Sleep does not simulate death. You are still aware of the passage of time, and can be woken by loud noises or bright lights.
Anesthesia is much closer to a classic death experience. You cannot be woken by external stimuli, even being cut. You also do not experience the perception of the passage of time. When you awake, you will feel as if the last time you were conscious was seconds ago no matter the time it’s been.
Lovely that life-saving surgery is often facilitated by a substance that forces you to experience (or rather fully not experience) the thing you are trying to avoid.
Maybe you don’t sleep deep enough, because to me when I sleep I for sure don’t feel the passage of time, most of the time it is instant for me, from the moment I lose consciousness to the moment I wake up. In between those moments there’s nothing, no visuals, no sounds, no feelings, nothing, unless of course I’m dreaming but that happens quite rarely for me.
Keeping someone under is quite a hands on job as well, needing constant adjustments
Oh, and potentially tell your doc if you have redheads in your direct family. There’s quite some hints that one of the redhead genes is causing accelerated metabolism for pain meds, including anesthesia. Even if it’s recessive and you don’t have red hair
Was quite an adventure figuring that one out while on the OR table
So what does the accelerated metabolism do? I am not a redhead but I have some in my family and I have some red hair in my beard. Haven’t had anesthesia trouble so far (they didn’t ask me about this) but I have seemed to notice that opiates have a reduced effect on me.
I am a red head actually and have been under before. They basically just have to give you a bit more anesthesia at the start, and then redose you slightly more often during the surgery.
We basically just process it out of our system faster and/or need a slightly higher dose for the same reaction. Not sure which it is or both.
in my case they didn’t plan for it, as I didn’t have any close family that needed anesthesia that I knew of, and I don’t take any relevant drugs and rarely drink booze. It was my first surgery, so I didn’t have any prior experience.
I woke up two times during surgery (luckily no pain, just annoyance), and to quote my anesthesiologist “we needed to give you the elephant dosage”
They didn’t believe me regarding my drug usage. They even asked my mom and sister if they knew if I take drugs, while I was still waking up.
Later I stumbled across the stories of redheads that had similar experiences, and while I don’t have red hair, I did a dna test and I inherited the gene from my dad
There are not big studies looking into the matter, annoyingly, but there are small sample size studies that tend to point to a connection being there
But this the also explained why I need quite a lot of alcohol to start getting drunk, and weed not working that well on me (reasons why I rarely use them)
This is very interesting and I appreciate you sharing your story. The human body is so complicated. I am not a high tolerance person when it comes to drugs, across the board anyhow, but I definitely always felt like when I’ve had opiates they don’t hit me like they do others. Tylenol 3 for example was like I didn’t even take anything, whereas my partner says she feels high from those.
Edit: I just thought about something else. When doctors numb me for dental or dermatology reasons, they usually have to give me multiple doses and they often seem shocked that I’m still feeling what they’re doing. Maybe related also?
hey usually have to give me multiple doses and they often seem shocked that I’m still feeling what they’re doing. Maybe related also?
definitely. especially if you’re not regularly taking pain numbing meds and drugs
I just remembered, that I had a minor surgery on my foot as a teenager, and they also had to dose the area multiple times, because I still felt something, even though they said that it should all be completely numb. Never thought much of it, but probably the same reason
Yeah I take next to zero drugs besides weed and alcohol. I actually don’t like taking any pain meds unless I’ll be suffering because I feel like pain is my body giving me useful info and I don’t want to silence that. But of course if I’m having surgery that obviously doesn’t apply :)
Sleep does not simulate death. You are still aware of the passage of time, and can be woken by loud noises or bright lights.
Anesthesia is much closer to a classic death experience. You cannot be woken by external stimuli, even being cut. You also do not experience the perception of the passage of time. When you awake, you will feel as if the last time you were conscious was seconds ago no matter the time it’s been.
Lovely that life-saving surgery is often facilitated by a substance that forces you to experience (or rather fully not experience) the thing you are trying to avoid.
Do you experience pain though?
That comes right after waking up, as a nice little reminder
Maybe you don’t sleep deep enough, because to me when I sleep I for sure don’t feel the passage of time, most of the time it is instant for me, from the moment I lose consciousness to the moment I wake up. In between those moments there’s nothing, no visuals, no sounds, no feelings, nothing, unless of course I’m dreaming but that happens quite rarely for me.
it’s hard to describe. but you can tell once you experienced anesthesia as comparison
It can literally feel like you’re blinking and suddenly being somewhere else
And we still don’t know 100% how anesthesia works
Keeping someone under is quite a hands on job as well, needing constant adjustments
Oh, and potentially tell your doc if you have redheads in your direct family. There’s quite some hints that one of the redhead genes is causing accelerated metabolism for pain meds, including anesthesia. Even if it’s recessive and you don’t have red hair
Was quite an adventure figuring that one out while on the OR table
So what does the accelerated metabolism do? I am not a redhead but I have some in my family and I have some red hair in my beard. Haven’t had anesthesia trouble so far (they didn’t ask me about this) but I have seemed to notice that opiates have a reduced effect on me.
I am a red head actually and have been under before. They basically just have to give you a bit more anesthesia at the start, and then redose you slightly more often during the surgery.
We basically just process it out of our system faster and/or need a slightly higher dose for the same reaction. Not sure which it is or both.
you just need more of the stuff
in my case they didn’t plan for it, as I didn’t have any close family that needed anesthesia that I knew of, and I don’t take any relevant drugs and rarely drink booze. It was my first surgery, so I didn’t have any prior experience.
I woke up two times during surgery (luckily no pain, just annoyance), and to quote my anesthesiologist “we needed to give you the elephant dosage”
They didn’t believe me regarding my drug usage. They even asked my mom and sister if they knew if I take drugs, while I was still waking up.
Later I stumbled across the stories of redheads that had similar experiences, and while I don’t have red hair, I did a dna test and I inherited the gene from my dad
There are not big studies looking into the matter, annoyingly, but there are small sample size studies that tend to point to a connection being there
But this the also explained why I need quite a lot of alcohol to start getting drunk, and weed not working that well on me (reasons why I rarely use them)
This is very interesting and I appreciate you sharing your story. The human body is so complicated. I am not a high tolerance person when it comes to drugs, across the board anyhow, but I definitely always felt like when I’ve had opiates they don’t hit me like they do others. Tylenol 3 for example was like I didn’t even take anything, whereas my partner says she feels high from those.
Edit: I just thought about something else. When doctors numb me for dental or dermatology reasons, they usually have to give me multiple doses and they often seem shocked that I’m still feeling what they’re doing. Maybe related also?
definitely. especially if you’re not regularly taking pain numbing meds and drugs
I just remembered, that I had a minor surgery on my foot as a teenager, and they also had to dose the area multiple times, because I still felt something, even though they said that it should all be completely numb. Never thought much of it, but probably the same reason
Yeah I take next to zero drugs besides weed and alcohol. I actually don’t like taking any pain meds unless I’ll be suffering because I feel like pain is my body giving me useful info and I don’t want to silence that. But of course if I’m having surgery that obviously doesn’t apply :)