Chapter 5

STATE OF CONCIOUSNESS

Sleep and Dreams

Key Points Part 1

i- What are the states of consciousness?

ii- What happens when we sleep, and what are the meaning and function of
dreams?

iii- What are the major sleep disorders, and how can they be treated?

iv- How much do we daydream?

Sleep is an important part of your daily routine—you spend about one-third of

your time doing it. Quality sleep – and getting enough of it at the right times -- is
as essential to survival as food and water. Without sleep you can’t form or
maintain the pathways in your brain that let you learn and create new memories,
and it’s harder to concentrate and respond quickly.

Sleep is important to a number of brain functions, including how nerve cells

(neurons) communicate with each other. In fact, your brain and body stay
remarkably active while you sleep. Recent findings suggest that sleep plays a
housekeeping role that removes toxins in your brain that build up while you are
awake.

Everyone needs sleep, but its biological purpose remains a mystery. Sleep affects
almost every type of tissue and system in the body – from the brain, heart, and
lungs to metabolism, immune function, mood, and disease resistance. Research
shows that a chronic lack of sleep, or getting poor quality sleep, increases the risk
of disorders including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes,
depression, and obesity.

The Stages of Sleep

Most of us consider sleep a time of tranquility when we set aside the tensions of
the day and spend the night in uneventful slumber. However, a closer look at sleep
shows that a good deal of activity occurs throughout the night. Measures of
electrical activity in the brain show that the brain is quite active during sleep. It
produces electrical discharges with systematic, wavelike patterns that change in
height (or amplitude) and speed (or frequency) in regular sequences. There is also
significant physical activity in muscle and eye movements. People progress
through a series of distinct stages of sleep during a night’s rest—known as

stage 1 through stage 3 and REM sleep—moving through the stages in cycles
lasting about 90 minutes. Each of these sleep stages is associated with a unique
pattern of brain waves, which you can see in Figure.

When people first go to sleep, they move from a waking state in which they are
relaxed with their eyes closed into stage1 sleep, which is characterized by
relatively rapid, low-amplitude brain waves. This is actually a stage of transition
between wakefulness and sleep and lasts only a few minutes. During stage 1,
images sometimes appear, as if we were viewing still photos, although this is not
true dreaming, which occurs later in the night.

As sleep becomes deeper, people enter stage 2 sleep, which makes up about half of
the total sleep of those in their early 20s and is characterized by a slower, more
regular wave pattern. However, there are also momentary interruptions of sharply
pointed, spiky waves that are called, because of their configuration, sleep spindles.
It becomes increasingly difficult to awaken a person from sleep as stage 2
progresses.

As people drift into stage 3 sleep, the deepest stage, the brain waves become
slower, with higher peaks and lower valleys in the wave pattern. During stage 3,
people are least responsive to outside stimulation. As you can see in Figure , stage
3 sleep is most likely to occur during the early part of the night. In the first half of
the night, sleep is dominated by stage 3. The second half is characterized by stages
1 and 2 —as well as a fourth stage, REM sleep, during which dreams occur.

REM Sleep: The Paradox of Sleep Several times a night, when sleepers have
cycled back to a shallower state of sleep, something curious happens. Their heart
rate increases and becomes irregular, their blood pressure rises, and their breathing
rate increases. Most characteristic of this period is the back-and-forth movement of
their eyes, as if they were watching an action-filled movie.

This period of sleep is called rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep, and it
contrasts with stages 1 through 3, which are collectively labeled non-REM (or
NREM) sleep.

REM sleep occupies a little more than 20% of adults’ total sleeping time.
Paradoxically, while heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing increase during REM
sleep, the major muscles of the body appear to be paralyzed. In addition, and most
important, REM sleep is usually accompanied by dreams, which—whether or not
people remember them—are experienced by everyone during some part of their
night’s sleep.
Although some dreaming occurs in non-REM stages of sleep, dreams are most
likely to occur in the REM period, where they are the most vivid and easily
remembered (Leclair-Visonneau et al., 2011; Manni & Terzaghi, 2013; Sikka et
al., 2017).

Why Do We Sleep, and How Much Sleep Is Necessary?

Sleep is a requirement for normal human functioning, it certainly is reasonable to

expect that our bodies would require a tranquil “rest and relaxation” period to
revitalize themselves, and experiments with rats show that total sleep deprivation
results in death.

But why? One explanation, based on an evolutionary perspective, suggests that

sleep permitted our ancestors to conserve energy at night, a time when food was
relatively hard to come by.

Consequently, they were better able to forage for food when the sun was up. A
second explanation for why we sleep is that sleep restores and replenishes our
brains and bodies. For instance, the reduced activity of the brain during non-REM
sleep may give neurons in the brain a chance to repair themselves.

That reduced activity may also weaken connections among particular nerve cells to
conserve energy, which has the effect of aiding memory. Furthermore, the onset of
REM sleep stops the release of neurotransmitters called monoamines and so
permits receptor cells to get some necessary rest and to increase their sensitivity
during periods of wakefulness (Steiger, 2007; Bub, Buckhalt, & El-Sheikh, 2011;
Tononi & Cirelli, 2013). (Also see Applying Psychology in the 21st Century).

Finally, sleep may be essential because it assists physical growth and brain
development in children. For example, the release of growth hormones is
associated with deep sleep (Peterfi et al., 2010; GriggDamberger, 2017). Still,
these explanations remain speculative, and there is no definitive answer as to why
sleep is essential. What is increasingly clear is that sleep serves multiple functions
and that without sleep, we will eventually die (Stickgold, 2015).
APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

SLEEPING TO FORGET

Do we sleep to forget? An increasing amount of evidence suggests that one

primary purpose of sleep may be to help us forget. In this view, sleep allows the
brain to eliminate unnecessary information that accumulates throughout the day so
that it doesn’t become burdensome or confusing, a process called reverse learning
(Heller et al., 2014).

In support of the reverse-learning view, one study hypothesized that the day’s
activities trigger increased synaptic growth, which can drown out the strong signal
of neural impulses with excessive noise. Our brains must therefore prune back
these new connections, the hypothesis goes, which it does while we sleep.

Evidence for this hypothesis comes from research in which investigators

examined thin slices of brain tissue taken from mice, some of which had been
asleep and some of which had been awake and alert.

Looking closely at the size and shape of the synapses, the researchers found an
18% reduction in the size of the synapses in the sleeping mice’s brain tissue
relative to those of the awake mice (de Vivo et al., 2017).

Another study examined the brains of live mice. The researchers monitored the
presence of surface proteins on the mice’s brains while they were awake and after
they fell asleep and not noted a drop in these proteins during sleep, which was
consistent with a reduction in synapses (Diering et al., 2017).
In addition, individuals vary widely, with some people needing as little as 3 hours
of sleep. Still, survey data shows that for most people, the more sleep they get, the
greater their sense of well-being (McCarthy & Brown, 2015). Men and women
sleep differently.

Women typically fall asleep more quickly, they sleep for longer periods and more
deeply than men do, and they get up fewer times in the night. On the other hand,
men have fewer concerns about the amount of sleep they get than women do, even
though they get less sleep. Furthermore, sleep requirements vary over the course of
a lifetime: As they age, people generally need less and less sleep (Monk et al.,
2011; Petersen, 2011).
NEUROSCIENCE IN YOUR LIFE: WHY ARE WE SO EMOTIONAL
WHEN WE DON’T GET ENOUGH SLEEP?

After a restless night, many people feel increased stress and overreact to events in
their lives the next day. Recent research has now identified the neural basis for
these reactions.

For example, in one study, participants were kept awake all night and then asked to
perform an experiment involving exposure to emotional and neutral images.
Participants who were sleep deprived reacted to the neutral images as if they were
emotional, and they had less connectivity between the amygdala (a region of the
brain that processes emotion) and the anterior cingulate cortex (a region of frontal
cortex important for emotional regulation).

The green in the scan below shows the area of anterior cingulate that has greater
connectivity to the amygdala for sleep-rested than sleep-deprived participants.
These findings suggest that sleep loss increases emotional reactivity by interfering
with our ability to control our emotions (Simon et al., 2015).

In short, as far as we know, most people suffer no permanent consequences of such

temporary sleep deprivation. But—and this is an important but—a lack of sleep
can make us feel edgy, slow our reaction time, and lower our performance on
academic and physical tasks. In addition, we put ourselves and others at risk when
we carry out routine activities, such as driving, when we’re very sleepy (Anderson
& Home, 2006; Morad et al., 2009; Simon et al., 2017).
SLEEP DISORDERS

At one time or another, almost all of us have difficulty sleeping—a condition

known as insomnia. It could be due to a particular situation, such as the breakup of
a relationship, concern about a test score, or the loss of a job. Some cases of
insomnia, however, have no obvious cause. Some people are simply unable to fall
asleep easily, or they go to sleep readily but wake up frequently during the night.
Insomnia is a problem that is common as many as one-third of all people. Women
and older adults are more likely to suffer from insomnia, as well as people who are
unusually thin or are depressed (Henry et al., 2008; Karlson et al., 2013; Ong,
2017).

Some people who think they have sleeping problems actually are mistaken. For
example, researchers in sleep laboratories have found that some people who report
being up all night actually fall asleep in 30 minutes and stay asleep all night.
Furthermore, some people with insomnia accurately recall sounds that they heard
while they were asleep, which gives them the impression that they were awake
during the night (Semler & Harvey, 2005; Yapko, 2006).

Sleep Apnea.

Other sleep problems are less common than insomnia, although they are still
widespread. For instance, some 20 million people suffer from sleep apnea. Sleep
apnea is a condition in which a person has difficulty breathing while sleeping. The
result is disturbed, fitful sleep and a significant loss of REM sleep, as the person is
constantly reawakened when the lack of oxygen becomes great enough to trigger a
waking response.

Some people with apnea wake as many as 500 times during the course of a night,
although they may not even be aware that they have wakened. Not surprisingly,
such disturbed sleep results in extreme fatigue the next day. Sleep apnea also may
play a role in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a mysterious killer of
seemingly normal infants who die while sleeping (Tippin, Sparks, & Rizzo, 2009;
Arimoto et al., 2011; Bjornsdottir et al., 2015).

Night terrors
Night terrors are sudden awakenings from non-REM sleep that are accompanied
by extreme fear, panic, and strong physiological arousal. Usually occurring in
stage 3 sleep, night terrors may be so frightening that a sleeper awakens with a
shriek. Although night terrors initially produce great agitation, victims usually can
get back to sleep fairly quickly. They are far less frequent than nightmares, and,
unlike nightmares, they typically occur during slow-wave, non-REM sleep.

They occur most frequently in children between the ages of 3 and 8 (Lowe,
Humphreys, & Williams, 2007).

Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is uncontrollable sleeping that occurs for short periods while a person
is awake. No matter what the activity—holding a heated conversation, exercising,
or driving—a narcoleptic will suddenly fall asleep. People with narcolepsy go
directly from wakefulness to REM sleep, skipping the other stages. The causes of
narcolepsy are not known, although there could be a genetic component, because
narcolepsy runs in families (Ervik, Abdelnoor, & Heier, 2006; Nishino, 2007;
Billiard, 2008; Zamarian et al., 2015).

We know relatively little about sleeptalking and sleepwalking, two sleep

disturbances that are usually harmless. Both occur during stage 3 sleep and are
more common in children than in adults. Sleeptalkers and sleepwalkers usually
have a vague consciousness of the world around them, and a sleepwalker may be
able to walk with agility around obstructions in a crowded room. Unless a
sleepwalker wanders into a dangerous environment, sleepwalking typically poses
little risk. And the common idea that it’s dangerous to wake a sleepwalker? It’s just
superstition (Lee-Chiong, 2006; Licis et al., 2011; Haridi et al., 2017).
The Function and Meaning of Dreaming

But what, if anything, do all these dreams mean? Whether dreams have a specific
significance and function is a question that scientists have considered for many
years, and they have developed the three alternative theories.

PSYCHOANALYTIC EXPLANATIONS OF DREAMS: DO DREAMS

REPRESENT UNCONSCIOUS WISH FULFILLMENT?

Using psychoanalytic theory, Sigmund Freud viewed dreams as a guide to the

unconscious (Freud, 1900). In his unconscious wish fulfillment theory, he
proposed that dreams represent unconscious wishes that dreamers desire to see
fulfilled. To Freud, the manifest content of the dream is what we remember and
report about the dream—its story line. The manifest content, however, disguises
the latent content, which includes the actual, underlying wishes that the dream
represents.

Because the underlying wishes (the latent content) are threatening to the dreamer,
they are hidden in the dream’s story line (the manifest content).
To Freud, it was important to pierce the armor of a dream’s manifest content to
understand its true meaning. To do this, Freud tried to get people to discuss their
dreams, associating symbols in the dreams with events in the past. He also
suggested that certain common symbols with universal meanings appear in dreams.
For example, to Freud, dreams in which a person is flying symbolize a wish for
sexual intercourse.

Many psychologists reject Freud’s view that dreams typically represent

unconscious wishes and that particular objects and events in a dream are symbolic.
Rather, they believe that the direct, overt action of a dream is the focal point of its
meaning.

Moreover, some dreams reflect events occurring in the dreamer’s environment as

he or she is sleeping.

However, PET brain scan research does lend a degree of support for the wish
fulfillment view. For instance, the limbic and paralimbic regions of the brain,
which are associated with emotion and motivation, are particularly active during
REM sleep. At the same time, the association areas of the prefrontal cortex, which
control logical analysis and attention, are inactive during REM sleep. The high
activation of emotional and motivational centers of the brain during dreaming
makes it more plausible that dreams may reflect unconscious wishes and
instinctual needs, as Freud suggested (Occhionero, 2004; Wehrle et al., 2007;
Perogamvros & Schwartz, 2015).

EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATIONS OF DREAMS: DREAMS-FOR-

SURVIVAL THEORY

According to the dreams-for-survival theory, which is based in the evolutionary

perspective, dreams permit us to reconsider and reprocess during sleep information
that is critical for our daily survival. Dreaming is considered an inheritance from
our animal ancestors, whose small brains were unable to sift sufficient information
during waking hours.

Consequently, dreaming provided a mechanism that permitted the processing of

information 24 hours a day. In the dreams-for-survival theory, dreams represent
concerns about our daily lives, illustrating our uncertainties, indecisions, ideas, and
desires.

Dreams are seen, then, as consistent with everyday living. Rather than being
disguised wishes, as Freud suggested, they represent key concerns growing out of
our daily experiences (Ross, 2006; Horton, 2011).

Research supports the dreams-for-survival theory, suggesting that certain dreams

permit people to focus on and to consolidate memories, particularly dreams that
pertain to “how-to-do-it” memories related to motor skills. For example, rats seem
to dream about mazes that they learned to run through during the day, at least
according to the patterns of brain activity that appear while they are sleeping
(Stickgold et al., 2001; Kuriyama, Stickgold, & Walker, 2004; Smith, 2006).

NEUROSCIENCE EXPLANATIONS OF DREAMS: ACTIVATION-

SYNTHESIS THEORY

Using the neuroscience perspective, psychiatrist J. Allan Hobson has proposed the
activation-synthesis theory of dreams. The activation-synthesis theory focuses
on the random electrical energy that the brain produces during REM sleep,
possibly as a result of changes in the production of particular neurotransmitters.
This electrical energy randomly stimulates memories stored in the brain. Because
we have a need to make sense of our world even while asleep, the brain takes these
chaotic memories and weaves them into a logical story line, filling in the gaps to
produce a rational scenario (Hobson, 2005; Hangya et al., 2011).

Circadian Rhythms: Life Cycles The fact that we cycle back and forth between
wakefulness and sleep is one example of the body’s circadian rhythms. Circadian
rhythms (from the Latin circa diem, or “about a day”) are biological processes that
occur regularly on approximately a 24-hour cycle.

Sleeping and waking, for instance, occur naturally to the beat of an internal
pacemaker that works on a cycle of about 24 hours. Several other bodily functions,
such as body temperature, hormone production, and blood pressure, also follow
circadian rhythms (Beersma & Gordijn, 2007; Blatter & Cajochen, 2007;
Labrecque & Cermakian, 2015).
Circadian cycles are complex, and they involve a variety of behaviors. For
instance, sleepiness occurs not just in the evening but throughout the day in regular
patterns, with most of us getting drowsy in midafternoon—regardless of whether
or not we have eaten a heavy lunch. By making an afternoon siesta part of their
everyday habit, people in several cultures take advantage of the body’s natural
inclination to sleep at this time (Takahashi et al., 2004; Reilly & Waterhouse,
2007; Egan et al., 2017).

The brain’s suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) controls our circadian rhythms, but
there are a number of circadian “clocks” associated with specific parts of the body.
For instance, circadian rhythms speed up the heart before dawn to prepare us for
the day’s challenges. Similarly, the release and retention of various substances in
the kidneys are affected by circadian rhythms.

Even the processing of information in various areas of the brain may be affected by
circadian rhythms and help shape how we perceive the world (Hickok, 2015;
Summa & Turek, 2015).

People’s moods also follow regular patterns. By examining more than 500 million
tweets using publicly available Twitter records, a team of psychologists found that
words with positive associations (fantastic, super) and negative associations
(afraid, mad) followed regular patterns. Across the globe and among different
cultures, people were happier in the morning, less so during the day, with a
rebound in the evening.

Moods are also happier on certain days of the week: we’re happier on weekends
and holidays. Finally, positive emotions increase from late December to late June
as the days get longer, and negative emotions increase as days get shorter (see
Figure 8; Golder & Macy, 2011).
Furthermore, there seem to be optimal times for carrying out various tasks. Most
adults are at their peak for carrying out cognitive tasks in the late morning. In
contrast, focus and concentration on academic tasks declines throughout the
afternoon. On the other hand, some research findings show that creativity increases
in the evening when people are tired. It may be that fatigue decreases inhibitions,
allowing for more creative thought (Matchock & Mordkoff, 2009; Wieth & Zacks,
2011; Shellenbarger, 2012).

Finally, health issues are more apt to appear at certain times of the day. For
instance, heart attacks and strokes occur most frequently and are most severe
between 6:00 A.M. and noon. Asthma attacks and heartburn are more common
during the evening hours (Beck, 2015).

Daydreams: Dreams Without Sleep It is the stuff of magic:

Our past mistakes can be wiped out and the future filled with noteworthy
accomplishments. Fame, happiness, and wealth can be ours. In the next moment,
though, the most horrible tragedies can occur, leaving us devastated, alone, and
penniless. The source of these scenarios is daydreams, fantasies people construct
while awake. Unlike dreaming that occurs during sleep, daydreams are more under
people’s control.

Therefore, their content is often related to immediate events in the environment

than is the content of the dreams that occur during sleep. Although they may
include sexual content, daydreams also pertain to the full gamut of activities or
events that are relevant to a person’s life. While we are daydreaming, we are still
experiencing waking consciousness. However, our awareness of the environment
around us declines.

The brain is surprisingly active during daydreaming. For example, several areas of
the brain that are associated with complex problem solving become activated
during daydreaming. In fact, daydreaming may be the only time these areas are
activated simultaneously, suggesting that daydreaming may lead to insights about
problems that we are grappling with (Fleck et al., 2008; Kounios et al., 2008;
Carciofo et al., 2017).

Furthermore, daydreaming may contain elements of inner speech, in which people

talk to themselves in their heads. Inner speech may help us to plan, be creative, and
regulate our emotions (Ren, Wang, & Jarrold, 2016; Alderson-Day et al., 2017;
Fernyhough, 2017). Some scientists see a link between daydreaming and dreams
during sleep. The content of daydreams and dreams show many parallels, and the
brain areas and processes involved in daydreaming and dreams during sleep are
related (Domhoff, 2011).

Hypnosis and Meditation

Key Points Part 2

i- What is hypnosis, and are hypnotized people in a different state of

consciousness?

ii- What are the effects of meditation?

You are feeling relaxed and drowsy. You are getting sleepier. Your body is
becoming limp. Your eyelids are feeling heavier. Your eyes are closing; you can’t
keep them open anymore. You are totally relaxed.

Now, place your hands above your head. But you will find they are getting heavier
and heavier—so heavy you can barely keep them up. In fact, although you are
straining as hard as you can, you will be unable to hold them up any longer. An
observer watching this scene would notice a curious phenomenon. Many of the
people listening to the voice are dropping their arms to their sides. The reason for
this strange behavior? Those people have been hypnotized.
Hypnosis: A Trance-Forming Experience?

How is someone hypnotized? Typically, the process follows a series of four steps.
First, a person is made comfortable in a quiet environment.

Second, the hypnotist explains what is going to happen, such as telling the person
that he or she will experience a pleasant, relaxed state.

Third, the hypnotist tells the person to concentrate on a specific object or image,
such as the hypnotist’s moving finger or an image of a calm lake. The hypnotist
may have the person concentrate on relaxing different parts of the body, such as
the arms, legs, and chest.

Fourth, once the subject is in a highly relaxed state, the hypnotist may make
suggestions that the person interprets as being produced by hypnosis, such as
“Your arms are getting heavy” and “Your eyelids are more difficult to open.”
Because the person begins to experience these sensations, he or she believes they
are caused by the hypnotist and becomes susceptible to the suggestions of the
hypnotist.

Despite their compliance when hypnotized, people do not lose all will of their own.
They will not perform antisocial behaviors, and they will not carry out self-
destructive acts. People will not reveal hidden truths about themselves, and they
are capable of lying. Moreover, people cannot be hypnotized against their will—
despite popular misconceptions (Raz, 2007; Lynn, Laurence, & Kirsch, 2015).

There are wide variations in people’s susceptibility to hypnosis. About 5% to 20%

of the population cannot be hypnotized at all, and some 15% are very easily
hypnotized. Most people fall somewhere in between. Moreover, the ease with
which a person is hypnotized is related to a number of other characteristics. People
who are readily hypnotized are also easily absorbed while reading books or
listening to music, becoming unaware of what is happening around them, and they
often spend an unusual amount of time daydreaming. In sum, then, they show a
high ability to concentrate and to become completely absorbed in what they are
doing (Rubichi et al., 2005; Benham, Woody, & Wilson, 2006; Parris, 2017).
A DIFFERENT STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS? The question of whether
hypnosis is a state of consciousness that differs qualitatively from normal waking
consciousness is controversial. Some psychologists believe hypnosis represents a
state of consciousness that differs significantly from other states. In this view, high
suggestibility, increased ability to recall and construct images, and acceptance of
suggestions that clearly contradict reality characterize it as a different state.

Moreover, people who are hypnotized show certain kinds of changes in electrical
activity in the brain. Such electrical changes support the position that hypnosis is a
state of consciousness different from normal waking (Fingelkurts, Fingelkurts, &
Kallio, 2007; Hinterberger, Schöner, & Halsband, 2011; Keppler, 2017).

The controversy over the nature of hypnosis has led to extreme positions on both
sides of the issue. In contrast, more recent approaches suggest that the hypnotic
state may best be viewed as lying along a continuum. In this view, hypnosis is
neither a totally different state of consciousness nor totally similar to normal
waking consciousness (Lynn et al., 2000; Kihlstrom, 2005b; Jamieson, 2007).

THE VALUE OF HYPNOSIS As arguments about the true nature of hypnosis

continue, though, one thing is clear: Hypnosis has been used successfully to solve
practical human problems. In fact, psychologists working in many different areas
have found hypnosis to be reliable, effective tool. It has been applied to a number
of areas, including the following:

• Controlling pain. Patients have had chronic pain reduced through hypnotic
suggestion. In addition, people can be taught to hypnotize themselves to relieve
pain or gain a sense of control over their symptoms. Hypnosis has proved to be
particularly useful during childbirth and dental procedures (Hammond, 2007;
Accardi & Milling, 2009; Spiegel, 2015).

• Reducing smoking. Although it hasn’t been successful in stopping drug and

alcohol abuse, hypnosis more frequently helps people stop smoking through
hypnotic suggestions that the taste and smell of cigarettes are unpleasant (Elkins et
al., 2006; Fuller, 2006; Green, Lynn, & Montgomery, 2008).

• Treating psychological disorders. Hypnosis sometimes is used during treatment

for psychological disorders. For example, it may be employed to heighten
relaxation, reduce anxiety, increase expectations of success, or modify self-
defeating thoughts (Iglesias, 2005; Golden, 2006; Etzrodt, 2013).

• Assisting in law enforcement. Witnesses and victims are sometimes better able
to recall the details of a crime when hypnotized. In one case, a witness to the
kidnapping of a group of California schoolchildren was placed under hypnosis and
was able to recall all but one digit of the license number on the kidnapper’s
vehicle. On the other hand, hypnotic recollections may also be inaccurate.
Consequently, the legal status of hypnosis is unresolved (Whitehouse et al., 2005;
Kazar, 2006; Knight & Meyer, 2007).

• Improving athletic performance. Athletes sometimes turn to hypnosis to

improve their performance. For example, some baseball players have used
hypnotism to increase their concentration when batting, with considerable success
(Barker & Jones, 2008; Tramontana, 2011; Carlstedt, 2017).

Meditation: Regulating Our Own State of Consciousness

When traditional practitioners of the ancient Eastern religion of Zen Buddhism

want to achieve greater spiritual insight, they turn to a technique that has been used
for centuries to alter their state of consciousness. This technique is called
meditation.

Meditation is a learned technique for refocusing attention that brings about an

altered state of consciousness. Meditation typically consists of the repetition of a
mantra—a sound, word, or syllable— over and over. In some forms of meditation,
the focus is on a picture, flame, or specific part of the body. Regardless of the
nature of the particular initial stimulus, the key to the procedure is concentrating on
it so thoroughly that the meditator becomes unaware of any outside stimulation and
reaches a different state of consciousness.

Meditation: Regulating Our Own State of Consciousness When traditional

practitioners of the ancient Eastern religion of Zen Buddhism want to achieve
greater spiritual insight, they turn to a technique that has been used for centuries to
alter their state of consciousness.

This technique is called meditation. Meditation is a learned technique for

refocusing attention that brings about an altered state of consciousness. Meditation
typically consists of the repetition of a mantra—a sound, word, or syllable— over
and over.

In some forms of meditation, the focus is on a picture, flame, or specific part of the
body. Regardless of the nature of the particular initial stimulus, the key to the
procedure is concentrating on it so thoroughly that the meditator becomes unaware
of any outside stimulation and reaches a different state of consciousness.

After meditation, people report feeling thoroughly relaxed. They sometimes relate
that they have gained new insights into themselves and the problems they are
facing. The long-term practice of meditation may even improve health because of
the biological changes it produces.

For example, during meditation, oxygen usage decreases, heart rate and blood
pressure decline, and brain-wave patterns change (Lee, Kleinman, & Kleinman,
2007; Travis et al., 2009; Steinhubl et al., 2015). Anyone can meditate by
following a few simple procedures. The fundamentals include sitting in a quiet
room with the eyes closed, breathing deeply and rhythmically, and repeating a
word or sound—such as the word one—over and over.

Practiced twice a day for 20 minutes, the technique is effective in bringing about
greater relaxation not only during meditation but afterward. Evidence even
supports long-term positive effects of some kinds of meditation, such as in the
reduction of heart disease (Mohan, Sharma, & Bijlani, 2011; Shaner et al., 2017;
Yadav et al., 2017).

Drug Use: The Highs and Lows of Consciousness

Key Points Part 3

i- What are the major classifications of drugs, and what are their effects?

Drugs of one sort or another are a part of almost everyone’s life. From infancy on,
most people take vitamins, aspirin, cold-relief medicine. However, these drugs
rarely produce an altered state of consciousness. In contrast, some substances,
known as psychoactive drugs, lead to an altered state of consciousness.
Psychoactive drugs influence a person’s emotions, perceptions, and behavior. Yet
even this category of drugs is common in most of our lives. If you have ever had a
cup of coffee or sipped a beer, you have taken a psychoactive drug.

A large number of individuals have used more potent—and more dangerous—

psychoactive drugs than coffee and beer (see Figure); for instance, surveys find
that 41% of high school seniors have used an illegal drug in the last year. In
addition, 30% report having been drunk on alcohol. The figures for the adult
population are even higher (Johnston et al., 2016).

Of course, drugs vary widely in the effects they have on users, in part because they
affect the nervous system in very different ways. Some drugs alter the limbic
system, and others affect the operation of specific neurotransmitters across the
synapses of neurons. For example, some drugs block or enhance the release of
neurotransmitters, others block the receipt or the removal of a neurotransmitter,
and still others mimic the effects of a particular neurotransmitter (Figure).
Addictive drugs produce a physiological or psychological dependence (or both) on
a drug in the user. When a drug is addictive, withdrawal from the drug leads to a
craving for it that may be overpowering and nearly irresistible. In physiological
drug dependence, the body becomes so accustomed to functioning in the presence
of a drug that it cannot function without it.

In psychological drug dependence, people believe that they need the drug to
respond to the stresses of daily living. Although we generally associate addiction
with drugs such as heroin, everyday sorts of drugs, such as caffeine (found in
coffee) and nicotine (found in cigarettes), have addictive aspects as well (Li,
Volkow, & Baler, 2007).

Drugs are not the only source of addiction. Increasing evidence suggests that
people can develop psychological dependence on the use of technologies, such as
social networking sites like Facebook or email. We know surprisingly little about
the underlying causes of addiction. One of the problems in identifying those causes
is that different drugs (such as alcohol and cocaine) affect the brain in very
different ways—yet they may be equally addicting. Furthermore, it takes longer to
become addicted to some drugs than to others, even though the ultimate
consequences of addiction may be equally grave (Nestler & Malenka, 2004; Smart,
2007; Holmes, 2017).