States of Consciousness
Think of any year since the beginning of recorded time. Remember the famous mugshots that flashed across E! News and TMZ? Nobody looks good in those. It might seem like certain celebrities and pro athletes are trying to make getting a DUI seem fashionable, but the rest of us smart, responsible motorists,* know that it usually just leads to stints in jail and public ridicule...if not worse.
Why is it so bad to get a DUI? Aside from the whole being incredibly illegal thing, driving under the influence (of alcohol, marijuana, or whatever) is dangerous to other people on the road. The primary state of consciousness is hard enough to handle—altering it intentionally is usually somewhat risky for yourself and for other people. Treating addiction used to mean locking everyone up regardless of the individual situation, kind of like a one-stop rehab shop. These days, treatment has expanded to include both elements of choice and assistance, but it still emphasizes the safety of others.
There are other altered states of consciousness in addition to being UI. (We like to pronounce it "you-ey.") Are you truly awake in physics class? Or are you operating on autopilot because you stayed up late watching that Man v. Food marathon and trying to decide if you were grossed out or kind of hungry? Getting a good night's sleep might be more than something your mom tells you. To understand sleep, we need to first understand what it means to be conscious, awake, and functioning, even if it doesn't involve heavy machinery. That's what this section is all about.
*That thing with the truck was totally a fluke, we swear.
Study Break
"Dreams are answers to questions we haven't yet figured out how to ask." – Fox Mulder, X-Files
Levels of Consciousness
Consciousness, like doodoo, just happens...and on many levels. William James was one of the first people to think about streams of consciousness (or rivers). James Joyce famously wrote about these streams in his opus magnum,Finnegan's Wake. If you ever want to truly torture yourself, you literary masochists, pick up a copy. (It's heavy.) Then, read it.
Though open to some debate, most researchers believe that there are a set of levels of consciousness. (They don't agree on the actual number of levels...just the notion of having separate levels...can't please everybody.) Here they are.
Conscious
Right here. Right now. You are you, and you are aware of it. You are also responding to stimulus. Meat. Potatoes.
Nonconscious
Your heart beats. You breathe. You digest. You don't need to look at directions. The old Tiger Woods, when he was "in the zone" sinking every putt from 35 feet away.
Preconscious
The info is in the hard drive, but you need to think to retrieve it. You know Bill's phone number, but you aren't thinking about him right now (poor Bill).
Subconscious
You don't know you know something. You prefer the red sweater for no other reason than you've seen it before (mere-exposure effect).
You respond to questions on JEOPARDY! faster than you thought possible. Why? Your pump was somehow primed (that is, you had somehow acquired this information before, but don't remember how).
Unconscious
The unconscious mind is a terrible thing to waste. It was Freud's and other psychoanalytic psychologists' playground. They believed that certain ideas in a person's conscious level of mind are often repressed into the unconscious level. Claustrophobic? Did Grandma forget you one day, way back when, and lock you in a closet?
