Consciousness chapter directions for
material
For the 'consciousness chapter', take the questionnaires first to see what your sleep IQ is and
what your sleep debt is. Also, take a look at text material at the end of chapter 2 dealing with
sleep and dreams. Then look at the Scientific American link to What's in a Dream. That video
segment is about 15 minutes long and looks especially at the dream theories of 'activation
synthesis' (the portion of the segment with Bob Stickgold) and 'information processing' (the
portion of the segment with Carlisle Smith). Then take a look at the 60 Minutes video on the
Science of Sleep. That video is about 40 minutes---very informative.
Then finally you'll be doing the IAT (the Implicit Association Test) which will measure your
non-conscious processing. I use the term non-conscious instead of unconscious only because
of the connotation we might have for unconscious, for example that someone is sleeping,
passed out, in a coma or perhaps referring to Freud's idea of the unconscious. Non-conscious
means that we aren't aware of the processing that we are doing. We are awake, alert, not
drugged, etc. and there are many, many things that we process at a non-conscious level all
day long...think about anything that you do habitually. We do those things at a non-conscious
level (unless now I've brought that to your attention so for example, you weren't paying
attention to what was going on in the room around you as you read this text material, but now
you are noticing that there are certain sounds, perhaps odors, visual cues you hadn't noticed
before, etc. You 'knew' that information was there, but you had previously been processing
that at a non-conscious level). Something that we all process at a non-conscious level on daily
basis is information about people's appearance. Whenever we see someone we automatically
and spontaneously (this is the non-conscious part) deduce things about people such as their
fertility/health (which has to do with waist to hip ratio--this is a universal...if you have
questions about this, feel free to ask. I teach human sexuality and talk about this in that
course), age (we read people's faces such as their eye brow placement to give us clues about a
person's age) and a myriad of other pieces of information. We aren't generally aware that we
are doing this. Have fun taking the IAT to see how non-conscious processing can be induced.
Consciousness-Sleep IQ
To help you appreciate your knowledge (or lack of knowledge) regarding sleep, complete the
following for your information (this is not an assignment, but will help you understand sleep
better).
Sleep IQ test: True or False
1. During sleep your brain rests.
2. You cannot learn to function normally with one or two fewer hours of sleep a night
3. Boredom makes you feel sleepy, even if you have had enough sleep
4. Resting in bed with your eyes closed cannot satisfy your body's need for sleep
5. Snoring is not harmful as long as it doesn't disurb others or wake you up
6. Everyone dreams every night
7. The older you get the fewer hours of sleep you need
8. Most people don't know when they are sleepy
9. Raising the volume of your radio will help you stay awake while driving
10. Sleep disorders are mainly due to worry or psychological problems
11. The human body never adjusts to night shift work
12. Most sleep disorders go away even without treatment
1). F 2). T 3). F 4). T 5). F 6). T 7). F 8). T 9). F 10). F 11). T 12). F
11-12: sleep genius 8-10: not bad. learn more facts to improve your life 4-7: read the
chapter more closely to see why sleep is so important 1-3: it's never too late to learn more
about sleep. why not learn now?
How large is your sleep debt?
Answer yes or no to the following 17 questions. Once you have answered each question,
count up your number of yeses and scroll down to see what your number of yeses means in
terms of your sleep debt.
1. Do you usually need a loud alarm clock to wake you in the morning?
2. Do you usually hit the snooze control to get a few minutes more of sleep when the alarm
goes off in the morning?
3. Do you find that getting our of bed in the morning is usually a struggle?
4. Do you sometimes sleep through the alarm?
5. Do you usually find that a single beer, glass of wine or other alcoholic drink seems to have
an effect on you?
6. Do you sleep longer on weekends than you normally do during the week?
7. On vacations and holidays do you sleep longer than you normally do on regular
workweeks?
8. Do you often feel that your 'get up and go' has gotten up and gone?
9. Do you find that it is more difficult to attend to details on routime chores than it used to
be?
10. Do you sometimes fall asleep when you had not intended to?
11. Do you sometimes find yourself getting very sleepy while your are sitting and reading?
12. Do you sometimes find yourself getting very sleepy or dozing off while you are watching
tv?
13. When you are a passenger in an airplane, car, bus, train and the trip lasts over an hour
without a break, do you commonly find yourself getting sleepy or dozing off?
14. Do you usually feel extremely sleepy or doze off when you are sitting quietly after a large
lunch without alcohol?
15. Do you tend to get sleepy when you are sitting quietly at a public metting, lecture or in a
theater?
16. Have you sometimes found yourself getting extremely sleepy with the urge to doze when
you drive and are stopped for a few minutes in traffic?
17. Do you drink more than four cups of coffee or tea (containing caffeine) during the day?
Interpreting your score:
4 or less yeses: Adequate sleep
5 or 6: Most days adequate sleep. Some days a person's sleep account may be a bit short and
this may mean that performance is less than 100 percent in certain activities.
7 or 8: Evidence of sleep debt that may cause noticeable reduction in work efficiency.
9-11: Definitely large sleep debt. The person's work is likely to suffer from large, random
errors; even small errors may be missed when the work is reviewed a second time.
12-14: In addition to experiencing the same symptoms as those with scores of 9-11, the
person's general quality of life suffers. Perhaps the person is less interested in things formerly
found to be fascinating and is less inclined to spend time socializing. The person may also be
a bit accident-prone and suject to temporary memory deficits, such as momentarily forgetting
his or her address or phone number.
15 and above: Sleep debt it a major problem. Levels of sleepiness are in the range often found
in people with clincal levels of sleep disturbance, for example, those with sleep apnea or
severe insomnia. The person should increase the amount of sleep they get and seek
professional help if doesn't bring score back below 7.
