What actually happens when an eldery person “dies in their sleep”?
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An older, sicker person dying while asleep is understandable and not shocking. But it’s creepy as hell when a younger and otherwise healthy person just goes to sleep and then never awakens. That’s just downright spooky.
I had a 49-year-old uncle (related by marriage) who died that way. He just went to sleep and that was it. And it was so shocking because this guy was seemingly very fit: 6-foot tall, about 180 pounds, a runner and cyclist. He seemed the epitome of health. So when he just up and died, it really shook me up. The family were all stunned!
Come to find out afterwards that he had advanced coronary artery disease and apparently didn’t know it. He had severe blockages in his coronary arteries.
His death scared the hell out of me, and I think about his death frequently now because I’m 48 and soon to be 49.
Depends on what they died from. Ultimately, its always the heart stopping. Sometimes the kidney or something stops processing and the person genuinely can’t wake up then their heart stops.
Other times a good nurse told you this after the person woke up for the most excruciating 3 seconds of their life during a heart attack, and who knows what kind of hard-working-sweaty-mess of an attempt to save their life over 5 hours. Most people aren’t ready for this truth.
I had to have a test where they dropped my blood sugar to 2.2. It went wrong though and my blood sugar dropped to just over 1…I remember just feeling incredible peace and I wondered whether it was ‘designed’ that way and I thought dying might feel that was too. Like in your sleep etc.
It appears that you have enough answers on why, but from a simple standpoint it’s that the cause of death is usually unknown.
If a person was old or ill amd there’s nothing suspicious then there’s no reason to do an autopsy. So they “died in their sleep” or “of natural causes”.
Among other things, it causes all their old friends to talk about how lucky that person was and how “That’s the way I want to go”.
**Source:** When I was a kid my great great grandmother died in her sleep sitting in her favorite rocking chair. The paramedic told my father, who was very close with her, that she had fallen asleep while holding a hamburger and had died in her sleep. She didn’t even squeeze the burger so there was legitimately zero indication of discomfort. The paramedic said that based on all the normal indicators, my great great grandma was likely one of the most peaceful deaths he has ever come upon. My father and his friends still discuss it and how that’s how they all hope to go when their time is up.
Usually 1 of three things.
Heart attack, stroke, or pulmonary arrest.
Either your brain, heart, or lungs just stop working while you’re sleeping, normally this would be rather traumatic while you’re awake, or at the very least know you suddenly unconscious.
But since you’re already asleep, you pretty much just drift off.
The same things that kill people when they’re awake. Usually, a cardiac event, or respiratory arrest. My grandmother passed in her sleep about two months ago. Her COD was listed as a “cardiac event” which makes sense because she had I think 5 stents.
My husband’s 87 year old grandfather died during a nap. He was found (fortunately pretty quickly thank god; it was summertime) in his hammock with his hat still balanced over his face. If he’d have been thrashing or anything the hat would’ve fallen off and he’d possibly have fallen out of the hammock.
When you get old enough for this to be a reassuring rather than concerning explanation for a death, the person in question usually has a medical history that explains pretty well what the exact cause is. They often have a pretty good idea for months or years what’s going to give out on them. It’s normally some time of heart failure or respiratory depression, either because those organs or warn out or they’ve been damaged by things like kidney disease, blood pressure, or blood vessel disease.
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