1) Define consciousness, waking consciousness, the first-person experience, and altered state of consciousness (ASC).
a. Consciousness – mental awareness of sensations and perceptions of external events as well as self-awareness of internal events including thought, memories, and feelings about experiences and the self
a.i. Consciousness is the feeling of being aware of your own thought processes and other actions controlled outside of the mind.
b. Waking consciousness – a state of clear, organized alertness
b.i. Being completely aware of what is going on due to a clear state of mind is known as waking consciousness.
c. The first person experience is something that only you can be aware of because only you feel it. i.e - One cannot know what it feels like to be their brother or sister.
d. Altered state of consciousness – a condition of which awareness distinctly different in quality or pattern from waking consciousness
d.i. An altered state of consciousness is different because the awareness isn’t as alert as that of waking consciousness.

2) Explain what physiologically controls sleep; describe the characteristics of the four stages of sleep, including the different brain wave patterns in each.
a. Physiology controls sleep through the NREM and REM functions of sleep. In the beginning stages, the muscles are still active but the eyes begin rapidly closing and opening. Then the eyes and body begin to have slower reactions and responses to the outside environment. After this it becomes harder to wake the one who is sleeping. During the final “going to sleep” process, muscle movement is reduced to a minimum.
b. Light sleep is the first stage of sleep when the heart rate begins to slow and the muscles in the body begin to relax. Some of the small, irregular brain waves during this stage are considered to be “alpha”.
c. During the second stage, one may be said to be asleep due to the spindle fibers (distinctive bursts of brainwave that occur in deeper sleep) and the body temperature drops.
d. Delta brain waves occur in the third stage of sleep as the body begins to lose consciousness.
e. The last stage of sleep that one reaches is reffered to as “deep sleep”. About an hour into sleep, the sleeper becomes extremely unaware of their surroundings and might experience some confusion when awoken. Brain waves such as pure slow-wave delta waves occur in stage four.

3) Describe sleepwalking, sleeptalking, sexsomnia, narcolepsy, and cataplexy; differentiate between nightmares and night terrors.
a. One may be awoken by the fact that they are partaking in an everyday normal activity but doing so while sleeping.
a.i. Sleepwalkers usually open their eyes when experiencing this but that person is still asleep. Sleepwalking occurs mainly in the NREM sleep stage.
a.ii. When one talks during their sleep, it usually is made up of mumbles and senseless phrases.
a.iii. Sexsomnia is when your partner awakens you by attempting to have sex in their sleep.
b. Narcolepsy is a sleep problem where one can fall asleep randomly doing everyday