What state of mind do we go into while under anesthesia? Are we asleep? Unconscious? Something different?
In: Biology
You are not asleep. Although you don’t move while asleep, there is a lot of activity going on in your brain.
We aren’t exactly clear about what happens while you are medically unconscious, but it is not the same as regular sleep, as can be easily observed by doing brain activity scans. The drugs they give are known to have the general effects of unconsciousness, paralysis, and amnesia, which is to say you don’t respond to stimuli, you can’t move, and you don’t remember anything. The simplest guess as to what happens when you go under is just the combination of the three effects listed, but it is also possible that they interact in some other way.
In my single personal anecdote, it was very different from sleep, but in a way that is hard to articulate. When I’m asleep, there’s still a “me” of sorts. I dream some, I drift to varying levels of consciousness, maybe get closer to awake and turn over, and so on.
The one time I was put under, it was like a switch got flipped somewhere and I was just put on pause. One moment I was there and they were having me count backwards and literally the next moment they were talking to me as they brought me out. I opened my eyes and they’re putting instruments away and cleaning up. No sensation of passing time at all. It was like a time-slip. A blink and it’s a couple hours later.
You’re unconscious and generally paralyzed. Anesthesia varies depending on the exact procedure you’re having done and what your body can handle, but usually it’s a mix of one drug that keeps you unconscious, one that blocks memory formation, and one that stops you from moving at the least.
“Will I dream while asleep?
While under general anesthesia, you are in a drug-induced unconsciousness, which is different than sleep. Therefore, you will not dream. However, if you are under a nerve block, epidural, spinal or local anesthetic, patients have reported having pleasant, dream-like experinces”
A medical website I found had that to say about it. If you have ever drank heavily and went to bed, some times you won’t dream if you’ve drank enough.
I was told this by an anesthesiologist so beware of second-hand information. When they put you under they expect zero brain function. A total shut-down. You are basically dead. This puts it as something different from asleep and normal unconsciousness though it is more similar to the latter.
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