States of Consciousness and Factors Affecting Them

State of Consciousness is something we are aware of but also something that needs to be learned more about throughout our education. The term of consciousness has been used to describe the experience of the awareness that humans have, involving the awareness of internal and external stimuli. The meaning behind internal stimuli is the feeling of pain, hunger, thirst, sleepiness, having the sense of thoughts, creating emotions. In the other hand for external stimuli is a form of awareness of being able to see sunlight and hearing voices of people (Chapter 5). There are different forms of awareness they are not always the same. People might experience the same things but with different experiences that also includes the unique outcomes of, in many levels of awareness on a regular basis throughout every day. In this research paper it is going to teach the following about different types of State of Consciousness that include, the different levels of sleep and the use of stimulants, depressants, opioids. In the other part of the paper it will be using the stages and the us of substances in stories. 

         State of Consciousness are temporary changes of states in social perception

Humans go through many different cycles throughout their life time for example born, adulthood and death, but not forgetting to stay alive and healthy humans need food to get their energy, health and many more portions. One important cycle we must do every day is sleep, it has been stated that sleep is a state marked by relatively low levels of physical activity, and also reduced sensory awareness ( Chapter 5 SOC) this indeed has to do because throughout the day people have deal with work and school and most of their energy has been reduced. In our lifespan it is know that when were younger, we spend up to 16 hours a day sleeping or more sometimes, for example new born babies and toddlers need their good amount of sleep, but once we come older that number of  hours of sleep we take in a much lower. Adults have much less sleep because their sleeping schedules change so frequently meaning they cannot maintain it anymore; this becomes super difficult. It stated that people who are rotating shifts at work are likely to experience disruptions in circadian cycles a disruptions (Chapter 5) when having to experience disruptions in sleep the individuals go through it because they may be working very odd hours in every different shift that is assigned to them. Their hours of sleep and schedules have changed so frequently it has started to become very difficult for one to maintain a normal sleep cycle. After things become challenging to maintain sleep cycle it starts to have a result in having sleeping problems, which it may start creating and showing signs of many things like anxiety etc. For Example, one of the coworkers I know has started working morning, nights and not forgetting overnight this has created a problem for this individual. The person has started to become super sick and has lack of sleep after doing her overnight shifts, during the morning she can barely keep her eyes open, without having red eyes or feeling stressed throughout the days and shifts. Also has started going to the doctors due having many different signs of anxiety and stress, also being sick everyday because her body and mind aren’t used it having to change so frequently having no time to recover. Rotating shifts has pervasive effects one’s life.

During our sleep we are usually passing through four different stages, 1,2,3, 4 and REM sleep (Rapid eye movement) sleep. It has been established that sleep influences the way our body functions daily, understanding these stages can help improve our sleep. There are two main types of sleep it states the following, one non rapid eye movement (NREM) it is known has quiet sleep this are basically the stages 1-4. Two Rapid eye movement (REM) this is also known as active sleep or paradoxical sleep (Cherry). In the earliest phases of sleep, you’re still going to be relatively awake and be very much alert of anything around you. This is meanly because our brain is producing what is known as beta waves. In many cases you can still hear sounds around you, or the feeling someone is calling your name. That’s because during this phrase the brain starts to slow down and relax, the slower waves known as alpha waves are starting to produce, but your still not asleep yet. It’s been stated that sleep characterized by certain patterns of activities in the brain that is visualized using electroencephalography, know has (EEG) the different phases of sleep can also be differentiated by using EEG too (Chapter 5). Electroencephalography is a non- invasive test that records electrical activities in our brains, the records are measurements of the waves. This can be also used to evaluate and diagnose conditions such as sleep disorders (Peters, MD). Have you ever falling asleep and have woken yourself due the fact you twitched or startled, well this is most commonly known as Myoclonic jerk, this episode is normal, and all humans do this during the beginning of the earliest stages of sleep. Well moving forward, the four stages well explain more into depth about the different types of phase we all must go through every time we sleep.

Stage one of sleep. This first stage is known as NREM, during this first stage of sleep it is well known more of the “transitional phase sleep” what we all know is just normal sleep when feeling tired. This transitional phase of sleep tends occurs between the wakefulness of sleep (Chap 5 stages of sleep). In this stage many individuals are just drifting in and off sleep, this stage is more a fighting stage because we might be trying to stay awake longer for many different reasons or we might want sleep, but our body and mind is having a difficult time doing so. During this stage many things are involved with it, it states that often our rates of respiration and heartbeat start beginning to slow down, also have the decrease of muscle and body temperature. During the second page it was states that in this stage one involves the brain waves, is also being associated with alpha and theta waves. Kendra Cherry has stated during this very first stage the brain is producing very high amplitude of theta waves. When it comes to alpha waves, they are lower than theta. Alpha waves frequency is said to be 8-13 Hz this is an indeed a high amplitude of waves, not forgetting patterns of an electrical activity that is occurring in the brain to than become synchronized (Chap, 5 stages of sleep). In the EEG graph it shows that the waves in stage 1 NREM Alpha is like someone that is awake. In many cases people that are going through this first stage of sleep when woken up from their brief sleep they claim that they were never asleep or were falling asleep.

Stage two of sleep. Moving forward during stage 2 the body than goes into a state of deep relaxation. This stage is different from the first stage one, because how it was stated one is more relaxed, people are less aware of their surroundings. They are not drifting on and off sleep. Realizing stages one and two have some similar wave patterns but with a different look to it, in stage one the waves are very thick and stage two waves are super thin, you can find pictures in Chapter 5 and Robert and Jake’s Article or by searching it. Its stated that very high intensity brain waves are thought to be associated to the processing of memories which means that in NREM stage two it makes up about 55% of our sleep (Biswas Diener and Jake Teeny). By during this stage also, the eye movement has stop and the brain waves activity become slower, than it states occurring that there is a burst of rapid waves that are called sleep spindles.

Stage three and four of sleep. This last to stages of are referred as deep sleep because people are much move harder to wake up in these two last stages, in other stages it is faster to wake them up due them being drifting on and off sleep. During this stage an individual’s muscles are relaxed, the heart rate and breathing rate drop very slowly. Stage three and four of sleep is characterized by the low frequency which is up to 4 Hz because of high amplitude delta waves (Chapter 5 SOS). These stages three and four is made up of “20-25%” of all sleep this can mean that most humans go through these stages after falling asleep, and the other usually go into the stages one and two. The alpha brain waves levels are increased which can be associated to the wakefulness of stage one. Individuals that are awakened during these stages of sleep “deep sleep” they have a hard time adjusting immediately, it been stated by most people that they have the feeling of being disoriented for a couple of minutes after they have been woken up, which something I can agree too because during the time I have gone through deep sleep than woken up, there’s a feeling of disoriented.

REM sleep. When going into REM sleep, the brain starts becoming more active, including our body also becoming relaxed and immobilized. During this time dreams start to happen unlike the other stages of sleep. This stage is known as Rapid Eye Movement because our eyes move so rapidly. The brain waves of sleep in this stage of REM are super like of those observed when a people are awake stage one. REM Sleep is always being has been associated with paralysis of the muscle system in the body, there is an expectation of what is called circulation and respiration possible (Chapter 5).  Which means that there the movements that are being occurred are voluntary muscles during REM sleep the body is indeed temporarily paralyzed during sleep. REM sleep is known as many things like “deep sleep” but it often referred to as paradoxical sleep because of its high brain activity also the lack of muscle. Wagner, Gais and Born have stated that NREM sleep and REM have been implicated in the learning and memory meaning REM sleep has associated them. When comes to this last stage of sleep there many things that is interesting during REM sleep because it is also associated / involved with emotional processing and regulations (Chapter 5). There is something called REM rebound which is struggled that it is homeostatically regulated.

Stages one, two, three and four also not forgetting REM sleep are the stages human beings must go through when they want to sleep or are falling asleep. The stages people should be in is stages three and four, also REM sleep because in these stages they are not waking up so easily, feeling for relaxed. Many people go through sleep problems and disorders, there are a hand full of sleep disorders, like Insomnia, Parasomnias, sleepwalking. Sleep problems is something humans through because of the amount of stress due work or school. Sleep is super important for everyone and we shouldn’t stay up late, we need the relaxed and our body tells us when becoming tired throughout the day.

Alcohol and other depressants. A depressant is a drug that tends to suppress our central nervous system. They slow down the body’s physiology and mental processes. Alcohol and other different types of depressants are most widely used by people to get over something and then later start losing their state of consciousness throughout the process, because people that take alcohol are usually the ones that want to forget everything and live in the movement. The alcohol effects include the reduction of inhibition (Biswas and Teeny) this means that people are intoxicated are very likely to act in ways would be reluctance to when being sober. Elizabeth Hartney a PhD states that depressants are the examples of reduced feeling and relief of anxiety, including the relaxation of muscle, this means people that take depressants to be more relaxed and forget tensely. When a person abuses alcohol they will experience a loss of consciousness or more likely to have difficulty remembering the event they have gone through the night before. People can become super dependent on substances or depressants like alcohol to great, and if they don’t have depressants and substances will exhibit signs of both tolerance and withdrawals (Chapter 5). This can be serious effect when someone becomes addicted, which can be life-threatening in anyway. The topic of substances is called Opioids. When it comes to the different types of categories in substances opioids are in one the same category of drugs. In this category opioid involves morphine and methadone, heroin not forgetting codeine. This opioid has extremely high potential for abuse. When it comes to heroin it’s been a major opioid drug for abuse, people usually can snort, smoke and even inject intravenously, meaning injecting it into body going through the blood (Chapter 5). Then there’s codeine this drug is relatively low potency, the doctors prescribe this for minor pains people might have. Just how other opioids and depressant like morphine and methadone, heroin have abuse so does codeine have a high abuse potential. People are always finding ways get the substances and depressants to stay clear and live in the moment abusing and using things to be in a different state of self-consciousness.

This is the story about a young girl named Jasmine Glacier aged 15, and her well known parents that are psychology professor’s Dr. Marie, Wayne Glacier. Jasmines life is going to be changing a lot because she will be moving away from her hometown of Boston, to the state of California. Throughout hearing about the big move, she begins to express her unhappiness with the change because she does not want to leave her friends and the place, she has called home since was little to begin a life somewhere else. Jasmine is aware about her parents’ job and how important it is to them, she doesn’t to be selfish about home she feels because she wants her parent’s opportunity to teach at California State University to succeed. The parents have started to become popular in their careers. Enough about the parents for now, let’s get into how this story begins and see how it plays out for Jasmine, and the family.

Dr. Marie, Wayne Glacier originally worked for many different colleges and hospitals, and started to get popular through their literatures, because of their beliefs and theories about the psychology ways others teach also how they teach it. Whenever Dr. Marie and Wayne Glacier had literatures about different topics but many about state of consciousness, Jasmine never wants attends the events because she is not too interested in her parents’ careers. But it is very understandable because she wants to be her own person and wants to start doing different activities, Jasmine used to go when she was little and loved seeing her parents up on stage talking but things have changed throughout her teenage years. When getting to California jasmine is still very enraged about the big move crossed the state. Her parents can tell how she is feeling and are trying everything to comforting her, both parents are sitting her down telling her that everything will turn out fine and that she needs to understand the big opportunity they all have. Jasmine is just nervous but feels better when her parents help her see the bigger picture. Her mother comes up to the room and tells Jasmine something is hopefully make her happy and excused, Marie says they have a friend that has a daughter her age and is also going to start the same high school has she is going to attend. Oh, yes says Jasmine she’s starts to be forget about how she was feeling not to long ago, happy she can become friends with someone that’s attending the same high school. A month before starting school she starts becoming super interested in her parents’ job at the college, unlike before she didn’t really give it to much attention or thought out about until she started getting mock trails of her parent’s assignments they had planned out for there lessons. Jasmine decides to in enroll in psychology class in he need high school

In the first day of school Jasmine gets the basic introduction of psychology, she learns that psychology is the scientific study, that studies of the mind and its behavior which includes and covers multiple areas. Throughout the different mentions of topics, that jasmines teacher speaks about, there is only one she likes to know about more is the area her parents teach and that is state of consciousness. Months pass she starts to learn about the different states of consciousness like the 5 stages of sleep, Jasmine must talk about the 5 stages of sleep. In her project jasmine talks about the two main types of sleep, she tells everyone that there is Non repaid eye movement (NREM) which is known to be quiet sleep that happens in stages 1 to 4. Then other is two Rapid eye movement (REM), Jasmine tells everyone about the brain wave. Her teacher cuts her off short due because time has run out, her friends want to go over her house and learn more about the states of consciousness. One of her friends’ states that she has a hard time sleeping at night and Jasmine tells her she might only be going through stage 1 during this first stage of sleep it is well known more of the “transitional phase sleep” because it is hard for the friend to sleep. Jasmine tells her friend that transitional sleep is a phase that is slowly going into sleep.

Dr. Marie, jasmine’s mother, she is always studying and teaching her students about the stage of sleep known as REM (Rapid eye movement). Dr. Marie knowns that during REM (Rapid eye movement) is when the brain becomes very active during sleep. Dr. Marie does not only study or teach this stage of sleep, she goes through this stage every night. She’s always feeling relaxed and within this stage she loves to sleep dream, in the dreams she has multiply ones. Sometimes in REM sleep

Dr. Wayne is a professor and is the husband of Dr. Marie and father of Jasmine, before he met and married Marie he was a person that used depressants, he was using drugs drinking alcohol during those time he was going through dark ones but then he met Marie and she helped him overcome them

Work cited

• Biswas Diener Robert/ Tenny Jake Portland State University, the Ohio State University NOBA State of Consciousness
• https://nobaproject.com/modules/states-of-consciousness
• Cherry Kendra Updated 09 March (2019) Verywell mind States of consciousness, understanding human consciousness
• https://www.verywellmind.com/lesson-four-states-of-consciousness-2795293       
• Cherry Kendra  The 4 stages of sleep (NREM and REM Sleep cycles) Medically reviewed by a board certified physician Updated 14 March 2019 https://www.verywellhealth.com/the-four-stages-of-sleep-2795920
• Hartney Elizabeth, PhD the different types of psychoactive drugs medically reviewed by a board-certified physician 25 March 2019
• https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-psychoactive-22500
• Lumen Introduction to Psychology what is Consciousness. Chapter 5: State of Consciousness
• https://courses.lumenlearning.com/bunkerhill-intropsych/chapter/what-is-consciousness/
• Lumen Introduction to Psychology stages of sleep. Chapter 5: State of Consciousness
• https://courses.lumenlearning.com/bunkerhill-intropsych/chapter/stages-of-sleep/
• Lumen Introduction to Psychology Substance Use and Abuse. Chapter 5: State of Consciousness 
• https://courses.lumenlearning.com/bunkerhill-intropsych/chapter/substance-use-and-abuse/
• https://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/consciousness/section5/
• https://www.europeanbedding.sg/blogs/articles/103744774-learn-how-to-sleep-better-by-understanding-sleep-cycles-stages
• https://www.sleepscore.com/stages-of-sleep/?g
• https://www.sleepassociation.org/about-sleep/what-is-sleep/