Inspired by the pope coma thread and the Seinfeld episode where Kramer watches a movie about a comatose person…
What does the current evidence say about the experience of being in a coma? Is it pleasant (like a good sleep), unpleasant (like an unending nightmare), or simply blank?
Only contribution I can make is to say: cool question. I hope we get some good answers.
Can’t say about the comatose part, but I have had the dubious pleasure of being in ICU entubated[that turned into a trach], and with wires and tubes in the damnedest locations and I can definitely say that I was glad to be whacked out of my head on morphine because it is about the least comfortable I have been in my life.
Lets see, a large tube jammed down my mouth with all my poor mucous membranes drying out and unable to move my head or mouth, followed by getting a small hole cut in my throat…you know you can only pretty much grunt and make whooshy sounds unless you cover a trach hole? So much for communication. Medical tape everywhere, it itches. When your hands are strapped down so you dont rip anything out, you cant even scratch your nose. Catheterization. Yippee, UTI infection pathway. Did I mention that I find it hell trying to sleep in any position other than curled up? Imagine being strapped down facing up and not being able to curl up and go to sleep…[not to mention it was my back and neck that was damaged so I wouldn’t have really been safe to curl up, but it is the principle of the matter…] and the frustration at not being able to really effectively communicate between being whacked on drugs and wired up like something out of the Matrix…
On second thought, if comatose meant total unawareness of the body, I probably would have preferred that…
I was in a coma (not very deep) for about 3 days after I had my stroke.
It was essentially lights out when I had the stroke, and then a very, very hazy, gradual awakening as I came out of it. I have the vague recollection of hearing voices, but very muffled (which I assume where the voices of those around me), and what I assume were periods when I was more or less awake, but unable to move, respond, or do anything.
The closest thing I can compare it to is that twilight period when you’re…well, waking up in the morning. Just extend it for a couple of days. It wasn’t pleasant, it wasn’t unpleasant, at least not while I was experiencing it. When I finally did come out of it enough to know what was going on, I didn’t want to sleep because I was afraid I’d never wake up again. Now THAT was an unpleasant feeling.