Why do comas happen and how does it work internally?
In: Biology
Normal brain activity has specific wave patterns. This is true whether you’re awake or asleep; the waves are just different during the sleep stages compared to being awake.
During a coma, your brain is neither awake not asleep. It’s not dead, the cells are alive and activity may be occuring. But it isn’t totally normal. This is usually caused by some kind of trauma to the brain, or it can be medically induced.
Because brains are complicated, recovering from coma is also a long process. People don’t just suddenly “wake up.” Gradually, normal brain activity recovers. The person may graduate from totally unresponsive to showing signs of minimal reflex behavior. Then they may slowly recover functions like opening their eyes, mumbling, and twitching. Then slowly they may be semi-conscious. They’ll respond to verbal instructions, but don’t seem to be totally aware of things.
The longer someone is in a coma, the less likely they will recover though. And it’s possible they may never recover all the way. Depends on the underlying trauma, too, of course.
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