Consciousness
Near-Death Experience
Subtopic
The peace that accompanies an NDE may result from the massive release of endorphins
Classical elements of NDE include passing through a dark tunnel, experiencing a bright light, a "life review", meeting spiritual beings, and then coming back to the body
Reported by people who nearly died or thought they were going to die
Out-of-Body Experiences
The sense of our consciousness leaving our body
Experienced when a person is medicated, using drugs, experiencing migraines or seizures, or when either extremely relaxed or extremely stressed
Individuals sense they are floating above their bodies and observing from above
Psychoactive Drugs
Psychadelics
Includes marijuana, LSD, and ecstasy
Can produce typically short-lived panic, paranoid delusions, confusion, depression, and bodily discomfort
Causing dramatic alterations of perception, mood, and thought
Narcotics
Types of narcotics
Codeine
Morphine
Heroine
Relieves pain, creates a sense of euphoria,
and induces sleep
Stimulants
Cocaine is the most powerful natural
stimulant
Nicotine enhances positive emotions and
minimizes negative emotions
Increase activity in the central nervous system;
heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure
Depressants
Depress the effects of the central nervous system
Sedative-hypnotics exert a calming,
sleep-inducing effect
Grouped into three categories: barbiturates,
non-barbiturates, and benzodiazepines
At high doses can produce unconsciousness,
coma, and death
Alcohol is the most common depressant, and
also the most widely used and abused drug
overall
Mystical Experiences
Feelings of unity or oneness with the world, transcendence of space and time, feelings of wonder and awe, often with strong spiritual overtones
Hallucinations
Auditory hallucinations can occur when patients mistakenly attribute their thoughts or inner speech to an external source
Visual hallucinations can be caused by oxygen and sensory deprivation, epilepsy, fever, dementia, and migraine headaches
Thought of by some non-Western cultures as gifts of wisdom
from the gods and incorporate them into their religious rituals
Hypnosis
Dissociation Theory
The flexible observer is the phenomenon where the hidden observers report what the hypnotists suggest they report
The hidden observer describes the dissociated, un-hypnotized part of the mind that hypnotists can access
Explains hypnosis based on a separation between personality functions that are normally well integrated
Sociocognitive Theory
Explains hypnosis based on people's attitudes, beliefs, and expectations
Past Life Regression Theory
Therapeutic approach that hypnotizes and age-regresses patients to a previous life to the identify the source of a present-day problem
Enhances the effectiveness of psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural psychotherapies and treats pain, medical conditions, and habit disorders
Set of techniques that provide people with suggestions for alterations in their perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours
Circadian Rhythm
Multiple nights of sleep deprivation can cause a "sleep debt" which can require multiple nights to pay off
Sleep deprivation can cause depression, difficulties in learning new information and paying attention, and slowed reaction times
People need about 7 to 10 hours of sleep a day
Cyclical changes that occur on a roughly 24-hour basis in many biological processes
Biological Clock
When it is disrupted it disturbs sleep and increases the risk of injuries, fatal accidents, and health problems
Term for the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the hypothalamus that's responsible for controlling our levels of alertness
Dreams
Dream Continuity Hypothesis
There is continuity between sleeping and waking experiences; dreams can mirror life circumstances
Neurocognitive Theory
Dreams often dramatize concerns that are important to us - implies they reflect more than just random neural impulses
Dreams are a meaningful product of our cognitive capacities which shape what we dream about
Activation-Synthesis Theory
Dreams reflect the brain's attempt to make sense of random internal neural signals during REM sleep
Dreams reflect inputs from brain activation origination in the pons, and the forebrain attempts to create a story
Dream Protection Theory
Manifest Content: The details of the dream itself
Latent Content: The true, hidden meaning
Dreamwork disguises sexual and aggressive impulses as symbols that represent wish fulfilment
Dreams are the guardians of sleep; the ego is less able to keep sexual and aggressive instincts at bay than when awake
Created by Sigmund Freud
There are two general agreements about dreams:
2) The forebrain plays an important role in dreams
1) Acetylcholine turns on REM sleep
Process emotional memories, integrate new memories with established memories, stimulate threatening event, and recognize and consolidate memories
Sleep Disorders
Sleepwalking
Almost always occurs during non-REM sleep
Walking while fully asleep
Night Terrors
Usually only last a few minutes and is typically harmless
Sudden waking episodes characterized by screaming, perspiring, and confusion, followed by a return to deep sleep
Sleep Apnea
People snore loudly, gasp, and sometimes stop breathing for about 20 seconds
Blockage of the airway during sleep which results in daytime fatigue
Narcolepsy
Some experience cataplexy - remain alert even if they can't move
Rapid and unexpected onset of sleep
Insomnia
The most common sleep disorder
Difficulty falling or staying asleep
Stages of Sleep
Stage 5
Lasts about 10/20 minutes; REM stages last progressively longer throughout sleep
REM Sleep - eyes move rapidly; brain is most active and vivid dreaming occurs
Stage 3 & 4
In stage 3, delta waves appear 20-50% of the time; in stage 4 they appear more than half the time
Occurs after about 10 to 30 minutes
Stage 2
Brain activity decelerates, heart rate slows, muscles relax
Occupies 65% of the sleep cycle
Stage 1
Light state of sleep - brains powered down by 50% or more
Lasts for 5 or 10 minutes
