Consciousness

Consciousness – the awareness of the feelings, thoughts and sensations being experienced at a given moment. Consciousness is our subjective understanding of both the environment around us and our private internal world, unobservable to outsiders.

In waking consciousness, we are awake and aware of our thoughts, emotions, and perceptions.

Firstly, I want to talk about sleep and dreams. There are 5 stages of sleep.

1.      Stage 1 sleep – the state of transition between wakefulness and sleep characterized by relatively rapid, low amplitude brain waves.

2.      Stage 2 sleep – a deeper sleep than that of stage 1 sleep.

3.      Stage 3 sleep – sleep characterized by slow brain waves with greater peaks and valleys in the wave pattern.

4. Stage 4 sleep – the deepest stage of sleep when we are least responsive to outside stimulation.
5. REM sleep – sleep occupying 20% of an adult’s sleeping time, characterized by increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate.

Sigmund Freud viewed dreams as a guide to the unconscious. In his unconscious wish fulfillment theory, he proposed that dreams represent unconscious wishes that dreamers desire to see fulfilled.  According to Freud, dreams have both a manifest content (an apparent story line) and latent content (a true meaning).

There are some major sleep disorders, for example insomnia – is a sleep disorder, characterized by difficulty sleeping. Sleep apnea is a condition in which people have difficulty sleeping and breathing at the same time. People with narcolepsy have an uncontrollable urge to sleep.

Now, I want to speak about hypnosis.  Hypnosis – a trancelike state of heightened susceptibility to the suggestions of others. Hypnosis can be used to solve practical human problem. For example, controlling pain, reducing smoking, threating psychological disorders, assisting in law enforcement, improving athetic performance. However, people cannot ne hypnotized against their will.

Meditation - a learned technique for refocusing attention that brings about an altered state of unconsciousness. Different cultures have developed their own unique ways to alter states of consciousness.

Talking about drugs, there are 2 types of them.

1.      Psychoactive drugs – drugs that influence a person’s behavior, emotions, and perceptions.

2.      Addictive drugs – drugs that produce a biological or psychological dependence in the user.

There are 4 categories of drugs:

• Stimulants – drugs that have an arousal effect on the central nervous system, causing a rise in heart rate, blood pressure, and muscular tension. For example, nicotine, caffeine, cocaine.
• Depressants – drugs that slowdown the nervous system. Alcohol is the most frequently used depressant.
• Narcotics – drugs that increase relaxation and relieve pain and anxiety. Morphine, heroine – they are particularly dangerous.
• Hallucinogen – a drug that is capable of hallucinations or changes in the perceptual process. LSD, ecstasy, marihuana.