How likely is it for a healthy, sober adult to fall asleep and drown in the bathtub?
I like to soak in hot water, and sometimes I nod off. The Beloved and another friend are aghast. You could drown! But I don’t believe them.
So am I taking my life in my hands?
According to this, unless you are a young child, the chances of drowning in a bathtub are pretty slim. However, slips and falls are much more common in adults than in kids. I think you should be fairly safe unless you are an unsupervised child under five years old.
I’d say it’s unlikely without some additional physical factor that might prevent the person hauling themself back into an upright position - for example if it’s a claw-foot tub in the middle of the room and the person slid down with their legs hanging over the end, and they got stuck under the taps - and no nearby wall to push against, etc
It seems very unlikely to me - I would have to contort myself to get into a position where I was in danger of drowning in a standard bathtub. If my feet were inside the tub, there is no way that I could slip down from a seated position to the extent that my face was under water.
I’m sure it has happened somewhere or other. Who would have thought that a healthy teenager could die while reaching into the back of their mini-van?
But I think the chances are pretty small for such a mishap.
I lost a relative recently. She had not been formally diagnosed with epilepsy, but she had had one seizure. Then one day, she had a seizure in the bathtub. They are not sure if the seizure killed her directly, or if it immobilized her, and she drowned. If they were not on the lookout for seizures, I am not sure if the medical examiner would have known anything other than “drowned in a bathtub”.
Decades ago I read about a true crime case where the coroner was suspicious about a supposed bathtub drowning, because there was no splashing around the tub. It turned out the victim had been drugged, thus it was a murder.
Yeah, that all mostly confirms my thinking. Young child, slip and fall, health problems, drunk or drugged. Those could do you in. Merely falling asleep almost certainly cannot.
Not to mention the Bride in the Bath murders back around the turn of the 20th C.
Forensic Files has had a number of cases where the wife was supposed to have drowned in the tub, but the husband was found guilty of murder.
It seems like Pennsylvania is a fertile location for these faux accidents.
In one of the weirdest investigations, police trying to figure out how a man could rapidly drown a healthy young woman in a bathtub, hit on the idea of the victim being pulled rapidly under the water by her ankles, thus inducing sudden unconsciousness. They tried it with a volunteer. It almost worked too well.
Yeah, this was the Brides in the Bath technique.
Water wings or a life jacket . . . ya can’t be too safe!
Or this:
Here is a funny and current story. I am stuck in a bath. I can’t actually get out of my bath tub. Why?
I’ve go a chest infection and some fever so I’m home sick. I also can’t turn my head. Took some antibiotics and a Valium and thought- i will have a relaxing bath. I found some bath salts. Lit some candles and poured in some coconut oil- now I am realising it was too much coconut oil. Went to get out after pulling the plug and I just slide around like a giant greased up potato in a roasting dish. There is no traction. No grip. Just me and my fat body slipping around covered in oil. Fuck home beauty remedies. SOS
Also, this:
Or for our younger generation:
And for the older ones, from The Seven Year Itch:
Have you physically tried to see if you can even get your head under the water from your position? If you mean laying face up at the back of the tub, I find I can’t, as I’m longer than my tub.
My main question would be if a healthy person can wind up with their head below water and not be woken up by reflex.
Yes, easily. When I’m soaking, I keep my feet out so that I can let my back and neck get all the warmth.
That’s my thinking, too. If I get a snoot full of water, I’m pretty sure that I’ll wake up.
For a normal/healthy person, yes. Sleep apnea interrupts a person’s sleep precisely because they become hypoxic/hypercapnic. So even if the irritation of inhaling water doesn’t rouse you, the eventual air hunger will.
I was amused this week watching the Brooks Falls Bear Cam. A bear was sitting in the river and had become very drowsy. He kept drifting off to sleep, and every time his snout touched the water, he would perk up a bit, raise his snout, and begin the whole cycle again. It was like watching a little kid who refuses admit to anyone that he’s too tired to continue watching TV.
Excerpt from one of your cites:
Good thing you (she really) can refill the tub with some nice hot water then use the soap most people keep near their tub to remove the excess coconut oil. If you (she really) are smart enough to think of this while busy taking naked selfies & posting them online.
Or, as someone in the comments said, “Flop your arms over the side and ooze out of it like a zoidberg”.
IIRC, didn’t that also happen to a Doper? The only difference was that she had been diagnosed with a seizure disorder.
I myself have epilepsy, so I only take showers, no tub baths. 
It’s much easier if you have furnished your bathroom in the old-fashioned style.
