The Phenomenon of an Altered State of Consciousness

The Phenomenon of an Altered State of Consciousness and Sleep Observations Nastassja Lopez AIT

The Phenomenon of an Altered State of Consciousness Abstract: This paper explores the phenomenon of an altered state of consciousness dealt while

dreaming. This altered state is reached through the beginning and end of the REM cycle. This phenomenon is explained through the observation of a willing subject to better understand the sleep cycles and this altered state to produce a better comprehension of what the human body goes through when falling asleep and sleeping. The Phenomenon of an Altered State of Consciousness: The task is to observe the behavior of someone during REM or rapid-eye movement sleep. The person I observed was my sister who after 10 minutes of lying down fell asleep and so stage 1 of the sleeping cycle ensued. My sister started the light sleeping cycle so I had to be extra careful of my movements as to not disturb her. Around 10 minutes, I guessed that she fell into stage 2 sleep because she remained calm (except she turned and tossed quite and did not wake up. After 20 minutes, my sister went into the transitional period between light and deep sleep or stage 3 sleep. I was still careful enough so I would not wake her up early in her sleep.

This transitional period of sleep lasted around another 15 minutes, at least which is what I think. After that she experienced stage 4 sleep which was deep sleep and nothing could wake her up; she slept calmly. That stage lasted a good 30 minutes until I finally saw the beginnings of stage 5 or REM sleep. Since REM sleep is characterized by bursts of rapid eye movements, I waited to see more motion coming from my sister. Her eyes were not constantly moving but they did dart back and forth. Her eyes also stopped for a while and then they jerked back and forth again. Her eyes appeared to move in the same direction just like they do normally.

The Phenomenon of an Altered State of Consciousness

Due to some research after I was done with my observations, some scientists believe that the eye movements of REM sleep are because of visual projection of dreams, but scientists do not know why they exist or for what function they exist. Other valuable information that I learnt was that while muscle tone is normal in NREM sleep, in REM sleep we are almost completely paralyzed. During REM sleep, the important muscles continue to function while the other muscles go limp. The main muscles that continue to function are: the heart, diaphragm, eye muscles, and smooth muscles (the intestines and blood vessels.)