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What is Consciousness?
What is Consciousness?
Consciousness is our awareness about internal and external senses. The main way of drifting from consciousness to unconsciousness is through sleep. Sleep is reduced levels of physical activity and sensory awareness.
Credit : Michigan Medicine
Credit: Epomedicine
Stages of Consciousness
Stages of Consciousness
Things like biological rhythms, circadian rhythms, and other body mechanisms affect our consciousness. This includes how the body processes sunlight to indicate where they should set their internal clock in order to sleep (reduce sensory awareness and physical activity). In the levels of sleep, the frequency of our beta has a more relaxed wave, REM (Rapid eye movement) and NREM (Non rapid eye movement) sleep eventually taking over in the levels.
Stage 1 sleep
Stage 1 involves non-rapid eye movement (NREM). This stage is about the halfway point between being awake and asleep. Your body finally starts to relax and slow down. Alpha and theta waves cooperate during this stage as your drift into sleep. Alpha waves appear when the body is relaxed, having a lower frequency (but the person is still awake). This then moves to theta waves which lowers the frequency even more. Most people are not even fully asleep at this stage.
Stage 2 sleep
Stage 2 also involves NREM sleep when the body relaxes even more. Theta waves start to dominate completely. This stage can be unique because the mind starts to get random, quick ruptures of activity. These events come with high frequency waves, along with high amplitudes from K-complexes. K-complexes can change the wave pattern due to disruption or arousal.
Stage 3 sleep
When begining stage three, you may stay in NREM but also move to a deep sleep. Delta waves start to dominate, being low frequency and high amplitude. Physiological process start to slow more, including breathing and heart rate. If you try to wake up someone from this stage, they are likely to be more groggy and unsatisfied with their rest.
In stage 3 sleep, the body would soon transfer to rapid eye movement (REM). During REM sleep, you would also generally paralysis and achieve dreams, which are visuals and sensations that you might experience.
Stage 4 sleep
Stage 4 sleep occurs when your body is returning to a state of wakefulness. Your breathing and heartrate increases, dreams start fading, and REM transitions back to NREM. Your bodies alarm clock is getting ready to go off so you can start the day energized.
Another condition can be narcolepsy (which can also be identified with cataplexy). Narcolepsy is the inability to stay awake at unpredictable times or periods, it's almost like your body turns off for an amount of time. As of now, narcolepsy has no cure. However, it is comomly manages by medications that help you stay awake or keep your muscles from weakening. Some people also take scheduled naps so their body can stay energized for longer.
Credit: Sleep Practitioners
Many other examples of sleep disorders can follow Sudden infant death syndrome (which is similar to sleep apnea), sleep behavior disorder, Restless leg syndrome, and many more.
Sleep Problems and Disorders
Sleep Problems and Disorders
There can be problems associated with sleeping that can happen spontaneously or over time. An example is sleep apnea, which is when your body stops breathing properly from a blockage or a sensor failing to get the message across for a part of your sleep. This can last for 15 seconds and above. these episodes are more commonly found in more overweight people, but identified in infants as well if they are having trouble sleeping at night. For treatment, people would usually use a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) that pumps air into people's lungs.
For all of these problems, medications are one of the primary treatments to regulate the mind or body more appropriately. Types of drugs include Stimulants, Sedative hypnotics (Depressants), Opiates, and Hallucinogens. However, these can get addicting if not handled appropriately, which could lead to more problems.
Credit: Ananda Washington
Additional States of Consciousness
Additional States of Consciousness
There are other possible states of consciousness like Hypnosis and Meditation. Hypnosis involves having an extreme attention to something in your external senses, like a visual, sound, etc. Meditation is the art of centering your entire body and focusing on a single element in your current being (breathing, ruffling of trees, a tune, etc). These skills are also great and therapeutic recovery symptoms that can center and relax your mind right before bed.
References:
Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020). Psychology 2e. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/details/books/psychology-2e
Patel, A. K. (2024, January 26). Physiology, sleep stages. StatPearls [Internet]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK526132/
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