If sleep means the disappearance of consciousness, shouldn’t sleeping be basically like blinking, and then the next thing we know it’s eight hours later?
But in reality, we can tell some time has passed. And me, personally at least, I can usually estimate how long I’ve been asleep with some accuracy.
In: Biology
There are different meanings to the word “unconscious”. When you’re in a coma or under anesthesia, your brain activity is greatly reduced and you don’t do much in the way of thinking. So being put under anesthesia is like jumping forward in time. You’re in one room and someone is putting a mask on your face, then you are suddenly in another room and it’s hours later and you are woozy and in pain. That’s a type of unconscious. But when you’re asleep, you still have a lot of brain activity. You dream, and you still have some limited awareness so if there’s a noise or someone touches you, you are aware of it and wake up (YMMV, some people won’t wake up).
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