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

Because counting forward starting from 1 is a skill we practiced a lot during our life and most of us can do it on auto pilot. You don’t need many cognitive faculties to count forward, but to count backward you typically need to be more concentrated and think a bit more about it. So it’s a better indication of how the anesthetic affect you.