David Soto

3/23/20
Dr. Schlif
General Psychology

Mid Term Exam

Question 1. In Chapter 4, we discussed consciousness, explain what it means to alter the state of
consciousness?

An altered state of consciousness is a temporary change from a person’s normal mental

state without being unconscious. A person may not know current or past events that
affected his or her experience, thought, and action or may represent objects and events that
don't relate to anything at that moment. A person may also be more aware of events than
usual or can transcend beyond normal control. It also means one has different levels of
awareness and can range from alertness to non-alertness. A conscience can also be altered
intentionally or accidentally, depending on who’s in control. Judging one’s altered
consciousness can be based on their characteristics like limitations, mental processes,
distortions, emotional awarenesses, self control, and time orientation.

Common factors that can alter the state of consciousness are dreams, hypnosis, drugs,
alcohol, and hallucinations. Dreams can alter the state of consciousness because one’s
imagination can completely change their life in that dream alone. Hypnosis is a calm state
to help someone regain memories or improve behavior but loses voluntary action and can
only respond with suggestions. Drugs can negatively alter a state of consciousness as well as
alcohol because one isn’t allowed to process and think as clearly as if they were sober,
sometimes personalities completely change and won’t wear off for sometime with one not
knowing what all happened during that time. Hallucinations are experiences or visions that
can also alter someone’s consciousness because they aren’t seeing reality as everybody else,
certain situations will have someone talking to something that isn’t there or isn’t real.

Question 2. Explain processes/Stages of sleep?

REM is the stage of sleep when the eyes move rapidly under the eyelids and the person is
usually experiencing a dream. NREM sleep is any of the stages of sleep that doesn’t include
any rapid eye movement under the eyelids. Stage 1 is referred to as light sleep which means
someone falls asleep but isn’t in deep sleep yet, lasts around 1-7 minutes, and one’s
heartbeat, breathing, eye movement, and brain waves slows down while muscles relax with
whole body jerks. Stage 2 is referred to as sleep spindles which means someone still isn’t in
deep sleep yet, lasts around 10-25 minutes, and one’s heartbeat, breathing, brain waves
slows down even more, eye movement stops, body temperature drops, and muscles relax
even more with seconds of burst activity. Stages 1&2 are considered the lighter sleep stages
where the body is active with movements.

Now with Stage 3&4, the body is at its lowest level of functioning which is considered one’s
deep sleep. It usually lasts around 20-40 minutes and one’s heartbeat, breathing, and brain
waves are at its slowest point, eye movements stop while muscles are relaxed and still.
During REM sleep, one’s brain is now active and begins to dream. It usually lasts around
20-40 minutes and now breathing speeds up and irregulates, blood pressure goes up, heart
rate goes up, and eye movements are very rapid. The stages typically go in the order of
light sleep to deep sleep, back to light sleep and then REM sleep but it all depends on how
one’s body naturally sleeps.

Question 3. Define "waking life" in reference to the 5 senses.

Waking life is the reality of one’s consciousness. It is the state in which thoughts, feelings,
and sensations are clear and organized, and the person feels alert of their surroundings.
Some say that one’s waking life and dreams correlate with each other based on what has
happened in the waking life. There have been connections with waking life, dreams, and
the 5 senses of the human body. The 5 senses that humans have are the sense of sight,
hearing, touch, smell, and taste which all play a very crucial role in one’s life. Since one
uses their 5 senses during their waking life, their bodies are so used to it that they feel like
they are really seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting their 5 senses in their
dreams even though they physically can’t.

As one dreams when they sleep, sometimes it can feel so real that one can describe every
little detail the moment they wake up, as if they were actually living in the dream. Someone
can see something and remember every color they saw, the street they were on, who they
saw, and what kind of day it was. Someone can hear something like who’s voice it was,
whether it were a male or female, if the voice was deep or not, what sounds were happening
around them like maybe cars, crowds of people, and more. Someone can touch an object
like a phone, open or close something, a person, an animal, and describe what it felt like
with examples like a big, cold glass phone or the animal they touched happened to be a
thick, hairy dog. Someone can smell something in their dream like food, gas, stenches,
drinks and describe how it actually smells like because humans in their waking life develop
a remembrance of smells that somehow carries on throughout one’s dreams. Someone can
dream about tasting something and remember exactly what it tasted like because it’s the
same situation with smelling. Waking life and our 5 senses is something that is so impactful
for us humans because it will travel with us no matter what state of consciousness we are
in.