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therapy with stimulants or antidepressants. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder characterized
by temporary cessations of breathing that awaken the sufferer repeatedly during the night.
Sleep apnea most often results from obstruction or collapse of air passages, which occurs
more frequently in obese people. Weight loss and sleeping on the side can help alleviate the
problem. An effective treatment is a positive pressure pump that provides a steady flow of
air through a face mask worn by the sufferer. Night terrors are most frequently childhood
sleep disruptions from stage 4 sleep characterized by a bloodcurdling scream and intense
fear. Sleepwalking, also called somnambulism, is also most frequently a childhood sleep
disruption that occurs during stage 4 sleep characterized by trips out of bed or carrying on
of complex activities. Typically, sufferers do not recall anything in the morning.
hypnosis
Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness characterized by deep relaxation and height-
ened suggestibility. Under hypnosis, subjects can change aspects of reality and let those
changes influence their behavior. Hypnotized individuals may feel as if their bodies are floating
or sinking; see, feel, hear, smell, or taste things that are not there; lose sense of touch or
pain; be made to feel like they are passing back in time; act as if they are out of their own
control; and respond to suggestions by others. For some people, this make-believe may be
so vivid and intense that they have trouble differentiating it from reality. Subjects can actu-
ally think immersing a hand in ice water is comfortable! Many psychologists think hypnosis
involves highly focused awareness and intensified imagination. Other psychologists propose
social cognitive theories that hypnosis is a social phenomenon in which highly motivated
subjects enter a hypnotized “role.” Still others believe that hypnosis involves a division or
dissociation of consciousness. According to the dissociation theory, hypnotized individu-
als experience two or more streams of consciousness cut off from each other. According
to Ernest Hilgard, part of the consciousness responds to suggestions, while the other, the
“hidden observer,” remains in the background monitoring behavior. Evidence for this dis-
sociation of consciousness is provided by hypnotized subjects who indicate, for example,
that a part of them is experiencing more pain with hands submerged in ice water than the
hypnotized subjects acknowledge. After hypnosis, the individual may follow a posthypnotic
suggestion and may have a thought or feeling without conscious knowledge of its hypnoti-
cally suggested source, or may experience posthypnotic amnesia, forgetting selected events
by suggestion. One of the most important practical applications of hypnosis is in analgesia
(pain control), which is used in surgery, childbirth, and dentistry.
Meditation
Do you know someone who practices yoga or meditates? Meditation is a set of techniques
used to focus concentration away from thoughts and feelings in order to create calmness, tran-
quility, and inner peace. Meditation is popular in Asia, where Zen Buddhists meditate. EEGs
of meditators show alpha waves characteristic of relaxed wakefulness. Physiological changes,
such as lowered blood pressure, slowed heart rate and breathing rate, and warming of hands,
common during meditation, indicate activation of the parasympathetic nervous system,
which is normally not under conscious control. Meditators often report an increased feeling
of well being. Psychologists disagree as to whether or not meditation is an altered state of
consciousness.