4 ms·
For me, sleep (when I'm not dreaming), is pretty much like death - your consciousness is just turned off. The only difference is that, with death, it's permanen
by burntoutfire 6y ago
For me, sleep (when I'm not dreaming), is pretty much like death - your consciousness is just turned off. The only difference is that, with death, it's permanent. But, given that sleep is no big deal, I don't see why being dead should be.
- tilolebo 6y agoBecause you know you'll wake up the next day.
- kgwgk 6y agoYou never know!
- throwaway713 6y agoWith sleep, I feel like you’re sort of still there since when you wake up you have the perception that time has passed. What’s truly unnerving is going under anesthesia, where it’s like that period of time just never existed at all.
- juliendorra 6y agocomplete anesthesia is indeed a very disturbing experience, similar to a cut to a new scene in a movie: you were there and then and you are here and now, without anything in between. You cannot really tell if you are the same conscience that existed before the anesthesia, because you have no feeling of a continuous conscience: it feels like you have been switched off and on.
- kgwgk 6y agoIs it really different from waking up every morning? In particular if you can’t remember precisely how the previous day ended...
- nlh 6y agoI've had that same experience - both with anesthesia and when I briefly blacked out from g-forces at the bottom of a huuuuuuge roller coaster drop. I found the experience strangely comforting - basically the closest approximation to what death is like. One second you're there, and the next you're not. It wasn't bad or scary or painful or anything. It was just existence and then nothingness and then the feeling of coming back online realizing what happened. And when I was coming back online, my thinking was: Well, I'm glad to be back! And if I hadn't come back, would I have even noticed? (The answer is no).