Art by smbc-comics
Consciousness is often said to disappear in deep, dreamless sleep. We argue that this assumption is oversimplified. Unless dreamless sleep is defined as unconscious from the outset there are good empirical and theoretical reasons for saying that a range of different types of sleep experience, some of which are distinct from dreaming, can occur in all stages of sleep.
Pubmed Articles
Does Consciousness Disappear in Dreamless Sleep?
Sciencealert Article We Were Wrong About Consciousness Disappearing in Dreamless Sleep, Say Scientists
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Sleep is NOTHING like death. You’re still experiencing lots of stuff, you still very much have a sense of self, you’re still thinking things, your brain is still processing lots of information.
General anesthesia - now THAT is a real close period to what being dead is.
I’ve had general anesthesia, it was just like falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.
If death is like that, then there’s absolutely nothing to be afraid of.
But isn’t there a fear anyway? Because its forever. Also not seeing loved ones ever again. Not enjoying the nice things ever again.
Add constant pain, and that’s what I call life.
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It’s not rational. Evolution has hardwired us and every other organism that has the necessary neural architecture to fear death and seek to avoid it. A species that didn’t have an instinctive and heritable aversion to death would not last very long.
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Describe your “aversion” to death any way you want to, if in the end it results in something that very much looks like fear, I think you’re making a distinction without a difference.
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I think that most people aren’t afraid of death itself. It’s more the suffering to get there.
The most scary stuff is just not doing or experiencing anything after death, at least for me. (Probably the biggest fomo on earth)
Life is a series of missed opportunities. When you choose to do something, you miss out on a multitude of other options. That is fine.
But I get the FOMO, it took me a few years of active mindfulness to reign it in.
It’s not sleeping I’m worried about, it’s not waking up.
For me when I had anesthesia I quickly closed my eyes with the surgeon talking, when I opened my eyes the surgeon was still talking so I was wondering when the surgery would start.
Of course when I opened my eyes it was 5 hours later and after the surgery but it took me a while to realized that.
I’ve had general anesthesia, it was just like falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.
What if anesthesia actually just blocks your memories and physical reactions, but you actually experience everything that happens to you in absolute terror?
I had to be put under a few years ago to extract wisdom teeth and I wouldn’t say I was 100% gone. I remember seeing the light through my eyelids, hearing muffled unintelligible voices, and feeling mild tension as they worked in my mouth, jostling my head around. No pain, but notable light sensations. It also felt like it was over in a minute for an hour and a half procedure. Was definitely a wild experience, but certainly no terror remembered, thankfully.
Except the agonizing pain which precedes death
Depends on the death.
When I’m asleep I’m not experiencing shit. Close eyes, moment of black, awake again the next day.
This is not the normal human experience. Check if you’re a robot?
My diagnostics said “all systems normal” so that can’t be it
You just don’t remember your dreams.
That’s probably true. I have definitely had some dreams. But maybe only fifty over thirty-seven years.
Coma?
Your brain is still very much active. It’s more like running a computer with the display turned off.
Death is ‘Long Death’, Sleep is ‘Short Death’, and Naps are ‘Power Death’.
I mean, I lucid dream every night. So my consciousness is rarely off.
I’ve been practicing for almost 20 years to be able to switch it on and off so its kinda nice that I get to be a god 6 to 8 hours a day
Why don’t you join !LucidDreaming@kbin.social, you could be helpful to build that community
Do you find it an enjoyable or useful experience?
I love it. Things can go from psychedelic to me flying in the air, changing the landscape like I’m some sort of God.
I can even make food and banquets appear, and I can eat whatever I want at full flavor
I can even make any sexual fantasy I want come true instantly. I don’t do this often, though. As I think it would destroy me in the waking world.
For the most part, it was worth the years of work it took to learn the meditation needed for all of this.
Amazing. Thanks for the insight. Got any links people would find useful if they wanted to follow in your footsteps?
I can’t reccomend books outside of the basics of meditation. Most of it requires some work to be put in with body mindfulness.
Next time you are about to fall asleep, try to program your brain to find out something that’s meaningful to you. Just keep telling yourself that you are going to find that thing. And when you do, you will KNOW it’s a dream. Keep telling yourself to test reality in your dreams.
Its ALL about breaking the waking and the non waking barriers
It will take time to master those powers and the night that you do you will wake up like you just took LSD. Even still, keep that dream object and reality testing in mind. The more you do the more you will find yourself testing if it’s a dream in the dream. That will set it off.
You can even test if you are in a dream IRL a few time a day to speed things up. It sounds silly to do, but it will train your mind to test reality in dreams.
Interesting. Thank you!
Can you link me to lucid dream training that was created by someone that holds a doctorate of medicine?
I’ll wait. Thanks.
Are you one of those people who needs an authority figure to tell you what you are experiencing?
I have a doctorate in philosophy, if that counts.
I’m sorry that you’re so closed-minded to things like this.
Try it, and dont give up
Can you send it to me too, please? I tried a while ago, but gave up.
Yo I’m giving up too, I know it’s hard but, as guy said to me:
How can we expect to get lucid at night when we’re going through our waking lives in auto-pilot? If we practice being here and now and being aware of the nature of our reality, that mindset will sooner or later be a part of our lives, both waking and dreaming.
Awareness in waking life is necessary for Lucid Dreams
Do you really have dreamless sleep or do you simply not remember the dream?
The majority of sleep is dreamless, I believe it’s just during REM that you dream, which I believe is usually 15-20% of normal sleep.
What is the door looking thing with legs supposed to represent?
a thumb with legs, arms, and a yellow eye
When people ask me what happens when you die, I say:
“Remember what it was like before you were born? Well it’s a lot like that.”
Me: Sleep, how I loathe those little slices of death.
Also me: watches 2 hours of unnarrated sleeper train travel videos on YouTube
zZzZzZzZz
A human being is a process of computation. Ending the computation is death. Pausing the computation is, well, simply pausing the computation. It has no profound significance.
(This is also my answer to the “teleporter problem.” As long as the computation continues, a change in the substrate on which it takes place also has no profound significance.)
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/-mu780uB7mI?si=mKSO3SiGfkqIXnWq
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
There’s still brain activity in sleep.
Brain activity isnt nessecarily consciousness.
Right? I’ve met so many of those people.
