States of Consciousness: Example is Sleep / Sleep Disorders

States of Consciousness: Sleep
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States of Consciousness: Sleep
There are various factors that determine when and why an individual feels tired, hungry, and full of energy. Throughout the day, an individual’s state of consciousness varies and mainly depends on the day’s activities, time and environment. The daily highs and lows of human beings are explained by circadian rhythms. An example of a basic high and low rhythm is the sleep/wake cycle. The cycle is regulated by a sunlight which causes the suprachiasmatic nucleus to decrease the production of melatonin during the early hours of the day and increase its production during the evening. An increase of the melatonin hormone in the blood makes one drowsy and tired and if decreased they become more attentive. Sometimes some people may feel that their consciousness during the day is not normal and can be explained by working nightshifts or jet lag.
However, sleep has its own rhythms and patterns that are measured by an electroencephalograph through a record called an EEG. The main patterns of sleep that have been recorded include REM sleep and NREM sleep. The NREM itself has four stages. During the first stage, an individual feels slightly drowsy due to the alpha and theta waves of the brain. The heart rate, body temperature and breathing rate drops as the muscles relax. Fantasies start to float the mind at this stage. Few minutes after this stage, individuals move into stage two. During the second stage, the brain activity of individuals bursts out in what is called sleep spindles. It lasts for about 20 minutes. The stage involves theta brain waves and as well as the start of delta waves. After stage two, individuals move to slow-wave sleep stages of three and four. Both third and fourth stages have the delta waves. The stages last for about 30 minutes and in these stages individuals show slow heart and breathing rates, and arousal difficulties (Chow et al., 2013).
However, despite that most of individuals in the last stages of sleep are quiet, still, and difficult to arouse, they sleepwalk. Some of the individuals become physically active especially during the fourth stage. They wake up and walk around the room without breaking anything, cook, carry a conversation, go outside sit under a tree and return to their bed or even take a shower. Since they are in a deep sleep, they do not remember any of their actions when they wake up.
Another pattern recorded by EEG is REM which...