1. Psychology Chapter 7: Altered States of Consciousness
I. Section 1: Sleep and Dreams
a. What is Sleep?
i. Is a state of unconsciousness with periods of dreaming
ii. Altered state of consciousness, characterized by patterns of
brain activity and inactivity
iii. Is vital to mental health
b. Studying Sleep
i. Has been very difficult until recently
ii. A researcher cannot have a sleeping person report without
waking them; thus making the study invalid
iii. EEG or electroencephalography is a device that records the
electric activity of the brain
c. Consciousness
i. Is a state of awareness
ii. Can range from alertness to nonalertness
iii. A person who is not aware of what is going on is in an altered
state of consciousness
d. Why do we Sleep?
i. Characterized by lack of mobility or unresponsiveness to the
environment
ii. It is restorative “recharges our batteries”
iii. Brain recovers from stress and exhaustion
iv. Sleep conserves energy
v. Clears our mind of useless info
e. Stages of Sleep
i. Stage 1
1. Pulse slows and muscles relax
2. Breathing becomes uneven and brain waves grow
irregular
3. Lasts for up to 10 minutes
4. EEG brain waves is marked by the presence of theta
waves (lower in amplitude and frequency than alpha
waves)
ii. Stage 2
1. Brain waves shift from low-amp, high frequency to
high-amp, low frequency waves ( this pattern means
you have entered this stage)
2. Eyes roll slowly from side to side
3. Usually lasts about 30 minutes
iii. Stage 3
1. Characterized by large- amplitude delta waves begin to
sweep your brain almost every second
iv. Stage 4
1. Deepest sleep of all
2. Very difficult to awaken sleeper
Ashley Barnes
Psych- E
10-22-14

2. 3. Large regular delta waves occur 50 % of the time when
you are in this stage of sleep
4. If you are awaken during this stage, you often feel
disoriented
a. Deep sleep is important to your physical or
psychological well-being
f. REM Sleep
i. Is a stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, a
high level of brain activity, a deep relaxation of the muscles,
and dreaming
ii. Pulse rate and breathing become irregular
iii. Called active sleep
iv. Dreams take place during this stage
v. Lasts for 15-45 minutes
vi. At no point in your sleep, does the brain become totally
inactive
g. How much sleep?
i. You will spend 1/3 of your life sleeping
ii. Varies from individual to individual
iii. Circadian rhythm- is a biological clock that is genetically
programmed to regulated physiological responses within a
time period of 24-25 hours
iv. Without any environmental cues, people have still kept their
circadian cycle
v. Circadian rhythms do not control our sleep patterns (two
things do)
1. The Environment
2. 24-hour day
vi. Jet lag- usually takes a day for each hour of time change to
“reset” your circadian rhythm (biological clock)
h. Sleep Disorders
i. Insomnia: is the failure to get enough sleep at night in order to
feel rested the next day
1. Some people with this disorder rarely get more than an
hour or two of uninterrupted sleep
2. Anxiety, depression, overuse of alcohol or drugs can
cause insomnia
ii. Sleep Apnea: disorder in which a person has trouble breathing
while sleeping
1. Specific kind of snoring that may occur hundreds of
times per night
a. Each episode lasts 10-15 seconds and ends
suddenly, usually with a physical movement of
the body
b. The sleeping person is actually choking when a
passage of the lungs is blocked

3. 2. Affects more than 12 million Americans
3. Must feel listless, sleepy, or irritable
4. Usually caused by a physical problem instead of mental
stress
iii. Narcolepsy: is a condition characterized by suddenly falling
asleep or feeling very sleepy during the day
1. May have sleep attacks during the day
2. Victims usually have a problem with work, leisure, and
interpersonal activities
3. Prone to accidents
iv. Nightmares: unpleasant dreams that occur during REM sleep
v. Night terrors
1. Sleep disruptions that occur during stage IV of sleep,
involving screaming, panic, or confusion
2. Lasts 5-25 minutes
3. Involves rapid heart rate, screaming, sweating, and
confusion
4. Usually have no memory of them
vi. Sleepwalking: is walking or carrying out behaviors while
asleep
1. Most children who have this disorder will outgrow it
2. Usually harmless, unless the victim falls or hurts
themselves
3. Has been linked to stress, fatigue and the use of sedative
drugs by adults
vii. Sleep talking
1. Is a common sleep disruption
2. Can occur in REM and NREM sleep
3. The sleep talker sometimes pauses as if he or she was
having a conversation
4. You can engage in a conversation with the sleep talker
i. Dreams
i. Mental activity that takes place during sleep
ii. 8 in 10 dreams involve negative emotions
1. 1 in 10 male dreams are sexual
2. 1 in 30 female dreams are sexual
iii. Incorporate everyday events
iv. do not occur in a split second, they correspond to a realistic
time scale
j. Why do we Dream?
i. Freud
1. Royal road to the unconscious
2. Wish fulfillment
3. Manifest content
a. Story line
4. Latent content

4. ii. Information processing
1. Consolidate experiences
iii. Activation- synthesis Theory
1. Interpret random brain activity
iv. Physiological Function
1. Provide sleeping brain periodic stimulation
k. Dream Interpretation
i. Freud believed that dreams might contain clues to thoughts a
dreamer might be afraid to acknowledge in his or her waking
hours
ii. Believe dreams might have hidden meaning
iii. Many social scientists believe dreaming serves no function
other than to stimulate the brain while sleeping
l. Daydreams
i. Requires low level of awareness and involves fantasizing, or
idle but directed thinking, while we are awake
ii. Reminds us or prepares us for events in the future
iii. Can improve our creativity by generating thought processes
iv. Allows us to control our emotions
II. Section 2: Hypnosis, Biofeedback, and Meditation
a. What is Hypnosis?
i. Is a form of altered consciousness in which people become
highly suggestible to changes in behavior and thought
ii. A hypnotist guides and directs the person into thinking about
things he or she is usually unaware of
iii. Hypnosis shifts our perceptions
b. Hypnosis
i. Does not put people to sleep
ii. The person is highly receptive and responsive to certain
internal and external stimuli
iii. Psychologists stress that a relationship between hypnotist and
participant should involve cooperation, not domination
c. Theories of Hypnosis
i. Theodore Barber (1965)
1. States that hypnosis is not a specific state of
consciousness but a result of suggestibility
ii. Ernest Hilgard
1. Believes there is something special about the hypnotic
state
2. Neodissociation Theory: the consciousness includes
many different aspects that may become separated or
dissociated during hypnosis
iii. Sarbin and Coe (1972 and 1979)
1. Hypnotized people behave as they do because they have
accepted the role as a hypnotized subject
2. Reveals people have potential abilities they do not use

5. 3. Continued study may show where these abilities come
from and how to use them better
iv. Uses of Hypnosis
1. Entertainment
2. Medical
3. Therapeutic
a. Posthypnotic suggestion- suggested things for
their participants to remember or forget when
the trance is over
b. Hypnotic analgesia- a reduction in pain reported
by patients after they have undergone hypnosis
v. Biofeedback: a technique in which a person learns to control
his or her internal physiological processes with the help of
feedback
1. “Feedback makes learning possible”
2. Uses machines to tell people about very subtle moment-to-
moment changes in the body
3. From this, people can learn to change their
physiological processes
vi. Meditation
1. A person focusing on his or her attention on an image or
though with the goal of clearing the mind and producing
relaxation or inner peace
2. 3 approaches to meditation
a. Transcendental meditation- involves mental
repetition of a mantra, usually a Sanskrit phrase
i. Lasts for 15-20 minutes
b. Mindfulness meditation- was developed from a
Buddhist tradition
i. Focuses on the present moment
c. Breath meditation – is a concentration on one’s
respiration
3. Been found to help lower blood pressure, heart rate,
and respiration rate
4. Those who succeed with meditation continue to do it
5. Bias and self-selected samples provide the research
III. Section 3: Drugs and Consciousness
a. Psychoactive Drugs: A type of drug that interacts with the central
nervous system to alter a person’s mood, perception, and behavior
i. Common Drugs
1. Caffeine, depressants, alcohol, marijuana, LSD
b. How Drugs Work
i. Drugs are carried by the blood and taken to target tissues in
parts of the body
ii. Drug molecules act as neurotransmitters and hook to dendrites
of neurons and send out their own chemical messages

6. iii. Alcohol molecules tell nerve cells to slow down and usually
leads to passing out
iv. LSD molecules cause nerve cells to fire resulting in
hallucinations
c. Marijuana- is dried leaves and flowers of Indian hemp that produce an
altered state of consciousness when smoked or ingested
i. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the active ingredient in
marijuana
ii. Disrupts memory formation (making it difficult to carry out
mental and physical tasks
iii. Long-term use can lead to dependence
d. Hallucinations: perceptions that have no direct external cause- seeing,
hearing, smelling, tasting, or feeling things that do not exist
i. Occur during or when: hypnosis, mediation, certain drugs,
withdraw from a drug, psychological breakdown, normal
conditions
e. Hallucinogens: drugs that often produce hallucinations
i. Also called psychedelics because they create a loss of contact
with reality
ii. LSD- a potent psychedelic drug that produces distortions of
perception and thought
iii. LSD Trips
1. Can last from 6 to 14 hours
2. The user may encounter distortions in familiar objects
3. A single stimulus may become the focus of attention for
hours
4. Impairs thinking even though users feel they are
thinking more logically and clearly than before
iv. Opiates
1. Usually referred to as narcotics
a. Opium, Morphine, Heroin
2. Produce analgesia or pain reduction
3. Regular use leads to addiction
4. Overdose leads to loss of control of breathing
v. Alcohol: most widely used and abused mind altering substance
in the U.S.
1. Is a depressant that serves to inhibit brain function
2. The affect of alcohol depends on the frequency of
drinking and the drinker’s body weight
vi. Drug abuse and treatment
1. Can lead to injury, damage to body, ultimately death
2. Treatment for Drug abuse:
a. The abuser must admit he/ she has a problem
b. Abuser must enter treatment program/therapy
c. The drug abuser must remain drug free