Final Project

Psychology

States of Consciousness

Submitted to: Madam Sarosh

Submitted by:

Quratulain 02
Muhammad Bilal 33
Muhammad Omer 38

December 4, 2006
Consciousness
Consciousness can be defined as the Personal awareness of mental activities, internal
sensation and the external environment.

Your immediate awareness of thoughts, sensation, memories and the world around you
represents the experience of consciousness.

Unconsciousness
Unconsciousness is condition of being unaware or unknowing.
This is not consciously held or deliberately planned or carried out

E.g. an unconsciousness bias

Sub-consciousness
Subconsciousness is the part of the mind which operates below the level of
consciousness. This is also called the semi-awareness.
In this state something exists in the mind but is not immediately available
E.g. A subconscious motive

Natural variation in consciousness

This refers to the natural forces which causes changes in the consciousness.

These are the following below:

1-Sleeping:
Sleep is the regular period in every 24 hours when we are unconscious and
unaware of our surroundings.
OR
Sleep, natural state of rest characterized by reduced body movement and decreased
awareness of surroundings
Unconscious state entered into by the body for the purpose of rest and rejuvenation (in
humans and animals).

There are two main types of sleep:

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep

It comes and goes throughout the night, and makes up about one fifth of our sleep time.
During REM sleep, our brain is very active, our muscles are very relaxed, our eyes move
quickly from side to side and we dream.
It is also called the active sleep or paradoxical sleep.
Non-REM sleep
The brain is quiet, but the body may move around. Hormones are released into the
bloodstream and our body repairs itself after the wear and tear of the day.
This is also called the quiet sleep.

There are 4 stages of non-REM sleep:

1. The muscles relax the heart beats slower and body temperature falls - "pre-sleep".
2. Light sleep - we can still be woken easily without feeling confused.
3. "Slow wave" sleep - our blood pressure falls, we may talk in our sleep or sleep
walk.
4. Deep "slow wave" sleep - we become very hard to wake. If we are woken, we feel
confused.

We move between REM and non-REM sleep about five times throughout the night,
dreaming more as we get toward the morning.

During a normal night, we will also have short periods of waking. These last 1 or 2
minutes and happen every 2 hours or so. We aren't usually aware of them. We are more
likely to remember them if we feel anxious or there is something else going on - noises
outside, our partner snoring etc.

Sleep disorders:
Sleep disorders are the serious disturbances in the normal sleep
pattern that interfere with the daytime functioning and cause subjective
distress.

These sleep disorders are the following below:

Insomnia:

Insomnia is the condition in which a person has difficulty getting sufficient sleep.
In simple words it is inability to get enough sleep and face sleeplessness.

There are many everyday reasons for not sleeping well:

 the bedroom may be too noisy, too hot or too cold

 you may not have a regular routine, or may not be getting enough exercise
 eating too much can make it difficult to get off to sleep
 going to bed hungry can make you wake too early
 cigarettes, alcohol and drinks containing caffeine, such as tea and coffee
 Illness, pain or a high temperature.


Some more serious causes include:

  emotional problems
 difficulties at work
 anxiety and worry
 depression - you may wake very early in the morning and not be able to get back
to sleep
 thinking over and over about day to day problems

Narcolepsy (Daytime sleepiness)

This is sleeping too much .This is uncommon condition that has often not been
recognized by doctors.

There are two main symptoms:

 you feel sleepy in the daytime, with sudden uncontrollable attacks of sleepiness
even when you are with other people
 you suddenly lose control of your muscles and collapse when you are angry,
laughing or excited - this is called cataplexy.

You may also find that you:

 can't speak or move when falling asleep or waking up - (Sleep Paralysis)

 hear odd sounds or see dream-like images (Hallucinations)
 "run on auto-pilot" - you have done things, but can't remember doing them, as if
you had been asleep
 Wake with hot flushes during the night.

Sleep Apnea: (Interrupted Sleep)

This is a sleep disorder in which a person repeatedly stops breathing during sleep.

In this disorder:

 You snore loudly and stop breathing for short periods during the night. This
happens because the upper part of your airway closes.
 Every time you stop breathing, you wake suddenly and your body or arms and
legs may jerk.
 You are awake just for a short time before falling off to sleep again.
 This often happens several times during the night. So, you feel tired the next day,
often with an irresistible urge to go to sleep. You may also have a dry mouth and a
headache when you wake up in the morning.

It is more common in:

  Older people
 The overweight
 Smokers
 Those who drink a lot of alcohol

Other problems with sleeping

At some point in their life, about 1 in 20 adults have night terrors, and 1 in 100 report that
they sleep-walk. Both these conditions are more common in children.

Sleepwalking

A sleep disturbance characterized by an episode of walking or performing other actions

during stage 3 or stage 4 NREM sleep, also called somnambulism.

Night terrors:

These can occur on their own, without leading to sleepwalking. Like a sleepwalker, a
person with night terrors will appear to wake suddenly from a deep sleep. They look half-
awake and very frightened, but will usually settle back down to sleep without waking up
completely.

Nightmares:

They usually happen during the later part of the night, when we have our most vivid and
memorable dreams. They do not normally cause problems unless they happen regularly,
usually because of an emotional upset. Nightmares often follow a distressing or life-
threatening event, such as a death, a disaster, an accident or a violent attack

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)

 You feel you have to move your legs (but also, sometimes, other parts of the
body).
 You may have uncomfortable painful or burning feelings in your legs.
 They are generally worse at night.
 They are relieved by movement, such as walking or stretching, for as long as you
carry on doing it.
2-Drerams

“It is an experience of natural images, sounds, words and thoughts during sleep”.

Sigmund Freud called dreams “royal road to unconsciousness”. He believed that a dream
represents out wishes and they can reveal the motives guiding our behavior.

Dreams are mostly seen during the REM stage of the sleep. we usually dream of daily life
events. Dreams are at times our hidden desires which are not fulfilled. There are five
different types of dreams: Ordinary, lucid, telepathic, premonitory and nightmares.
They often blend and merge with one and other.

Lucid dreams
A lucid dream is one which is very clear vicid as the name suggest. At times it happens
that when we wake after sleep we clearely remember what dream we had.

Ordinary dreams
Ordinary dreams are those that you can contsol because you are aware that you are
dreaming. You can also decide what to dream about before going to sleep and can dream
about the very thing that you planned to.

Telepathic dreams
Telepathy knowen as “ the language of the angels” , allows the dead and the living to
speak in dreamland. In this meeting place , death is no barrier , and the living cross the
threshold into the heavenly sphere of existence.
This mental communication can also occur mind to mind between to living people.we
may send our own or receive others’ intentional or unintentional thoughts as mental
visions in dreams.
Extended telepathy during sleep is a communication between two worlds, the nighttime
world of the soul and the daytime world of the body.

Premonitory dreams
Premonitory dreams are similar to telepathic dreams in that your spirit leaves your body
and ventures on a voyage of discovery . premonitory dreams are special because they
reveal the future and allow the dreamer to see truth that are not accessible in waking life.
In telepathic dreams, we can also detect information about an
imminent event.dreams are the catalyst that put your body into
motions to flow and fullfil your wishes and desires.

Nightmares
Nightmares are the frightening dreams that usually awaken the sleeper.

Most nightmares are linked to early childhood, when we are inexperienced and therefore
dependent on others. Before the age of three we have not yet developed a sense of
conscience (sense of right and wrong).
Nightmares are representations of a suppressed, original fear commonly created by
excessively strict parental or sibling moral standards and the threat of punishment in the
face of innocence.
In nightmares you may perceive the a warning for yourself or for a loved one. To be
forewarned is to be forearmed:if you first see a frightful event in a dream, you can
prevent harm from happening in waking life . for example, nightmares can warn against
acting or impulse, as well as show that certain feelings and emotions are unhealthy.

Not all nightmares are nasty predictions, or unwholesome signs .A nightmare may also
relate to an old, unsolved problem that is so frightening to face that we are unable to
continue to dream and the emotional terror wakes us in distress without offering a
solution.

3- Day dreams
These are that type of drams which give us a temporary escape from the reality .people
dream if their deprived wishes and desires, day dreams give you the opportunity to
whatever you want to be.

Artificial alternation in variation

This is not natural but artificial change in the consciousness. These are the Sensory
deprivation, Meditation and Hypnosis.

1-Sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation is the extreme reduction of sensory stimuli.
This is the solitary confinement.

Student of McGill University, student volunteers were unable to do mental tasks such as
studying and they grew more irritable and eventually began to hallucinate when they
were put into sensory deprivation chambers.
Change in the perception of colors, reaction time is impaired; however, vision and ability
to perceive brightness were relatively impaired.

2-Meditation

The word meditation comes from the Latin meditatio, which originally indicated every
type of physical or intellectual exercise, then later evolved into the more specific meaning
"contemplation.

Meditation is a technique, or practice that usually involves focus on an object,

perhaps a candle, a sound or your breath.
Meditation is also defined as the following:

• A state that is experienced when the mind dissolves and is free of all thoughts
• "Concentration in which the attention has been liberated from restlessness and is
focused on God."
• Focusing the mind on a single object (such as a religious statue, or one's breath, or
a mantra)
• A mental "opening up" to the divine, invoking the guidance of a higher power

According to Britannica encyclopedia:

“Meditation is a Private religious devotion or mental exercise, in which techniques of

concentration and contemplation are used to reach a heightened level of spiritual
awareness.”

In Islam, the term "meditation" refers to the Salat performed 5 times a day. This is a
spiritual process of focusing the mind and heart on Allah.

There is also the act of deep detailed contemplation (tafakkur) commanded in the Qur'an.

Each form of meditation focuses the meditator’s attention in a slightly different way.
Zen meditation concentrates on respiration, for example, while Sufism relies on frenzied
dancing and prayer.

In Transcendental Meditation (TM), emerged to teach meditation techniques outside a

religious context, practitioners recite or chant a mantra, which is a sound specially
selected for a student by the teacher of TM to keep all other images and problems at bay
and to allow the meditator to relax more deeply.

3-Hypnosis

James Braid, a 19th-century Scottish surgeon, originated the terms "hypnotism" and
"hypnosis" based on the word hypnos, which is Greek for "to sleep."

Hypnosis is a state of mind in which a person's conscious critical thinking mind is

bypassed and communication with the subconscious mind is established. This is the
artificially induced sleep.
Hypnosis is a process involving a hypnotist and a subject who agrees to be hypnotized.
Being hypnotized is usually characterized by (a) intense concentration, (b) extreme
relaxation, and (c) high suggestibility.
 Drug-altered consciousness

Drug
“Drug is any chemical agent or substance which affects the psychology and physiology of
the body”

Drugs can be categorized in many ways, hard or soft, uppers or downers, addictive or
non-addictive, most harmful or least harmful, legal or illegal. However, we think a useful
way of categorizing drugs is by dividing them into three categories based on the effect
they achieve:
Types of drugs
There are four man types of drugs which are following below.
1-Stimulants:

Stimulants are any drug that excites any bodily function; usually one that stimulates the
central nervous system, inducing alertness, elevated mood, wakefulness, increased speech
and motor activity, and decreased appetite.

Examples:

Tobacco, nicotine , Caffeine, Cocaine & Crack, Amphetamines, Ecstasy, Anabolic

Steroids and Alkyl Nitrites are the examples, some of them are discussed below
concisely.

Tobacco:
Tobacco is the dried leaves of the Tobacco plant. Tobacco can be consumed in the form of
cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chewing, or sniffed in the form of snuff.

Smoking is the most common cause of lung cancer. Smoking is also a leading cause of
cancer of the mouth, throat, bladder, pancreas, and kidney. Smokeless tobacco can cause
mouth cancer, tooth loss, and other health problems.
Street names/slang terms:
Cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chew, dip, smoke, butt, snuff, bone, coffin nail, cancer stick
Short-term Effects:
• increase in blood pressure, heart rate
• increase of blood flow from the heart

Long-term Effects:
• chronic lung disease
• coronary heart disease
• cancer of the bladder, cervix, pancreas, kidneys
• adverse birth outcomes in pregnant women
Caffeine
Caffeine stimulates the nervous system, counters tiredness and helps prevent boredom. It
is mostly found in coffee and tea plants.

Larger doses of caffeine impair performance especially when attention to detail or

delicate tasks are required.
Anxiety, increased heart rate and blood pressure can occur with a moderate dose

2-Depressants
Any drug or chemical which decreases the bodily function and reduce the activity of the
central nervous system

Examples: Alcohol, Barbiturates, Tranquilizers, Benzodiazepines, Solvents and

Nembutal.

Alcohol:
Alcoholic drinks consist of ethyl or ethanol alcohol and water. Alcohol is produced by the
fermentation of grains or vegetables.
Drinking alcohol leads to a loss of coordination, poor judgment, slowed reflexes,
distorted vision, memory lapses, and even blackouts.
Alcohol can damage every organ in your body. It is absorbed directly into your
bloodstream and can increase your risk for a variety of life-threatening diseases,
including cancer. It depresses your central nervous system, lowers your inhibitions, and
impairs your judgment.

Street names/slang terms:

Beer, wine, liquor, cooler, booze, malt liquor
Short-term Effects:
• increased temperature, heart rate, blood pressure
• insomnia, nausea, vomiting
• loss of appetite
• dizziness, slurred speech
• feelings of restlessness
• irritability, anxiety
• depression, fatigue
Long-term Effects:
• addiction
• aggressive paranoid behavior, severe anxiety
• depression
• permanent damage to liver and brain

3-Narcotics
This is an addictive drug that dulls the senses and induces stupor, drowsiness, or
unconsciousness. It increases relaxation and relieve pain and anxiety.
Examples: Heroine, morphine and opium.

Heroin:
Heroin enters the brain quickly. It slows down the way you think, reaction time and
memory. This affects the way you act and make decisions.

Heroin is highly addictive because it enters the brain so rapidly. It particularly affects
those regions of the brain responsible for producing physical dependence.

Short-term Effects:
• warm flushing of the skin
• dry mouth
• depression of the central nervous system
• slurred speech, slow gait
• restlessness, insomnia
• muscle, bone pain
• vomiting
Long-term Effects:
• addiction
• infection of the heart lining and valves
• respiratory depression or failure
• liver disease

4-Hallucinogens
These are the drugs that are capable of producing hallucinations or change in the
perceptual process.
Examples: Marijuana, LSD, Ecstasy, cannabis and magic mushroom.

Marijuana:

How is it used?
Most users roll loose marijuana into a cigarette called a "joint". It can be smoked in a
water pipe, called a "bong", or mixed into food or brewed as tea. It has also appeared in
cigars called "blunts".
Short-term Effects:
• problems with memory, learning
• distorted perceptions
• trouble with thinking, problem-solving
• loss of motor coordination
• increase heart rate
• anxiety, panic attacks, paranoia
• dry mouth, throat
• bloodshot eyes
Long-term Effects:
• cancer
• lung, immune system damage