fortune to make.’
He argued that by fulfilling wishes, a dream provides a psychic safety valve that discharges otherwise unacceptable feelings.
MANIFEST CONTENT -the story line of a dream according to Freud
LATENT CONTENT- underlying meaning of the dream

11. Sigmund Freud…
Manifest Content- How the story of your dream manifests
Latent Content- The underlying meaning of the dream
Although most dreams have no overt sexual imagery, Freud nevertheless believed that most adult dreams can be ‘traced back by analysis to erotic wishes’.
In Freud’s view, a gun for example, might be a disguised representation of a penis. 

12. Freud & Dreams
Freud considered dreams to be the key to understanding our inner conflicts. However, his critics say it is time to wake up from Freud’s Dream Theory, which actually is a scientific nightmare.
Dreams are argued to be: (Other theories…p.250)
Symbolic and subject to interpretation
Dreams hide nothing- just your brain’s activities
Information Processing
Physiological purpose- brain stimulation while asleep
Activation-Synthesis Theory- neural activity is random

13. HYPNOSIS
HYPNOSIS- a social interaction in which one person (a hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviours will spontaneously occur.
“Your eyes are now getting sleepy….your eyelids are becoming heavy”

14. Is Hypnosis Real?
Although hypnotic techniques have been used since antiquity, credit for their modern popularity goes to an Austrian Physician, ANTON MESMER ( )
He passed magnets over the bodies of ailing people who would then enter into a ‘trance-like state’ then awaken to feel fine.
He called this MESMORIZING PATIENTS.
What people agree on, is that it is actually an ALTERED state of consciousness. 
AND YES: practitioners do use this in therapy sessions.

15. FACTS & FALSEHOODS OF HYPNOSIS
ALL who study hypnosis agree that its power resides NOT in the hypnotist, but in the subject’s openness to suggestion. (Bowers, 1984)
1) Can Anyone Experience Hypnosis?
To some extent, nearly everyone is suggestible (only about 20% of the population would actually be able to if tried)
It is up to the subject- willingness and open-mindedness

16. 2) Can Hypnosis Enhance Recall of Forgotten Events? (p.287)
Most people believe wrongly that our experiences are all ‘in there’, that everything that ever happens to us gets recorded in our brains and can be recalled if only we can break through our own defences.
BUT…60 years of research says NO.
Hypnosis has unpredictable effects.
Highly hypnotizable people are especially vulnerable to false memory suggestions.
Striking examples of memories created under hypnosis come from 10’s of thousands of people who since 1980 have reported being abducted by UFO’s, abused in Satanic Cults, or remember past lives. Studies reveal that most reports of UFO’s have come from people who are predisposed to believe in aliens and are highly hypnotizable and suggestible to comments.

17. 3) Can Hypnosis Force People to Act Against their Will?
Researchers Martin Orne and Frederick Evans (1965) demonstrated that people COULD be induced to perform an apparently dangerous act.
This illustrates a principle that UNIT 14(Social Psych) emphasizes: An authoritative person in a legitimate context can induce people- hypnotized or not- to perform some unlikely acts.
Hypnosis researcher Spanos (1982) put it directly:
“The overt behaviours of hypnotic subjects are well within normal limits.”

18. The Verdict on Hypnosis …
Historically linked to quackery
Recently more serious research done
Psychologists now agree that it is a state of heightened suggestibility
They also agree that no person can be made to act against their will (hypnotized or not)
Hypnosis can be temporarily therapeutic and subjects report significant pain relief.
It is at least partly a by-product of normal social and cognitive processes- dissociation between levels of consciousness (so altered state)

19. DRUGS & STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
There is no doubt that drugs alter your consciousness.
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS- a chemical substance that alters perceptions and mood.
THREE TYPES OF PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS:
1) Depressants (downers) that calm neural activity and slow body functions.
2) Stimulants (uppers) that temporarily excite neural activity and arouse body functions.
3)Hallucinogens distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input.
ALL THREE do their work in the brain’s synapses.

20. DEPENDENCE & ADDICTION
Continued use of a psychoactive drug produces a TOLERANCE: the user experiences neuroadaptation (the brain’s counteracting the disruption to its normal functioning)
Thus, the user requires larger and larger does to experience the drug’s effect. (Ex: Light drinker- tipsy after one drink BUT an experience addict/user will not get tipsy until 5 or 6 drinks)
If a user stops, they can suffer WITHDRAWAL as the body responds to the drugs absence. This can be VERY painful and hard for the user.

21. DEPRESSANTS
1) Alcohol- slow brain’s activity including judgment, inhibitions, memory, processing of experiences, reduces self-awareness and decreases sexual inhibitions .
2) Barbiturates (Tranquillizers)- mimic the effects of alcohol. They depress the sympathetic nervous system activity. Can cause death in large doses.
3) Opiates- opium and its derivatives, morphine and heroin, also depress neural functioning. Pupils constrict, breathing slows, become lethargic. Lessens pain for immediate relief but does not last long and effects are worse. If too many opiates are used, your brain will stop producing it’s own= ENDORPHINES. Can cause death and agony of severe withdrawal.
4) Marijuana- Cannabis is a depressant drug, which means it slows down messages travelling between your brain and body. When large doses of cannabis are taken, it may also produce hallucinogenic effects. The main active chemical in cannabis is THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol).

22. STIMULANTS The most widely used stimulants are: 1) Caffeine
2) Nicotine
3) Amphetamines
Stimulants speed up body functions, hence the nickname ‘speed’ for amphetamines. Strong stimulants increase heart and breathing rates. Pupils dilate, appetite diminishes (because blood sugar increases) and energy and self-confidence rise.
Stimulants are mainly used to stay awake, lose weight, or boost mood or athletic performance. However…THEY COME WITH A PRICE! Like depressants, stimulants can be addictive and withdrawal symptoms are similar.

23. LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) Acid
Hallucinogens
LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide)
Acid
Psilocybin(4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine)—known as magic mushrooms, shrooms, boomers, or little smoke
Peyote- cactus
Ketamine—also known as K, Special K, cat, or Valium

24. Near Death Experiences & States of Consciousness
What is a Near-Death Experience?
An altered state of consciousness reported after a close brush with death (such as through cardiac arrest); often similar to drug induced hallucinations.
The controversy over interpreting near death experiences raises a basic mind-body issue:
Is the mind immaterial? Can it exist separate from the body?
DUALISTS answer YES.
MONISTS answer NO.

25. HUH?
DUALISM- the presumption that mind and body are two distinct entities that interact. They believe that the mind is immaterial and it can exist separate from the body as energy. They interpret these experiences as evidence of human immortality.
MONISM- the presumption that mind and body are different aspects of the same thing. They believe there is no separation of mind and body and that the mind is what the brain does. They point out that reports of NDE’s closely parallel reports of hallucinations and may be products of a brain under stress.

26. TO SUM UP… “Psychology must discard all reference to consciousness.”
- Behaviourist John B. Watson (1913)
States of Consciousness is a slippery slope with a lot of interpretation and controversy. However, psychologists are now studying more and more of the brain and are slowly coming up with more concrete theories.