Eli5: Why there are many dying patiens feels suddenly much better and die soon after?
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You have a lot of chemicals being stored up in your body. They control your moods and energy and so on. When you die the ‘control mechanism’ that acted as a dam releasing them at appropriate times essentially shuts down. Everything is released (similar reasons why everyone shits themselves, as other ‘control mechanisms’ fail).
When you’re dying think of it like that control breaks down and you have all those happy hormones released. For a while you’re ‘high’ – which may balance out as ‘back to normal’ cos you’re ill and such. Of course you have no more reserve anymore. All those chemicals have been released and it’s a last lucid time.
A few other advantages come of that. We feel better, overwhelmed by positive feelings and a bright light at the end of the tunnel and so on. Those who had ear death experiences kinda experienced that release and it usually gets translated as a religious experience – which religion depends on where they grew up or who they grew up with. But it’s that sense of feeling loved and overwhelming peace as the hormones (adrenaline, serotonin among others) give us energy and make us feel loved.
Some people think evolutionarily speaking that’s useful cos imagine how terrible it’d be seeing every person who died just freaked out and screaming and in terrible pain every time. Others just put it down to that release of chemicals.
Either way, the last bits of those happy hormones are released and you have that ‘they’re getting better’ phase until those chemicals are used up and then you literally have nothing left.
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