So this one came to me after a miserable weekend after surgery, I had a foley catheter in (its a catheter that is anchored in the bladder with a water balloon and is connected to a pee drainage bag), and in order to sleep I had to connect a big overnight pee bag and put it next to my bed. Now, I’m an active sleeper, I roll around and change positions a ton, so I was terrified of rolling over in my sleep and potentially yanking the catheter out, which would have been extremely painful at \*best\* and probably damaged my insides at worst.
Weirdly though, I slept still as stone, I barely moved for the 3 nights I had it in and I had no issues whatsoever. I’ve also noticed I do this if I fall asleep with my glasses or phone right next to me, I subconsciously avoid rolling over them in my sleep somehow and don’t move around as much.
How does that work? How does an unconscious body “understand” a danger/risk and avoid it?
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From u/OnionSquire on a similar post from 9 years ago:
“When you sleep your body releases a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). What GABA does is effectively paralyze your body, or at the very least, your brains ability to move muscles. This occurs during REM sleep when you’re dreaming; it’s to prevent you from acting out your dreams, your body expends next to no energy in this state and consumes very little oxygen. This is only one reason why you don’t fall off the bed though. REM sleep, when you’re actually dreaming, only happens in 90 minuet intervals and only lasts a precious few minutes. So that dream you had where you were skate boarding down a big hill that lasted for hours, only took up a few moments of your actual time.
There are 5 stages to sleep. N-REM 1, N-REM 2, N-REM 3, N-REM 2 again, and REM. During this cycle, outside of REM, your body and mind are effectively awake. You’re not aware of your surroundings, but you’re aware enough to know when there’s an edge near you, or a predator, and you move away. Incidentally, if you ever get the feeling like you’re falling when you’re going to sleep, this occurs in N-REM 2 where “sleep spindles” happen. A sleep spindle is a sudden massive burst of neural activity that usually jolts a muscle and wakes a person.”
From u/OnionSquire on a similar post from 9 years ago:
“When you sleep your body releases a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). What GABA does is effectively paralyze your body, or at the very least, your brains ability to move muscles. This occurs during REM sleep when you’re dreaming; it’s to prevent you from acting out your dreams, your body expends next to no energy in this state and consumes very little oxygen. This is only one reason why you don’t fall off the bed though. REM sleep, when you’re actually dreaming, only happens in 90 minuet intervals and only lasts a precious few minutes. So that dream you had where you were skate boarding down a big hill that lasted for hours, only took up a few moments of your actual time.
There are 5 stages to sleep. N-REM 1, N-REM 2, N-REM 3, N-REM 2 again, and REM. During this cycle, outside of REM, your body and mind are effectively awake. You’re not aware of your surroundings, but you’re aware enough to know when there’s an edge near you, or a predator, and you move away. Incidentally, if you ever get the feeling like you’re falling when you’re going to sleep, this occurs in N-REM 2 where “sleep spindles” happen. A sleep spindle is a sudden massive burst of neural activity that usually jolts a muscle and wakes a person.”
Is it not because you still had a lot of anasthetic in your system? I’ve had it before where a day or two after surgery I’m out like a light where I normally toss and turn.
Is it not because you still had a lot of anasthetic in your system? I’ve had it before where a day or two after surgery I’m out like a light where I normally toss and turn.
Well, you also can’t shut off your ears but only wake up to certain sounds. Like, I can sleep through the construction racket from next door but wake up if the cat scratches gently at the bedroom door, or if my phone rings. Some part of the brain is clearly still sorting and filtering the sounds and other sensory input, and reacts if something is important enough to wake you up. Which makes sense, if our ancestors didn’t wake up for potential threats they’d be dead quickly.
So it also makes sense to me that we can have a level of awareness of what not to do in our sleep, like knowing where the edge of the bed is, or where our glasses are when we have trained ourself to keep track of them every day of our lives.
Well, you also can’t shut off your ears but only wake up to certain sounds. Like, I can sleep through the construction racket from next door but wake up if the cat scratches gently at the bedroom door, or if my phone rings. Some part of the brain is clearly still sorting and filtering the sounds and other sensory input, and reacts if something is important enough to wake you up. Which makes sense, if our ancestors didn’t wake up for potential threats they’d be dead quickly.
So it also makes sense to me that we can have a level of awareness of what not to do in our sleep, like knowing where the edge of the bed is, or where our glasses are when we have trained ourself to keep track of them every day of our lives.
We like to think the our consciousness covers the entirety of the brain’s awareness. This is not correct. In ELI5 terms, as strange as it sounds, consciousness is only a tiny fraction of the brains total awareness. To simplify this, I will explain this as if our conscious mind and our brain are two separate entities, in reality they are not, but it makes it easier to explain it this way for “ELI5”.
Our brain constantly scans external stimuli gathered from all over our body, but only a tiny fraction of it is shared with the conscious mind. Parts of the brain that process and sort external information decide the importance of gathered information and notify the conscious mind about it, or not, accordingly. This is why you can go into a crowded room with hundreds of people talking, and still be able to hear if someone calls for your name. Your brain is basically tracking and processing all the conversations across the room (as long as the ears can hear it), but you only become aware of the fractions that your brain thinks is worth the conscious mind’s attention, like your name. We all had that moment where we suddenly got aware of an interesting conversation next table while not actively listening for it, this is because your brain was still tracking that conversation even before you got aware of it. This happens with all of our senses, where we are only aware of a fraction of the processed information our brain gathers.
To come back to your original question, when you sleep, you are not conscious but your brain is still aware. It knows that it should not roll due to the catheter. It is also the same reason why we don’t usually fall off the bed, or crush our pets while sleeping. Keep in mind our brain is capable of controlling our bodies without us being conscious about it. People who sleepwalk can do rather complex tasks without being conscious.
Of course, the same way that you can forget things while being conscious, your brain can also occasionally forget things while being unconscious, especially if it was something that you didn’t pay too much attention while being conscious.
We like to think the our consciousness covers the entirety of the brain’s awareness. This is not correct. In ELI5 terms, as strange as it sounds, consciousness is only a tiny fraction of the brains total awareness. To simplify this, I will explain this as if our conscious mind and our brain are two separate entities, in reality they are not, but it makes it easier to explain it this way for “ELI5”.
Our brain constantly scans external stimuli gathered from all over our body, but only a tiny fraction of it is shared with the conscious mind. Parts of the brain that process and sort external information decide the importance of gathered information and notify the conscious mind about it, or not, accordingly. This is why you can go into a crowded room with hundreds of people talking, and still be able to hear if someone calls for your name. Your brain is basically tracking and processing all the conversations across the room (as long as the ears can hear it), but you only become aware of the fractions that your brain thinks is worth the conscious mind’s attention, like your name. We all had that moment where we suddenly got aware of an interesting conversation next table while not actively listening for it, this is because your brain was still tracking that conversation even before you got aware of it. This happens with all of our senses, where we are only aware of a fraction of the processed information our brain gathers.
To come back to your original question, when you sleep, you are not conscious but your brain is still aware. It knows that it should not roll due to the catheter. It is also the same reason why we don’t usually fall off the bed, or crush our pets while sleeping. Keep in mind our brain is capable of controlling our bodies without us being conscious about it. People who sleepwalk can do rather complex tasks without being conscious.
Of course, the same way that you can forget things while being conscious, your brain can also occasionally forget things while being unconscious, especially if it was something that you didn’t pay too much attention while being conscious.
I had a foley catheter for about 6 months after a car accident. You will wake up WAY before you’d pull that tube out with the balloon inflated. From personal experience the body doesn’t always know what to avoid while sleeping.
I had a foley catheter for about 6 months after a car accident. You will wake up WAY before you’d pull that tube out with the balloon inflated. From personal experience the body doesn’t always know what to avoid while sleeping.
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