Why do anesthesiologists ask us to count back from 10 before going under?

Question

I understand they want to know when we pass out, but why count backwards from 10? Why not count forward from 1?

In: 2183

Answer 1

From the patient perspective, it really hammers home how good these meds are. It took me about one second to count from ten to nine, and about twelve hours to count from nine to eight.