# How is unconsciousness different from brain death in terms of feeling?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-unconsciousness-different-from-brain-death-in-terms-of-feeling/761926
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [August 6, 2016, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-unconsciousness-different-from-brain-death-in-terms-of-feeling/761926 "2016-08-06T09:32:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2016, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-unconsciousness-different-from-brain-death-in-terms-of-feeling/761926/21 "2016-08-29T06:44:12Z")
Excessive weeping is one symptom of depression, but not absolutely indicative of it all by itself.
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2016, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-unconsciousness-different-from-brain-death-in-terms-of-feeling/761926/22 "2016-08-29T08:29:14Z")
The one time I passed out, after giving blood, I came to in the midst of reciting facts about myself. I was telling myself my full name, my address, the fact that I was a college student majoring in English. It makes me think that when I lost consciousness (for only about 30 seconds) I began immediately trying to “wake up” by reclaiming my identity.
When I have been out after anesthesia, and either brought to with oxygen, or allowed to wake up as if from sleep, I didn’t have this experience.
Just an additional data point.
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### Author:  [@joema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joema)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2016, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-unconsciousness-different-from-brain-death-in-terms-of-feeling/761926/23 "2016-08-29T22:58:32Z")
> [@piko\_poko](#):
>
> …As far as the person’s **mental state** is concerned, is he as good as dead after falling unconscious?..
There are various states of unconsciousness. In most of these the brain is still functioning which is obviously different from death. Therefore there is an argument that even deep, dreamless unconsciousness under anesthesia might be classified as different from death. OTOH if during a medical coma or phases of deep sleep there is no awareness, from an experiential standpoint it would be similar to death.
The most detailed study on patients who reported dreaming while under general anesthesia found this generally happened during _recovery_ from anesthesia, not while fully sedated. Thus it is still possible that properly treated patients do not dream while in a deeply sedated state. See “Dreaming during Anesthesia and Anesthetic Depth in Elective Surgery Patients” (2007, Leslie, et al):
> **[Dreaming during Anesthesia and Anesthetic Depth in Elective Surgery Patients:...](https://pubs.asahq.org/anesthesiology/article/106/1/33/8860/Dreaming-during-Anesthesia-and-Anesthetic-Depth-in)**
>
> Background. Dreaming reported after anesthesia remains a poorly understood phenomenon. Dreaming may be related to light anesthesia and represent near-miss awareness. However, few studies have assessed the relation between dreaming and depth of...
There is definitely one medical procedure that precludes any possibility of dreaming: deep hypothermic circulatory arrest: [Deep hypothermic circulatory arrest - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_hypothermic_circulatory_arrest), where all cardiac and brain activity are intentionally stopped for up to one hour. In this case the brain has no EEG pattern – it is totally flatlined. Yet when treatment is completed the person can be revived. This is more similar to death – where there is no thought or dreaming whatsoever. However it is different from death in that the brain’s intricate synaptic network is preserved and decay has not begun.
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