Consciousness is a concept that has eluded many psychologists and fascinated many others. The author of the first psychology textbook, William James was fascinated by this concept, however without the technology, we have today to examine it, the scientific study of consciousness faded away. It is coming back, due to new tools that can be used to study it in a scientific way, rather than a philosophical one. Historically, the idea of consciousness came from two competing philosophical theories; dualism and monism. Dualists believe that humans consist of two materials; thought and matter. Matter is everything in the physical world, while thought is a nonmaterial thing that arises from and is independent from the brain. Monists believe that thought and matter are made from the same material. The study of consciousness has progressed passed philosophy, however.
We experience consciousness unconsciously (try and wrap your mind around that). One level of your consciousness is reading this sentence, and another level is shaking your leg, or making you breathe. Research has begun to show more complex effects of the different consciousness levels. For example, the mere-exposure effect occurs when we prefer stimuli we have seen before over novel stimuli, even if we don’t remember seeing that old stimulus. One study investigating this phenomenon had participants look at a list of nonsense words for a short period of time, and then later on having them pick their favourite words from a new list. The participants were more likely to pick words shown on that earlier list, despite not being able to recall that earlier list. A concept related to this is priming. Priming is a technique where exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus without conscious guidance or intention. Another interesting phenomenon is blind sight. Some blind people have been shown to be able to describe the path of an object or grasp objects that they cannot see, implying that although their consciousness isn’t receiving visual information, another part of their consciousness can “see.” The levels of consciousness are very widely debated, but there is a tentative list of those layers.
Conscious Level: The information about yourself and your environment that you are currently aware of. You are consciously reading this sentence, for example.
Non-conscious Level: Body processes we usually are not aware of. This includes your heartbeat, respiration, digestion, etc.
Pre-conscious Level: Information about yourself and your environment that is not in your conscious mind presently, but has the potential to be. For example, you’re not thinking about your last maths class right now, as that memory is at your preconscious level, but by reading that sentence, a memory may come to your conscious level.
Subconscious Level: Information we are not consciously aware of that informs and is shown through our behaviour. Priming and the mere-exposure effect reveal this layer of consciousness.
Unconscious Level: This is a level of consciousness studied by psychoanalysts. Psychoanalysts believe that memories and feelings deemed as inappropriate by the conscious mind are repressed into the unconscious mind, and can be uncovered by methods such as dream analysis. This is a very widely objected idea, however, as it is extremely difficult, if not impossible to prove.
Sleep is something many students never get enough of. According to surveys, high school students get around 6.8 hours of sleep per night, and college students get between 6 to 6.9 hours per night, despite a need for 8-9 hours. But why do we need sleep? And how does it work?
If you’ve ever been jet-lagged, you know how it feels to have an issue with your circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is a 24-hour cycle that instructs our metabolic and thought processes. It makes us feel hungry at lunchtime, need the toilet when we usually go and makes us feel tired at bedtime. It also controls the sleep cycle. Sleep is not an 8 hour period of time where the brain nearly completely shuts down, in fact, our brains are active as we sleep, and can be tracked with an EEG, revealing distinct stages as sleep occurs.
The period where we are falling asleep is known as sleep onset. It’s the period where we are not yet asleep, but not quite awake. When we are awake and sleepy, our brains produce alpha waves- this is a period where we may experience mild hallucinations before we enter stage 1 of sleep. When awake, and when in stages 1 and 2, our brains produce theta waves, which are high in frequency and low in amplitude. They progressively slow down and rise in amplitude as stages 1 and 2 progress. In stage 2, EEG’s show sleep spindles, which are short bursts of rapid brain waves. From stage 2, we move into stage 3 and stage 4, which are known as delta sleep. After the delta waves produced in this period of sleep. These are slow, low frequency waves, and characterise the deepest sleep, and the period where we are least aware of our environment. Being awakened from stages 3 and 4 tend to cause intense drowsiness, and disorientation and is often why being woken up with an alarm clock can suck, even after getting 8 hours of sleep. After going through delta sleep, brain waves begin to speed up again and we go back through stages 3 and then 2. Before getting back to stage 1, the brain enters a period of intense activity, where the eyes rapidly move back and fourth, and muscles twitch rapidly. This is known as REM, or rapid eye movement sleep. It’s also known as paradoxical sleep because brain waves are as active as if we were awake. Dreams are most likely to occur here, and depriving the body of it can interfere with memory. After being deprived of REM sleep, individuals typically experience REM rebound, where they have longer and more periods of REM sleep the next time they sleep. The cycle is not consistent, as you can see on the chart. As wake up time moves closer, the body spends more time in stages 1 and 2, along with REM. Babies spend more time in REM than adults do, and as we age, we need less sleep, and spend less time in REM.
Poor, or inconsistent sleep can cause serious health issues. While for many people, poor sleep is a result of lifestyle choices, or poor decisions, many people suffer from disorders which even in the perfect environment for sleep, cause issues fully moving through the sleep cycle.
Insomnia: Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder, affecting up to 10% of the American population. Insomniacs struggle with going to sleep, and staying asleep. Treatments for insomnia include changes in behaviour, such as decreasing caffeine-intake and other stimulants, exercising at appropriate times during the day, and keeping a consistent sleep pattern going (always going to bed at 10pm and waking up at 6am, for example.) Many doctors are cautious about prescribing pills because pills can actually interfere further with the sleep cycle.
Narcolepsy: Narcolepsy is far more infrequent than insomnia, affecting about 0.001% of the American population. Narcoleptics experience periods of intense drowsiness, and fall asleep at inappropriate and random times. Medication, and behaviour change are often prescribed to help combat it, for example naps at strategic times.
Sleep Apnea: Sleep apnea is almost as common as insomnia, and in many ways is more serious. Sleep apnea is a condition where people stop breathing for short periods during sleep. The body slightly wakes the person up to gasp for air, then puts them back to sleep. This robs the individual of deep sleep and can cause disorientation, memory issues and attention issues. Severe apnea has been known to kill people. It is especially common in overweight men. Respiration machines can help combat this disorder.
Night terrors: Many people (myself included) remember having nightmares when they were young. Being a typical British child, I watched doctor who, and remember in the middle of the night running up to my parents room, terrified the Cybermen from my dreams were going to get me. They typically go away as the person gets older, but many adults, especially those suffering from conditions such as PTSD continue to suffer from them, causing severe sleep deprivation.
Somnambulism: Somnambulism is a fancy way of saying sleepwalking. It is much like nightmares, in that both commonly occur in the first few hours of sleep, at the fourth stage. Somnambulism is also much more common in children, and tends to go away as the person grows up.
Dreams are a series of story-like images we tend to experience when we’re asleep. Some people frequently recall their dreams, while others don’t remember dreaming at all. Some people have lucid dreams, where they know they’re dreaming, and can control its storyline. They are difficult to study, as we don’t know much about them, so as a result, psychologists depend mostly on self-reports. When patients are woken from REM sleep, they often report dreaming. There are many hypotheses about why we dream, but not many conclusive answers yet. Sigmund Freud found dreams to be a significant part of his therapy. His therapy used dream interpretation to uncover repressed information in the unconscious mind. Manifest content is the literal content of the dream. If someone dreams about showing up unprepared to a test, the manifest content is the ill-preparedness. The latent content is what Freud was more interested in; it is the unconscious meaning of that manifest content. Freud believed that even in sleep, the ego shields us from unconscious material (thus he referred to it as protected sleep). Showing up ill-prepared for a test could represent anxiety and preparedness about a coming challenge in your life, for example. Many researchers dislike this research because it is extremely difficult to validate or invalidate. The activation-synthesis theory observes dreams as a biological phenomenon. This theory suggests that dreams are merely the brains interpretation of what is happening physiologically during REM sleep. This implies that dreams are no more significant as any other physiological process. The information-processing theory falls in between these two theories. It points out that stress can increase the number and intensity of dreams during the night, and many report that dreams address many daily concerns. Some people theorise that the brain is dealing with daily stress and information during REM sleep. REM is thus a process where information taken in during the day is processed into our memories.
One of the more popularised forms of psychology is hypnosis. There are films all over the place of nightmarish villains putting a watch in front of an unsuspecting victims face, and taking over their mind, making them do whatever the hypnotist wants. While this is not real, hypnosis is a real phenomenon used by many hypnotherapists to help their patients deal with real world problems, or to have a bit of fun. One phenomenon observed under hypnosis is posthypnotic amnesia. Where patients report forgetting events that occurred while they were hypnotised. Hypnotists can also implant posthypnotic suggestions, where the patient behaves a certain way after coming out of hypnosis. It’s important to note that hypnosis patients are not unconscious, and cannot be made to do things that consciously they absolutely do not want to do, or cannot do. Hypnosis, like all other parts of consciousness is not very well understood. There are 3 big theories which attempt to explain what is happening during hypnosis.
Role theory: States that hypnosis is not an alternate state of consciousness at all. Some people are more easily hypnotised than others, a phenomenon known as hypnotic suggestibility, and these patients share many other characteristics such as having richer fantasy lives, being better at following directions, and being more able to focus on tasks for longer periods of time. This imply that hypnosis is a social phenomenon, where patients act out the role of a hypnotised person because that is what is expected of them.
State theory: States that hypnosis in some ways meets the definition for an altered state of consciousness. Hypnotists can suggest more or less awareness of the environment, and many who undergo hypnosis report dramatic health benefits such as pain control.
Dissociation theory: This is a theory stated by researcher Ernest Hilgard, and claims that hypnosis causes a voluntary division of consciousness. One part responds to the hypnotic suggestions, and the other retains awareness of reality. In his experiments, Hilgard had hypnosis patients out their arm into an ice water bath. Although this would normally cause pain, his patients reported none. However, Hilgard had these patients lift their index finger if any part of them felt pain, and most participants lifted their finger.
Psychoactive drugs change the chemistry of the brain and induce an altered state of consciousness. Some of these changes are physiological changes, while others are caused by expected changes. Some patients exhibit some of the expected effects of the drug, even if they didn’t ingest the drug (similar to the placebo effect.) Normally, the brain is protected from harmful substances in the blood via the blood-brain barrier. However, the molecules which make up psychoactive drugs can pass through this barrier as they are small enough. They either mimic natural neurotransmitters- these are known as agonists. Agonists fit into receptor sites on neurons which would normally receive the neurotransmitter. They can also block neurotransmitters- these psychoactive drugs are known as antagonists. These molecules also fit into receptor sites, however prevent neurotransmitters from the receptor site. Other drugs can prevent neurotransmitters from being reabsorbed, creating an abundance in the synapse. This is what Prozac, an depressant does. It is called a “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor” as it prevents serotonin from being reabsorbed.
In some cases, due to the abundance of psychoactive drugs, the brain may produce less of the neurotransmitter, a phenomenon known as tolerance, where the patient needs more of the drug to produce the same effect. Tolerance eventually leads to withdrawal, which varies in intensity, from a headache to intense muscle spasms. Dependence can be physiological, psychological, or both. Psychological dependence creates an intense craving for the drug, while physiological dependence creates a need for the drug to prevent withdrawal symptoms. Researchers classify psychoactive drugs differently, however most place them in 4 categories.
Stimulants: Stimulants include caffeine, cocaine, amphetamines, and nicotine. Stimulants speed up body processes such as the autonomic nervous system functions- (heart rate and respiration rate etc). This commonly comes with a sense of euphoria. Side effects can include disturbed sleep, reduced appetite, increased anxiety, and heart problems, depending on the power of the drug.
Depressants: Depressants include alcohol, barbiturates, and anxiolytics (tranquilisers/anti-anxiety medication- Valium, for example). Alcohol is the most commonly used psychoactive drug. It slows down the body systems that stimulants speed up. Although drinkers typically report a feeling of excitement, this can be a result of expectations, and the depression of the part of the brain influencing inhibitions. They can slow down reaction times and judgement, which is why drinking while driving is so dangerous. Enough alcohol can impact the cerebellum, severely reducing motor control.
Hallucinogens: Hallucinogens, or psychedelics are drugs which don’t speed the body up or slow the body down. Instead, they cause changes in the perception of reality. Common psychedelics include LSD, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, and marijuana. Hallucinogens can stay in the body for weeks, and ingesting more of it during this period compounds the lingering amount, causing more profound and dangerous effects. This is known as reverse tolerance, because even if the second dose is less, the effects are greater.
Opiates: Opiates include morphine, heroine, methadone, and codeine, and are extremely dangerous. In the United States, they are severely overprescribed which has caused a national health crisis, where in 2017, over 70,000 people died from overdose, making it a leading cause of injury-related death in the US. They are agonists for endorphins, making them extremely powerful painkillers and mood elevators. They cause drowsiness and euphoria. They are some of the most physically addictive drugs as they rapidly create tolerance, and cause some of the most extreme withdrawal symptoms.
