ekZeppSep 4, 2023

Does Consciousness Disappear in Dreamless Sleep?

https://lemmy.world/post/4445384

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]

Show threadLanternEverywhereSep 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.

Show threadLorindólSep 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.

Show threadDefederateLemmyMlSep 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?

Show threadkevinBLTSep 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.
Show threadjarfil

There was a case of a guy, where they botched the anesthesia, and he was just paralyzed but conscious the whole time during some invasive surgery. They realized their mistake, and tried to fix it by giving him some amnesic so he wouldn’t retain the memories.

After getting discharged, he wouldn’t remember anything… but kept having nightmares, and a few weeks later took his own life.

So it seems like memories don’t need to be fully formed to mess one up.

Sep 6, 2023 at 12:18pmWeb
Show threadkevinBLTSep 6, 2023
That sounds like the mechanism might be different though, but yeah some percentage of people wake up during surgery while the paralytic is still in effect, they closely monitor the heart rate for sudden spikes because of this I believe. It sounds horrifying to me, but then I remember that there was a time when anesthetics didn’t exist.