ALTERED STATES OF AWARENESS REVISION

AREAS OF LEARNING – (OUTLINED BY SACE) AKA- WHAT YOU CAN BE ASSESSED ON

 Circadian rhythms
 Sleep deprivation and sleep needs
 Stages of sleep
 Common sleep disorders
 Psychological and physiological arousal; the relationship between arousal and task performance;
 Stress and its effect on health
 Altered states of awareness in everyday experiences and events, including shift work
 Psychological interventions, including psychological therapies for insomnia and stress
 The application of these psychological principles to social issues (e.g. the road toll, workplace
accidents, the influence of shift work on health, and the influence of jet lag on sporting performance)
and personal growth (e.g. improving one’s own stress management, and ‘sleep hygiene’)
 Investigation designs and methods for assessing psychological responses used to study altered states
of awareness
 Ethical issues associated with research and applications in the area of altered states of awareness
YOUR FIRST POINT OF CALL IS THE ALTERED STATES PPT.
Circadian rhythms
 Circadian Rhythms:
 The 24 hour biological cycles found in humans and many other species Accompanied by fluctuations in
temperature, hormone regulation, blood pressure, etc. The rhythmic changes that affect our mental alertness

1. Exposure to light can reset biological clocks

2. When exposed to light receptors in the retina send direct inputs to a small structure in the hypothalamus
called the SUPRA-CHIASMATIC NUCLEUS (SCN)
3. The SCN sends signals to the PINEAL GLAND which secretes MELATONIN.
4. This hormone plays a key role in adjusting biological clocks.
Being out of sync with circadian rhythms is one reason for JET LAG and SHIFT WORK
Sleep deprivation and sleep needs
Why do we need sleep?
Why? Still remains a challenge……
Repair and Restoration
 Sleep promotes physiological processes that rejuvenate the body each night.
 A lot of cell repair occurs during sleep.
 Body strengthens its immune system and eliminates waste products from the muscles during sleep

Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation means going without sleep
 Sleep deprived people are effected in terms of their mood, cognitive tasks, decision making, attention and
perceptual motor tasks.
 Night time workers are known to have fallen Common effects of sleep deprivation
asleep on the job
      increased fatigue
 Some car accidents occur when drivers fall
      depression
asleep at the wheel
      decreased productivity
 Industrial accidents can occur when
      breathing disorders
employees are sleep deprived
      heart disease
      motor vehicle accidents
 Most people cannot stay awake long enough to
provide meaningful research data. Common causes of sleep deprivation include:
Common symptoms of sleep deprivation include:        not allowing enough time for sleep
      sleep disorders
      tiredness - microsleeps
      excessive worry
      irritability, edginess
      depression
      inability to tolerate stress Sleep needs at different ages
      repeated awakenings from noise or trips to the
      problems with concentration and memory
       bathroom
Individuals differ considerably in their natural sleep patterns.
      behavioral, learning or social problems
Most     adults
anything that
in are causes insomnia
comfortable with 6.5ortopoor quality
8 hours of sleep
daily, taken in
      frequent infections
a single period. Children (12-16 hours) and adolescents sleep
     
more than adults, and young adults sleep more than older ones.
Normal sleep consists of four to six behaviorally and
electroencephalographically (EEG) defined cycles.
Deep sleep or slow wave sleep (SWS) (stages 3 and 4)
gradually lessens with age and usually disappears in the
elderly. & amount of sleep
Stages of sleep
 REM sleep is a relatively deep stage of sleep marked by Rapid Eye Movements, high-frequency, low-
amplitude brain waves and vivid dreaming.

 NREM (Non-REM sleep consists of stages 1 –4

 Absence of rapid eye movement
 Relatively little dreaming
 Varied EEG activity

 The sleep cycle is usually repeated about 4 times during the course of a night
 The first REM period lasts only a few minutes
 Subsequent periods get longer, peaking at around 40-60 minutes
 NREM intervals tend to get shorter
 Young adults typically spend about:
 60% of their sleep time in light sleep (stages 1 & 2),
 20% IN SWS (stages 3 & 4) and
 20% in REM sleep

Stage of EEG EMG EOG Other Physiological

Sleep (brain wave patterns (muscle (eye signs
tension) movements)
Alert Beta waves active active Normal
High frequency (13-24 cps)
High amplitude
Waking Brain activity begins to slow to Alpha High Active, may be Normal, relaxed
(relaxed) waves amplitude spiky with eye
Slower frequency 8-12 cps blinks

Stage 1 Only a few minutes High May be rolling People will deny having
(drowsy) Low amplitude, mixed frequency amplitude, been asleep
Theta waves but not Breathing, heart rate,
(4-7 cps) distorted blood pressure start to
Hypnic drop
jerks
Stage 2 Theta waves continue Medium No eye Breathing, heart rate,
(light Sleep spindles (low amplitude, high amplitude movement blood pressure, body
sleep) frequency) temperature continue to
K-complexes (slow, high amplitude drop
waves)
Stage 3 Delta waves Medium or No eye Breathing, heart rate,
(SWS – High amplitude, low frequency low movement blood pressure, body
deep rhythmic waves amplitude, temperature continue to
sleep) Delta waves make up 20% -50% of muscles drop
brain waves relax

Stage 4 Delta waves are more than 50% Relaxed No eye Lower body temp,
(SWS – Deepest stage of sleep movement respiration is decreased
very Harder to wake
deep someone
sleep) If awoken, confused,
disoriented
REM Similar to stage 1. Beta and some Low Sharp Pulse rate, blood
sleep alpha waves Muscles intermittent pressure quicken,
are eye respiration faster
relaxed movements L People report dreaming
to R and up when woken
and down
Common sleep disorders

Insomnia
 Insomnia refers to chronic problems in getting adequate sleep
 Difficulty in falling asleep initially
 Difficulty in remaining asleep
 Persistent early-morning awakening
 Insomnia is also associated with daytime fatigue, impaired functioning, reduced productivity and increased health
problems
Causes
 Excessive anxiety and tension
 Emotionally problems such as depression
 Stress such as pressures at work
 Health problems such as back pain, ulcers, asthma
 Drugs- stimulants such as cocaine and amphetamines
Treatments
See below

Sleep Apnoea
 Sleep Apnoea involves frequent, reflexive gasping for air, that awakens a person and disrupts sleep.
 In its mild form it can lead to snoring
 If severe it can lead to obstruction of the airway and cessation of breathing

Treatments
 Weight loss may help reduce the condition
 Sleep apnoea machine CPAP pump – sufferers wear a mask and air is delivered a low pressure down the
airway to help keep the airway open. No cure however symptoms can be relieved and improve day to day
lives.

Narcolespsy
 Some people suffer from an inability to stay awake
 Narcolepsy involves extreme daytime sleepiness and sudden uncontrollable sleep attacks
 No cure, but stimulant drugs reduce daytime sleepiness
Sleep walking
 Typically occurs in stage 3 or stage 4 of slow wave sleep
 Blank stares, unresponsive, seem vaguely conscious of their environment, go to the bathroom or find
something to eat
 Usually have no memory of the event in the morning
 May be inherited
 May be due to alcohol, stress, illness, medications
 Can be treated using psychotherapy, hypnosis, drugs or routinely awakening before they typically sleepwalk
Nightmares
 Nightmares are frightening, anxiety arousing dreams
 Occur more often during REM sleep
 Persistent nightmares may reflect an emotional disturbance
 Significant stress in one’s life is associated with increased frequency and intensity of nightmares.

Psychological and physiological arousal

Stress:
Stress is a state of heightened arousal.
The sympathetic component of the autonomic nervous system activates the fight or flight response. It is not healthy to
remain in this heightened state of arousal for long periods of time.

Physiological Aspects:
When a person become physiologically aroused the fight-or-flight response causes:
 Increase in respiration to supply the blood with more oxygen
 Heart rate increase and blood pressure increase allowing more oxygen and blood sugar to reach the muscles
 Blood is diverted from the skin (pale, cold and clammy skin is a sign)
 Temperature rises
  We sweat more
 Digestion system slows down or stops
 Muscles become tense

Psychological Aspects:
The fight-or-flight response also causes changes that make us more:
 Irritable
 Anxious
 Excitable
 Psychologically alert to a threat

The relationship between arousal and task performance

Research shows that there is an optimal level of arousal for an individual to achieve optimal performance in a talk.

If arousal is too low or too high then they will not achieve optimal performance.
If arousal is low, you are tired, the performance won’t be as good as it could be.
If arousal is high, you are stressed, overly anxious or worried this will prevent optimal performance.
Optimal levels of arousal vary according to the difficulty or
complexity of the task.

Complex tasks: eg concert pianist, solving maths problems,

requires a low level of arousal for optimal performance

Simple tasks: eg weightlifting, adding simple numbers,

requires a high level of arousal is usually best.

Task familiarity or experience is another factor. If a task is

very familiar a higher level of arousal is needed to reach
optimal performance.

Stress and its effect on health.

Stress is something we all feel at some time.

Stressors can be uncommon or everyday things. They can be both negative and positive (death or marriage)
Alarm Resistence Exhaustion
Stressful events can negatively affect health
GAS- General adaptation syndrome
Prolonged stress
Alarm
Adrenaline is released during the alarm phase
Fight-or-flight response

Stress resistance Normal level of resistance

Resistance
Parasympathetic nervous system conserves energy
Physiological stress symptoms decline but remain slightly
elevated. Hormones adrenaline and cortisol are released
at elevated levels

Exhaustion
The body can no longer sustain the level of arousal. During this time the ability to repair tissue and resist infection is
reduced, people become more prone to illness.

Exhaustion is the key reason why prolonged stress can lead to ill health such as headaches, influenza, depression,
sore throat and backache.

Ultimately stress can have a negative effect on health because the body is less able to fight illness as
resources have been diverted to deal with the stress rather than keep the body’s immune system strong.

Stress often leads to mental health issues such as anxiety or depression and can lead to undesirable behaviours such
as drinking and smoking, less exercise, poor diet and poor concentration.
Psychological principles concerning altered states of awareness in
everyday experiences and events, including shift work, and in
psychological interventions, including psychological therapies for
insomnia and for coping with stress.
Psychological Interventions

Therapies for insomnia

 Prescription and sedative drugs. Although they promote sleep, they reduce the time spent in SWS and REM
sleep
 CBT treatments
Stimulus Control Therapy
Based on the assumption that where a person sleeps becomes associated with factors to do with staying awake.
Many insomnia sufferers can fall asleep in the lounge, but not in bed.
Advice:
1.lie in bed only when you feel sleepy
2.don’t use bed to read, watch tv, eat or worry
3.if you lie in bed but can’t sleep – get up again
4.get up at the same time each morning
5.do not nap during the day

Coping with stress

Problem based strategies
 change the things that are causing stress

Emotion based strategies

 change the negative thoughts about the situation and the negative emotional consequences of the stress
 Cognitive therapy – assumes that a person’s thoughts are causing them psychological problems.
Psychologists use techniques to help people change negative thoughts into more positive ways of thinking
o Cognitive therapy – patients keep a journal of thoughts and moods and then questions the patients
reasons for these.

 Cognitive behaviour therapy- combines cognitive therapy which involves changing thoughts, with behaviour
therapy, which involves chanign behaviour.
o CBT can equip people with problem-solving strategies to better deal with stressful situations
o Patients can learn to plan how to cope with stressful situations
o Useful in treating panic attacks. A patient may be taught breathing techniques and rational analysis of
the beliefs that led to the panic attack.

Application of these psychological principles to social issues (e.g.

the road toll, workplace accidents, the influence of shift work on
health, the influence of jet lag on sporting performance) and
personal growth (e.g. improving one’s own stress management,
‘sleep hygiene’).
Jet Lag
 Jet lag is the temporary maladjustment that occurs when a change of time zone causes biological rhythms
to be out of step with local time.
 Your circadian rhythm is not synchronized with your surroundings
 Symptoms: fatigue, insomnia, disturbed appetite, headaches, irritability, stomach aches, difficulty in concentrating.
 East to West Travel
 Your body clock moves ahead of local time
 Coincides with the body’s tendency to extend the sleep-wake cycle to 25 hours
 Exposure to light later in the day will help delay the circadian cycle
 Is easier to make adjustments in this direction compared with West to East travel
 West to East Travel
 Your body clock falls behind the time of your destination
 Coincides with the body’s tendency to shorten the sleep-wake cycle
 Need to avoid light late in the day to move the body clock forward
  It is harder to make adjustments in this direction than it is for East to West travel
 It is easier to elongate one’s day by staying up later than to try to shorten it by going to sleep earlier

Coping Strategies
 If staying in destination a short time:- eat and sleep on your “home time”
 If staying in destination for a longer time:-
 Eat and sleep according to your destination time before leaving
 Use sunlight to reset your internal clock
Shiftwork
 Shift work disrupts circadian rhythms and hence the body’s sleep-wale cycle is desynchronized
 Changing shifts intensifies the severity of circadian rhythm disturbance
 People can adjust to shifts if the change is relatively permanent. The shift in circadian rhythm remains
constant once the body adapts to it.
Coping strategies
 Rotate shifts clockwise (DAY-EVENINGS-NIGHT)
 Spend more time an one shift
 For night shift workers, sleep in a quiet dark room to foster day time sleep
 Avoid rotating shifts from DAY – NIGHT – EVENINGS

Fatigue and the Road Toll’

 Fatigue is another factor along with speed, alcohol and driver inattentiveness that increases the road toll.
 Fatigue basically means that someone is drowsy, more likely to fall asleep and has impaired performance
such as a slower reaction time.
 Driver fatigue often occurs for people who are driving long distances, such as commercial truck drivers,
however fatigue can also occur because of the timing of the circadian rhythm.
 Many people drive even though they may be sleep deprived due to inadequate sleep the night before(sleep
debt), or due a sleep disorder.
Coping Strategies
 Prior to a long trip have 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep
 Arrange accommodation in advance
 Take 15 minute breaks every 2 hours and eat healthy meals
 Governments can put in rumble strips, provide rest areas, driver revive stations on long weekends, advertising
about powernaps, resting, microsleeps etc
 A delayed circadian rhythm can lead to Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS)

- when a delayed circadian rhythm interferes with one’s lifestyle (e.g. social, family, vocational/occupational)
 Note: possible to have a delayed circadian rhythm yet function quite well
 Estimated 7.5 - 38% of adolescents experience DSPS
 Delay in biological (e.g. body temperature) and psychological (sleep/alertness) circadian rhythms
 How does delayed rhythm fit with typical school hours?
 Therefore, adolescents with DSPS may be asked to function or perform at a time in their circadian rhythm when in
fact they should be asleep.
 The DSPS situation is similar to the effects of sleep and fatigue due to shiftwork.
 Specifically, there are two main problems:
• adolescents working at a time not conducive to their
circadian rhythm,
• adolescents are obtaining less sleep, which builds up over
the 5-day school week.
 Treating DSPS
 Make circadian rhythms of adolescents earlier:
 First, how assess if adolescents are experiencing delayed circadian rhythm.
• objective measures (EEG, body temperature, melatonin, activity monitors)

• subjective measures (sleep/wake diary, reaction time tasks, stanford sleepiness scales, epworth
sleepiness scale, time of day preference scale)

Improving Stress Management

1. develop problem solving strategies
2. avoid stressors by planning ahead
3. use the support of a friend to reduce stress levels
4. exercise is important as physically fit people do not become ill as often whtn they are stressed
5. Good nutrition and adequate sleep
 6. Relaxation techniques help reduce physiological arousal. Do an activity you find calming – music, reading,
cooking, writing in a journal

Sleep Hygiene
1. Stick to a consistent wake up time and bedtime every day of the week
2. have a quiet and comfortable sleep environment
3. Don’t consume caffeine within 4 hours of going to bed
4. Don’t nap during the day
5. Make a worry list – don’t take problems to bed
6. Establish a bedtime routine – tv off at 9, shower, read a book, lights off at 10pm

Investigation designs and methods of assessing psychological

responses used to study altered states of awareness.
Investigation Designs
Experimental
Providing participants with white noise and experimenting on quality of sleep
Experimenting in a sleep lab with different amounts of sleep deprivation

Quantitative Observational
Observing sleep in sleep labs
Observing road statistics and reported levels of fatigue
Observing reported levels of stress on exam performance

Qualtitative
Conducting focus groups to seek information on thoughts and experiences about sleep or stress

Measures

Sleep and fatigue:

Objective measures
 EEG machine measures brain activity and shows different brain waves for different stages of sleep

Subjective measures
 Epworth sleepiness scale – scoring estimated levels of sleepiness throughout the day on a rating scale
 Stanford Sleepiness scale – rating 7 statements about alertness to determine current levels of alertness

Qualitative measures
 Open ended questions or focus groups discussing sleepiness and the effects of fatigue

Stress and arousal

Objective measures
 Polygraph – measure heart rate, GSR, blood pressure, breathing rate to determine levels of stress – assumes
that stress increases these measures.

Subjective measures
 Social Readjustment Scale – list of item such as divorce, death,. moving house, holidays, marriage,
pregnancy and gives each of these items a score out of 100 for the level of stress in someone’s life.

Qualitative measures
 Focus groups or Delphi technique questions.

Ethical issues associated with research and applications in the area

of altered states of awareness.
Same ethical issues applpy to all research conducted on stress and sleep.

It is important for researchers to be aware that people with sleep disorders or who are stressed are particular
vulnerable and may not think things through thoroughly. It is important for psychologists to consider this when gaining
informed consent and voluntary participation from participants.

Due to vulnerability it is important to minimize the harm and remain alert to distress of participants.
PSYCHOBIOLOGY OF ALTERED STATES OF AWARENESS (20 marks)

24. Researchers collected data from sixty-two nurses working for 28 days of shift work. The shift work included working at
different times of the day and night. Each nurse recorded the number of hours slept in the 24 hours before each work shift. On
average, the nurses slept only 6.5 hours. They were found to have moderate to high levels of
stress and exhaustion on one out of three working days. More studies are planned to investigate the way each of the stages of sleep
is affected by shift-work schedules.
Source: Adapted from J. Dorrian et al., ‘Sleep, stress and compensatory behaviors in Australian nurses and midwives’,
Revista de Saúde Pública (2011), vol. 45, p. 922–30.

• Discuss how two symptoms of sleep deprivation might affect the performance of nurses.

• Explain how the long-term health of nurses might be affected if they continue to experience high levels of stress.

• Explain two strategies that could be used to reduce sleep deprivation in nurses who work shifts.

• Describe one stage of sleep and how it might be affected for a nurse who works shifts.
4. Arousal can be beneficial, or it can be harmful.

(a) Explain one way in which arousal has a beneficial effect when a person is responding to a threat.
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(b) Using an example, describe the relationship between arousal and optimal task performance.
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(c) Describe one psychological intervention that could be used in the treatment of chronic arousal.
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(d) The arousal levels of jet-lagged travellers may affect how they perform tasks in a different time zone.

Describe one strategy to overcome the negative effect of jet lag on performance.
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5. (a) One feature of REM sleep is rapid eye movement.

Describe two other features of REM sleep.

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(b) Sleep can be investigated in a number of ways.

(i) Describe one objective method of collecting data about sleep.

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(ii) Describe one disadvantage of using subjective data about sleep.

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