What’s the physiological difference between being unconscious, and just being asleep?
In: Biology
They are the same thing. Being knocked unconscious is kind of a misnomer. You are unconscious, but that is your brain powering down to protect itself, usually from being sloshed against the inside of your skull. Passing/blacking out is similar, depending on the cause. If your blood sugar plummets or you get choked out, your brain shuts your body down to conserve oxygen for itself.
The main difference between those and sleep is sleep is a prolonged state, whereas for the others you regain consciousness as soon as homeostasis (ie: blood flow to the brain, usually) is restored.
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