States of Consciousness

States of Consciousness

After successfully completing the Week Two Interactive Tutorial entitled, Consciousness: Sleep, Dreams, Hypnosis, and Drugs, I can best explain the four states of consciousness as stated herein.

Waking consciousness. Waking consciousness is the state in which thoughts, feelings, and sensations are clear, organized. Waking consciousness is the state in which a person feels alert. An example would be doing your daily activities.

Sleep/dreams: Your body must sleep. You have internal clock that tells you when to go to sleep and when to wake up. Everyone needs at least eight hours of sleep. An example would be going to bed every night at a set time. There are four stages of sleep. These stages are:

•Stage One: Light sleep, averaging 10 minutes, where brain waves, called theta waves, are active and indicate the early stages of sleep. This is when dreams are more likely to occur.

•Stage Two: Lasts approximately 20 minutes, marked by brief bursts of brain wave activity known as sleep spindles.

•Stages three and four: Deep sleep, averaging thirty to forty minutes in each stage, where delta waves or long, slow waves indicate these deepest stages of sleep.

Hypnosis is the state of consciousness in which a person is especially susceptible or likely to be receptive. It can produce amnesia and reduce pain but it can’t give increased strength or enhance one’s memory.

Two theories of hypnosis are Hilgard’s theory (dissociative theory) where he believed that the part of the mind he called the “Hidden Observer” was fully aware of what was going on and Social cognitive theory, was where people under hypnosis were fully aware of what was going on and were playing into the part of what was expected of them. An example would be a clinical setting where a Psychologist uses Hypnosis to heal a patient’s unresolved trauma.

Drugs: A person can develop a physical or psychological dependence on psychoactive drugs. Drugs are classified as...