Critically Discuss Research Findings on Altered States of Awareness

Altered states of awareness refer to any state involving loss of conscious control of behaviour such as drug induced states, sleep states and dream states. As a great deal of research has been carried out into all three altered states it is not possible to do justice to all three areas in a time restricted essay therefore it is the latter two altered states of awareness that will be considered in this essay.
Research into sleep (a circadian rhythm) has shown that sleep consists of a number of cycles (ultradian rhythms) during which the sleeper's state awareness is altered many times. …