Consciousness Overview

DNA is a quantum computer that localizes non-local, omnipresent consciousness into spacetime energy information and matter.

The moment-to-moment subjective experience of the world, bodies, and mental sensations.
Subjective, dynamic, and self-reflective.
Interdisciplinary (physics, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, computer science, etc.)
Methods for measurement: self-reports, physiological measures (e.g., EEG), and behavioral measures.

The analogy: Humans are "information processors," the mind is the software and the brain is the hardware.
Cognitive psychologists do not uniformly agree with this interpretation.
Controlled (effortful) Processing: Requires volitional control and attentiveness.
Automatic Processing: Occurs automatically, requires little or no conscious attention or effort. These processes are fast but inflexible. Conscious processes are slow but flexible.

Cyclical changes that occur approximately every 24 hours in biological processes.
Regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), located in the hypothalamus.
The brain's "biological clock."
The pineal gland releases melatonin.

An average person needs 7-10 hours of sleep per night.
Factors affecting sleep need include age, health, quality of sleep, and genetics.
Sleep deprivation can lead to difficulties learning, poor attention, lethargy, weight gain, diabetes, heart problems, and a weakened immune system.

Awake and Alert: Beta waves (greater than 13 waves per second).
Calm Wakefulness: Alpha waves (8-12 waves per second).
Stage 1: Theta waves (4-7 waves per second), myoclonic jerks, and hypnagogic imagery.
Stage 2: Sleep spindles and K-complexes.
Stages 3 and 4: Delta waves; deep sleep, crucial for feeling well-rested. Time spent in these stages decreases with age.
REM Sleep (Stage 5): Rapid eye movement, vivid dreaming, active brain activity, darting of eyes underneath closed eyelids, and non-REM sleep (stages 1-4). 20% of sleep consists of REM sleep; rebound when REM sleep is lost.

Insomnia: Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep.
Narcolepsy: Disorder characterized by irregular control of sleep-wake cycles, sleep attacks, cataplexy, hypnagogic (sleep onset) and hypnopompic (sleep offset) hallucinations, sleep paralysis. Possible causes stem from insufficient hypocretin-producing neurons in the hypothalamus.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Airway blockage during sleep leading to daytime fatigue and health problems (night sweats, weight gain, hearing loss, irregular heartbeat, risk of death). Treatment includes weight loss and CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machines.
Night Terrors: Sudden waking episodes characterized in children by screaming, perspiring, and confusion (Stages 3 and 4, not REM). Harmless, getting older can resolve this issue.
Sleepwalking (Somnambulism): Walking while fully asleep. Occurs during deep stages of sleep. Usually harmless.

Freud's Dream Protection Theory: Dreams reflect "wish-fulfillment," protecting sleep from anxiety and preventing unconscious urges from disrupting sleep.
Activation Synthesis Theory: Dreams reflect random neural activity in the brain that the brain tries to weave into a story. REM is induced by increased Acetylcholine in the Pons and reductions in Serotonin and Norepinephrine.
Cross-cultural similarities: Dreams are frequently negative (emotionally and thematically) rather than positive; a 2:1 ratio of men to women characters in dreams. Dream content is often continuous with past preoccupations.
The number of people who can't recall/forget their dreams after waking up.
A lab study demonstrated that self-reported "non-dreamers" actually do dream. Only 0.38% of people cannot recall or forgot their dreams.

Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs): The sensation of our consciousness leaving our body. Frequent in near-death experiences and occurs in approximately 10% of the general population. Often involve hallucinations, perceptual distortions, lucid dreams, etc.
Déjà Vu: A feeling of familiarity with a new experience. Caused by excess dopamine, temporal lobe seizures, poorly remembered past events.
Hypnosis: A set of techniques that provides people with suggestions for alterations in their perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Hypnosis Therapy:
- Regression therapy (remembering childhood events).
- Past-life regression therapy (remembering past lives).

Psychoactive Drugs: Substances that contain chemicals similar to those found naturally in our brains that alter consciousness by changing chemical processes in neurons. Effects depend on type and dose.
Drug Types: Depressants, Stimulants, Opiates, Psychedelics. Depressants decrease nervous system activity; stimulants increase nervous system activity; opiates bind to opioid/endorphin receptors producing analgesic and euphoric effects; psychedelics cause alterations in perception, mood, and thought and intensify sensory experiences.
Routes of Administration: Ocular, buccal, sublingual, oral, intravenous, intramuscular, subcutaneous, transdermal, pulmonary/nasal, vaginal/rectal.
Blood-Brain Barrier: A physiological mechanism that restricts certain substances (drugs) from entering brain tissue.
Substance Use Disorder (SUD): User experiences significant and recurring impairments in their life as a result of drug(s).
Tolerance: Reduction in drug effects requiring more drug to achieve the same effect.
Withdrawal: Unpleasant effects of reducing or stopping drug consumption.