Chapter 4

Consciousness and altered states

Circadian rhythms – sleep/wake and temperature, suprachiasmatic nucleus (melatonin), jet lag, shift work (subjective night, problems, factors that influence), neurological disorders (head injury, Alzheimer’s)

EEG, alert (beta waves), relaxed (alpha waves), hypnagognic sleep

nonREM – Stage 1 (theta waves), stage 2, stage 3 (delta waves), stage 4 (sleep walking or somnambulism, sleep talking or somniloquy, sleep terrors)

REM – paradoxical sleep, REM paralysis, REM rebound, epinephrine, nocturnal erection

Sleep cycles through night, sleep changes as we age, variations in sleep, larks and owls

Sleep deprivation problems (microsleeps), brain

Other sleep disorders – insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, REM sleep disorder

Rest and repair theory, evolutionary (circadian) theory

Dreams - wish fulfillment (manifest/latent content), reverse learning, off-line (dream for survival), activation-synthesis

Content of dreams, dreams and the brain, lucid dreams

Hypnosis – hypnotically susceptible, elements for induction

What can do – pain perception, posthypnotic suggestion, medical use

Myths – act against will, memory improvement, age regression, superhuman strength, embarrassing secrets

Theories of hypnosis – sociocognitive, neodissociation, dissociated control