Transcript Sleep as a State of Consciousness

Depressants: Alcohol
• depresses the sympathetic nervous system.
• Alcohol tends to magnify all our tendencies.
– Helpful people become more helpful, aggressive
more aggressive, sexual or sexual wannabes, more
sexual.
• People become more self-disclosing.
Alcohol addicts
• Alcohol addicted people experience
debilitating withdrawal symptoms
– diarrhea, vomiting and hallucinations.
• Children of alcoholics can hold more
liquor in their first experience than non
COAs
– suggests a genetic link.
Addiction correlates
• Risk taking boys more likely than others.
• Mice have been bred to prefer alcohol to water.
• Children of alcoholics have a 4X higher rates (about
60%)
– Adopted Children of alcoholics still have 4x greater
rate.
• Age of first use correlates:
– Under 15, 60% chance of alcohol problems
– Over 21, drops to 7%.
Rat Studies: Duke University
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWRMOK
vb_xU
Depressants: Barbiturates or
Downers
• Quaaludes, tranquilizers, valium sleeping
pills.
• All act to suppress the sympathetic
nervous system
– Taken with alcohol = coma
Depressants: Opiates
• Heroin, morphine, opium.
• Depress the entire neural system.
• Give feeling of “blissful pleasure”
– some first time users report having orgasms from
use.
• Highly physically addictive.
– Tolerance builds quickly. Withdrawal creates awful
symptoms.
• Brain stops producing endorphins.
Psychoactive Drugs: Stimulants
• Nicotine, Methamphetamines, cocaine,
ecstasy.
• Increase heart rate, respiration,
breathing,pupils dilate, appetite
diminishes, creates energy boost.
• Feelings of euphoria, confidence, wellbeing followed by a corresponding
crash.
Stimulants: Speed/Coke
• high doses can deplete natural stores of
neurotransmitters. (serotonin, dopamine).
• Acts on pleasure system by blocking the
reuptake of Serotonin and Dopamine.
• Chronic users, heavy doses creates extreme
paranoia.
Stimulants: Cocaine and Speed
• The most highly psychologically
addictive.
• Rats will hit a lever 1000s of times to get
cocaine to the exclusion of food.
Ecstasy: MDMA
• Ecstasy: amphetamine with mild
hallucinogenic effects
– can cause dehydration.
– Repeated use = brain damage in serotonin
system.
• Associated with extreme sociability:
hugging, touching, etc.
• Extreme Euphoria.
Hallucinogens
• LSD, ecstasy, peyote, mescaline, psilocybin,
Marijuana.
• Virtual high:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHwwdUOQL8Q
• Common to see visual distortion of things that are
there.
• Heavily influenced by emotional state, and personality:
explaining bad trips.
Marijuana
• 2nd most used drug, about 20% of high
schoolers.
• Active Ingredient is THC. Can be ingested by
eating or smoking.
• Mild hallucinogen: distorts time
perception, makes it particularly
dangerous for driving.
Drugs and Consciousness Cheat
Sheet
• Stimulants – speed up the activity of the CNS
– Amphetamines– they increase the release and decrease the
removal of norepinephrine and dopamine at synapses
causing increased activity at the receptors. They also
reduce the activity of GABA
– Cocaine – like amphetamines
– Caffeine
– Nicotine – enhances the action of acetylcholine, increases
the release of glutamate, the brain’s primary excitatory
neurotransmitter
– MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) or Ecstasy –
similar to amphetamines
Drugs and Consciousness Cheat
Sheet
• Depressants – reduce the activity of the CNS – they increase the
availability of GABA , which reduces the activity of many neural
circuits.
– Alcohol
– Tranquilizers
– Barbiturates
• Opiates/narcotics – agonists for endorphins, HIGHLY addictive
because they stimulate glutamate receptors and physically change
the neuron structure – neuron comes to require the drug to function
properly
– Morphine - (an ingredient of opium which is derived from the poppy
plant)- Percodan, Demoral
– Heroin – derived from morphine but 3x more powerful
– Tylenol 3, codeine, percoset, vicodan, oxycotin, Advil
Drugs and Consciousness Cheat
Sheet
• Hallucinogens/psychedelics
– LSD – lysergic acid diethylamide 1938 Swiss chemist Albert
Hofmann synthesized it from a rye fungus
• Hallucinations – time is distorted, sounds cause visual
sensations, leave the body
• Stimulate serotonin and dopamine receptors in the brain
• Flashbacks, trips, not addictive
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PCP (Angel Dust)
MDMA (Ecstasy) - hallucinations
Mescaline (mushrooms)
Ketamine – “Special K” an anesthetic used by veterinarians,
produces hallucinogenic effects, dissociative experiences.
Can also cause enduring amnesia and memory loss.
– Marijuana, Mary Jane, weed, Reefer, grass, etc., etc., etc.
• Main ingredient is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
Sleep as a State of
Consciousness
• Even when you are deeply asleep, your
perceptual window is not completely shut
–What is our evidence of this?
Biological Rhythms and Sleep
• Circadian Rhythm
– 24 hour cycle of day and night through our
biological clock
• Body temp rises, peaks, dips, and drops
• Thinking is sharpest at peak
• Why is pulling an all-nighter a TERRIBLE
idea?
So what’s going on here…
•
Let’s take a second to go back to the
eye/brain relationship
1. Bright light tweaks circadian clock
activating light sensitive retinal proteins
 SCN  Pineal Gland  Melatonin
(increase/decrease by need)
2. suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) located in
the ____________
What has caused us to stay up
later and force ourselves awake
in the morning?
Sleep Stages
• Considered different state of
consciousness because different parts
of brain’s cortex stop communicating
• Still-active sleeping brain has its own
biological rhythm
• Which brain scan is used most in sleep
studies?
Sleep
• Need for sleep varies
with individuals
– 20 hours for infants
– 6 hours for adults in their
70’s
Stage 0: A person is relaxed with
eyes closed
• EEG shows alpha waves
• “falling asleep” called hypnagogic state
– Lucid dreaming
• “waking” period is called hypnopompic
state
– just ten more minutes…
Quiet Sleep: NREM sleep
• Stage 1 lasts from 30 secs to 10 min
– Characterized by sensory images and slow
rolling eye movements
– Appearance of theta waves on EEG (mixed
with alpha)
– May experience hallucinations
• Sensation of falling
• Most alien abductions happen here
Quiet Sleep
• Stage 2 lasts 20
minutes
– theta waves, sleep
spindles, and Kcomplexes on EEG
– Sleep spindles: bursts
of rapid, rhythmic brain
wave activity
– Sleep talking occurs
most here
– You are now full on
asleep
Quiet Sleep
• Stage 3
– Transition to stage 4
– Recognized by the beginning of delta waves
on EEG
Quiet Sleep
• Stage 4
– Deep sleep
– Lasts 30 min, recognized by 20-50% delta
waves in EEG
**AMOUNT OF TIME SPENT ON STAGES
3 AND 4 VARIES AS NIGHT
PROGRESSES**
Active Sleep: REM
• Nearly all dreams occur in REM
• Dreams are more vivid and story-like than in
earlier stages
• REM increases during the night
– Less than a minute to over an hour
– 25% of the night’s sleep
• Causes atonia which is temporary paralysis of
the body
• Brain is active while body shows loss of muscle
tone
During REM Sleep
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Heart rate rises
Breathing becomes rapid and irregular
Eyes dart around
Genitals become aroused
– Erections/vaginal lubrication and clitoral engorgement
(not dependent on sexual nature of dream)
– Men’s erection upon waking stems from the night’s
last REM
– Typical 25 year old male erections happen for half the
night
REM Sleep
How are you “active” yet not…
• Brain’s motor cortex is running…
• Brainstem blocks the messages
– Muscles relaxed (essentially paralyzed)
• REM is called paradoxal sleep
– Internally aroused, externally calm
• So, how is it that arousal happens when
we sleep?
Sleep Cycle
• Repeats about every 90 minutes
• Night progresses, deep stage 4 gets
briefer and disappears
– REM and stage 2 get longer
• By morning, 20 to 25% has been REM
– Everyone dreams, we don’t remember most
of what we dream
– What are the dreams called that we most
remember?
Why do we sleep?
• Without sleep our bodies deteriorate
– Functionality/productivity
– Aging
– Weight gain and metabolism
– Suppress immune cells (infections/cancer)
– Memory impairment
Wait… hold up… you said weight gain?
• Sleep deprivations increases hungerarousing hormone – gherlin – and
decreases hunger-suppressing hormone –
leptin
– Increases appetite and eating
– Also increases stress hormone – cortisol
Sleep Disorders
• Insomnia
• Narcolepsy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zVCYdrw-1o
• Apnea
• Parasomnias
– SIDS
– Jet lag
– Sleepwalking (Somnambulism)
– Bruxism
Dreams
• Theoretically based
• Freud and driven unconscious
Freud’s wish-fulfillment
• Psychic safety valve
– Safe place to express unacceptable feelings
– Hidden meanings
– On The Interpretation of Dreams
Information-processing
• Dreams help sort the day’s events and
consolidate our memories
– That story about the place with the guy that
did the stuff… oh crap I lost it…
Physiological function
• Brain stimulation during REM = develop
and preserve neural pathways
Activation-synthesis
• REM triggers neural activity to evoke
random memories which our brain weaves
into stories
– Ever had a dream about the first house you
lived in or a childhood occurrence?
Cognitive development
• Dreams reflect individual’s knowledge and
understanding of the world around them
– Some take it WAY to seriously
Hypnosis
Can anyone experience hypnosis?
• Yes!
– Well, sort of – it’s called suggestion
Can hypnosis be theraputic?
• Maybe kinda sorta not really but in only in
some cases…
– Posthypnotic suggestion has been found to
alleviate headaches, asthma, stress-related
disorders
• How about pain?
– Hmmmm that’s up for debate.
How does it work?
• Hypnosis is a divided consciousness
– According to some or most or any or none
• Dissociation: a split in consciousness
which allows some thoughts and
behaviors to occur simultaneously with
others
– Remember selective attention?