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ekZepp Sep 4, 2023

Does Consciousness Disappear in Dreamless Sleep?

Does Consciousness Disappear in Dreamless Sleep? - Lemmy.world

Art [https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/die-on-it] by smbc-comics >Consciousness is often said to disappear in deep, dreamless sleep. We argue that this assumption is oversimplified. Unless dreamless sleep is defined as unconscious from the outset there are good empirical and theoretical reasons for saying that a range of different types of sleep experience, some of which are distinct from dreaming, can occur in all stages of sleep. Pubmed Articles [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27765517/] Does Consciousness Disappear in Dreamless Sleep? [https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(16)30152-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1364661316301528%3Fshowall%3Dtrue] Sciencealert Article We Were Wrong About Consciousness Disappearing in Dreamless Sleep, Say Scientists [https://www.sciencealert.com/your-consciousness-does-not-switch-off-during-a-dreamless-sleep-say-scientists]

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LanternEverywhere Sep 4, 2023

Sleep is NOTHING like death. You're still experiencing lots of stuff, you still very much have a sense of self, you're still thinking things, your brain is still processing lots of information.

General anesthesia - now THAT is a real close period to what being dead is.

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Lorindól Sep 4, 2023

I’ve had general anesthesia, it was just like falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.

If death is like that, then there’s absolutely nothing to be afraid of.

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DefederateLemmyMl Sep 5, 2023

I’ve had general anesthesia, it was just like falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.

What if anesthesia actually just blocks your memories and physical reactions, but you actually experience everything that happens to you in absolute terror?

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kevinBLT Sep 5, 2023

Thats exactly what some do, depends on the anesthetic, but it doesn’t matter because if a memory never forms it may as well not have happened.

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DefederateLemmyMl Sep 5, 2023

if a memory never forms it may as well not have happened

That is an interesting philosophical question.

If suffering is not remembered, was there even suffering? And if there was, does it matter? I can think of a few counterexamples of that, for example: a killer who tortures his victim before killing them.

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Echo Dot

Presumably in your scenario the victim remembers the torture though.

In the case of general anaesthetic the memory is effectively considered to be deleted in real time. On its way through the brain it ceases to exist so it never reaches the conscious mind.