Consciousness Sleep

& Dreams

Consciousness

The awareness or perception of the environment and of

one's own mental processes.

William JamesConsciousness is • ... Always Changing - "No state once

gone can recur and be identical with what it was before."

• ... A Personal Experience – I cannot experience your conscious experience.

• ... Continuous - our awareness is not broken into pieces, and there are no gaps. "Consciousness then does not appear to itself chopped up in bits...It is nothing jointed; it flows. A river or stream is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness..."

• ... Selective - awareness is a matter of making choices, of selecting what to attend to and what to ignore.

On introspection:"The attempt at introspective analysis in these cases is in fact like seizing a spinning top to catch its motion, or trying to turn up the gas quickly enough to

see how the darkness looks."

Introspection

Exploring conscious mental processes by looking inward and

reporting on sensation and perception.

(Criticized for not being scientific)

The Continuum of Consciousness

1. Controlled Processes2. Automatic Processes

3. Daydreaming4. Altered States

5. Sleep and Dreams6. Unconscious/Preconscious

(Subconscious)

7. Unconsciousness

Controlled Processes

Activities that require full awareness, alertness,

and concentration.

Example: Talking on phone while driving.

Require little awareness/minimal

attention, and do not interfere with other activities.

Examples• Eating while watching a movie• Driving a car along a familiar road while listening to the radio

Automatic Processes

• Requires low level of awareness • Often occurs during automatic processes

• Involves fantasizing or dreaming while awake

Daydreaming

Daydreaming begins in a relatively

conscious state then drifts

into a state between sleep and

wakefulness.

Daydreams often serve to remind

us of important things in our future.

Altered States

State of awareness that differ from normal consciousness. (Meditation, Hypnosis, Psychoactive drugs and Sleep deprivation)

Sleep: Five stages of various levels of awareness, consciousness, and

responsiveness, as well as different levels of physiological arousal.

Dreaming:State of consciousness in which we are asleep but experience

visual, auditory, and tactile images, often connected in strange ways and often in color.

Total lack of sensory awareness and responsiveness.

`Unconsciousness