# Do people in comas dream?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-comas-dream/250676>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 16, 2004, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-comas-dream/250676 "2004-06-16T16:14:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Da\_Cissy\_Pimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Da\_Cissy\_Pimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Da_Cissy_Pimp)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-comas-dream/250676/1 "2004-06-16T16:14:04Z")

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Does anyone have any idea whether people in comas dream or not? I always assumed that they did, given the superficial similarity between the comatose state and that of sleep, and a belief I’ve long held that the mind, like Nature, abhors a vacuum (so that, no matter what state it’s in, there must be _something_ going on inside it), but now I’m not so sure. After all, whereas the brain of a dreaming person shows a lot of electrical activity, the brain of someone in a coma usually shows very little activity at all. I suppose this question would be difficult to answer given that few people who go into comas ever come out of them, even today. Someone I asked this question did attempt to shed a bit of light on the subject by telling me that Evel Knievel was apparently asked, after going into a coma himself after an accident, what being in a coma was like, only to reply, “How would I know? I was in a coma!” That would seem to imply the answer to my question is “No”.