Consciousness
Consciousness is the awareness of internal, external stimuli, and personal awareness.
Partial sleep deprivation refers to when someone goes through the first three stages of non-rem sleep but did not reach REM sleep. Usually people who don’t reach REM sleep go into a rebound effect ,where the next couple nights they will go straight into REM Sleep.
1.narcotics?2. Sedatives?3.Stimulants?4. Hallucinogens?5. cannabis?6. alcohol
Consciousness is continuously fluctuating, William James called this the stream of consciousness.
Insomnia: chronic problems in getting adequate sleep that result in daytime fatigue and impaired functioning. It has three basic patterns?1. difficulty falling asleep?2. difficulty remaining asleep?3. persistent early-morning awakening.
Overdose
Tissue damage Ex cocaine user and the nasal tissue
Crack also increases respiratory and cardiovascular disease
Elevated alcohol consumption can cause liver damage, ulcers, hypertension, neurological disorders. (Korsakoff syndrome)
Indirect effects: people who use stimulants don’t sleep or eat properly.
Intravenous drug users increase their risk of AIDS & HIV if they share unsterile needles
D.U.I
They vary in amplitude (height) and frequency (cycles per second).
Those with disorder go straight from being awake to sleep, it usually only lasts about 10-20 mins. It is very dangerous!
Some studies have linked the lack of orexin neurons in the hypothalamus.
Stimulants are used to treat this disorder with some success. However, stimulants have their own problems.
narcolepsy
Physical dependence: a person must continue to take the drug to avoid withdrawal illness. Ex: heroin
Psychological dependence: exists when a person must continue to take a drug to satisfy intense mental and emotional craving. Ex. cocaine
Ignoring these rhythms can cause jet lagged?its easier to fly westward which makes your day longer than flying eastward which shortens it.
Apnea is associated with decline in attention, memory, and other cognitive functioning.
Drugs can vary from person to person can even vary from one person in different situations.
The impact of any drug varies depending on body weight, the drug, physiology.
Drug effects can also change depending on Tolerance.
Example: a parent can sleep through thunder or even sometimes an alarm but immediately wakes up if they hear their baby crying. This implies some type of mental awareness is still going on while asleep.
Day-night cycle resets human biological clocks. During day (light) is taken in receptors from the eye and sends a signal to the hypothalamus specifically the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). The SCN then sends the signal to the Pinal gland which secretes melatonin a key role in adjusting biological clocks.
Stage 4: Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. The sleeper is virtually paralyzed during this stage and heart rate and breathing rate are irregular. The brain activity during this time BETA waves are similar to the ones while we’re awake. This is the dreaming state. The first REM stage is short but get progressively longer as the cycle repeats lasting about 40-60’ mins.
RBD appears to be deterioration in the brainstem structures that are normally responsible for immobilization during REM periods. Typically people with RBD go on to develop neurodegenerative disorders, Parkinson’s disease.
Amphetamines affect Dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE). They increase DA and NE on the presynaptic cell. They also interfere with reuptake.
Even though drugs work on specific neurotransmitter’s, research think all drugs make it to the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, the area of the brain associated with the reward center. This neural circuit goes from the midbrain to the nucleus accumbens to the prefrontal cortex.