# I think death is like falling asleep and never waking up
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 24, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574 "2017-08-24T18:00:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/1 "2017-08-24T18:00:08Z")
[I thought about putting this into Great Debates…sort of an “anti” witnessing thread. But I freely admit that I have no proof about any of this, and it’s all just a hunch. One I would be very pleased to be wrong about.]
To the question, what happens when you die, my stock answer has long been, “You go back to where you came from.” To my mind, it makes sense that I will be in the same place in the year 2300 that I was at in the year 1700. And as someone who doesn’t believe in God (at least, not the one described in religious texts, and certainly not a conscious being), I imagine that this really just means I cease to exist when I die.
But what does that mean, from my perspective? My best guess is that death is quite similar to deep sleep, in that time passes without you noticing. Except, instead of 7 or 8 hours of obliviousness, it’s forever.
Now, on one hand this means that death isn’t boring, or scary, or lonely, or anything, really. It won’t “suck” in any sort of way, as I won’t be aware of it.
But, it does mean that at some point I will go from a sentient being, full of all of the thoughts, feelings, memories, and emotions I have wrapped into nearly 40 years, to an unconscious meat sack. Like everybody else on this planet who has ever lived, I will go down that roller coaster of death, and my mind will shut down.
I imagine this experience (barring some immediate catastrophic loss of life, where the lights go out immediately) is very similar to falling into a deep sleep. I don’t know about you, but I can’t pinpoint the exact moment I fall asleep. It’s more like I start to drift in and out of consciousness while waves of relaxation flow over me and my body becomes restful. When it’s not a fitful night of tossing and turning, falling into sleep is quite physically pleasant.
And that’s what I ultimately expect. Old age death is preceded by intermittent bouts of consciousness before one final surge of endorphins envelops the person into a final warm embrace and the person loses track of time and space completely before entering the long eternal nap.
Despite its peaceful overtones, the thought of going through it one day utterly terrifies me. I get literal shivers down my spine.
I really don’t want to go on this ride, even though I know it is coming. Death is something I fear, even though I believe that my fear is over the moment I die.
---
### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/2 "2017-08-24T18:13:16Z")
Could be worse. Could end up in El Paso.
---
### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/3 "2017-08-24T18:16:26Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#):
>
> Could be worse. Could end up in El Paso.
Where you catch the eye of a Mexican girl.
And eventually getting shot to death.
---
### Author:  [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/4 "2017-08-24T18:46:35Z")
_One who wakes up from a dream thinks, “It is like this, and not like that which I saw in the dream.” After death too, one thinks, “It is like this, and not like that which I saw before death.”
The dream may be brief, and the life may be long, but the experience of the moment is the same in both.
Just as in one lifetime one experiences hundreds of dreams, so until one attains enlightenment, one experiences hundreds of waking states. Just as some people remember their dreams, some people remember their past experiences._[INDENT]- Yoga Vasishtha
[/INDENT]
---
### Author:  [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/5 "2017-08-24T19:45:59Z")
I tend to agree with OP, remember what it was like before you were born? No? Well that’s what it will be like after you die.
Somewhat sad but not scary to me.
---
### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/6 "2017-08-24T20:14:02Z")
> [@control-z](#):
>
> Somewhat sad but not scary to me.
And people think, “It’s not the destination, but the journey” is a _positive_ thing to say.
---
### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/7 "2017-08-24T21:13:27Z")
> [@control-z](#):
>
> I tend to agree with OP, remember what it was like before you were born? No? Well that’s what it will be like after you die.
The only issue I struggle with in this comparison is that “before I was born” is actually a fuzzy line in my mind; it’s not like I popped out into the world and immediately developed full situational awareness and started accumulating detailed memories and vivid recall. Going back to my younger and younger days, my memory gets more sparse and vague. At some point it’s hard to tell when I’m remembering reality and when my memories are mostly informed by the many pictures in our family photo albums. Knowing the dates on the photos, it’s still hazy: the people in my family (and the family home) look pretty much the same a few years before I was born as they did a few years after I was born. Beyond that, it’s very old family photos, and history-of-the-world photos. IOW, my past seems to recede into a cloud, whereas the future terminus of my consciousness is likely to be much more abrupt.
> [@Moriarty](#):
>
> Despite its peaceful overtones, the thought of going through it one day utterly terrifies me. I get literal shivers down my spine.
>
> I really don’t want to go on this ride, even though I know it is coming. Death is something I fear, even though I believe that my fear is over the moment I die.
I expect you’re scared because you’re still middle aged: life is good, you’re basically healthy, and you’ve still got a long list of things to see and do in this world. At some point, hopefully several decades from now, you may find that you feel differently: your worn-out body makes daily existence more of a burden than a pleasure, you’ve put a big dent in your bucket list, and you may find that after so many years of contemplation, death is, if not enthusiastically welcomed, at least not terrifically feared.
---
### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/8 "2017-08-24T21:49:55Z")
I’ve always believed that sentience belies the ‘oblivion theory’. It doesn’t have to make sense but there you go. That’s MHO.
---
### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/9 "2017-08-24T22:13:35Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#):
>
> It doesn’t have to make sense
And it doesn’t.
---
### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/10 "2017-08-24T22:25:53Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> And it doesn’t.
Echo echo echo…Manny Mota…Mota…
---
### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/11 "2017-08-24T22:33:59Z")
> [@Moriarty](#):
>
> To the question, what happens when you die, my stock answer has long been, “You go back to where you came from.” To my mind, it makes sense that I will be in the same place in the year 2300 that I was at in the year 1700.
Y’know, you can always say “I have no idea”…
---
### Author:  [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/12 "2017-08-24T22:40:24Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#):
>
> Could be worse. Could end up in El Paso.
[Nah, man, New Orleans!](http://imgur.com/36TnSf1)
---
### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/13 "2017-08-24T23:05:41Z")
> [@digs](#):
>
> Y’know, you can always say “I have no idea”…
I could, but I _do_ have an idea. I just have no idea if my idea is a correct idea. I _suspect_ that I am not the only one. 😉
[QUOTE=Machine Elf]
I expect you’re scared because you’re still middle aged: life is good, you’re basically healthy, and you’ve still got a long list of things to see and do in this world. At some point, hopefully several decades from now, you may find that you feel differently: your worn-out body makes daily existence more of a burden than a pleasure, you’ve put a big dent in your bucket list, and you may find that after so many years of contemplation, death is, if not enthusiastically welcomed, at least not terrifically feared.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, exactly! I felt this most strongly on my last birthday. Life is good, and I don’t want it to end. My boy is only 4, I just moved to a great city and have embarked on a great new phase of my career…life is too wonderful to want it to ever stop.
So, I guess I should be aspiring to breaking down and becoming decrepit one day? Maybe some chronic condition or a few bed sores to get in the right mood?
(I actually do hope for senility in my later years. It’d be a horrible burden to my loved ones, but it would be great for me if my last few years alive were spent uncertain of who or what I was instead of dwelling on which day is the the last one).
---
### Author:  [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2017, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/14 "2017-08-25T00:22:38Z")
My favorite (fake?) quote about death: \*“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” \*(Attributed to Mark Twain and vectored by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion.)
And then there’s Epicurus:\* Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.\*
Pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject.
---
### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/15 "2017-08-25T01:03:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _In the dark I hear the night birds call
> I can feel a lover’s breath
> I sleep in the kitchen with my feet in the hall
> Sleep is like a temporary death_
-Bob Dylan
---
### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2017, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/16 "2017-08-25T01:15:51Z")
Late one night, my kid told me his theory that whatever you picture as heaven, that’s what it’ll be like when you die.
I immediately said “Well, look for me near the buffet.”
I’ve thought about that buffet a lot since then. Later, I decided that’s during the day. In the evening, it’ll be the bar at the Belgian ale house down the street-- lots of blonde wood and triple dopplebocks.
On a more serious note, I like the line where Jesus tells the thief on the next cross “Today you’ll be with me in Paradise.” No purgatory, no void, no becoming a god with your own planet, no 49 days of hallucinations or stuck in a samsaric cycle, and no “First get baptized and go to a particular church and donate money to a televangelist”.
Thanks, Jesus. You’re invited to the ale house.
That’s my plan, until I run into [Doug Forcett](http://imgur.com/gallery/DFouB)…
.
---
### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2017, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/17 "2017-08-25T01:22:14Z")
> [@digs](#):
>
> Late one night, my kid told me his theory that whatever you picture as heaven, that’s what it’ll be like when you die.
> I immediately said “Well, look for me near the buffet.”
>
> I’ve thought about that buffet a lot since then. Later, I decided that’s during the day. In the evening, it’ll be the bar at the Belgian ale house down the street-- lots of blonde wood and triple dopplebocks.
>
> On a more serious note, I like the line where Jesus tells the thief on the next cross “Today you’ll be with me in Paradise.” No purgatory, no void, no becoming a god with your own planet, no 49 days of hallucinations or stuck in a samsaric cycle, and no “First get baptized and go to a particular church and donate money to a televangelist”.
>
> Thanks, Jesus. You’re invited to the ale house.
>
> That’s my plan, until I run into [Doug Forcett](http://imgur.com/gallery/DFouB)…
>
> .
I don’t know if you’re aware but that guy is fairly famous in that he was guaranteed a spot in paradise. He’s often used in sermons.
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Me)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2017, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/18 "2017-08-25T01:28:20Z")
> [@](#):
>
> If unentangled when we lie
> Then it’s easier to kinda die
> For though there’s pulse and shallow breath
> Falling asleep’s a kind of death
Loudon Wainwright III - [Bed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXoxohE1lLU)
---
### Author:  [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/19 "2017-08-25T01:57:12Z")
> [@digs](#):
>
> Late one night, my kid told me his theory that whatever you picture as heaven, that’s what it’ll be like when you die.
I think we’ve all heard that. I have a variation on that. One of the things I’ve thought might happen is that we seem to live forever in our memories, whatever we are thinking when we pass. Kind of a perceptual thing, since it’s the last thing you perceive, then it appears to last forever.
I’ve tried to come up with a few good memories to attempt to concentrate on when death is close, but then I thought, we probably won’t be reliving those moments, just the sketchy memory of things we managed to retain. Also, I don’t think death works that way, but I guess it’s still better to concentrate on the good things, no matter what happens next.
There’s the old chestnut of having your life flash before your eyes. Wonder if that relates to my theory above. Mostly, I cannot conceive of not existing - I understand it, but can’t wrap my head around the end of thoughts, memory and learning, the end to sensory input and seemingly to me, linear time. Nothing left to do. Nothing at all.
I used to get worked up, and I still think about it a bit, about dying, and worrying about what I must ‘do’ about it. I don’t want to die, but I think, in the last moments, there’s nothing to ‘do’ and you simply slip away, as natural and easy as breathing. Assuming you’re conscious, and not screaming in pain. I suspect life is the real bitch. Always pain, always something to do.
---
### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2017, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574/20 "2017-08-25T02:45:30Z")
> [@digs](#):
>
> On a more serious note, I like the line where Jesus tells the thief on the next cross “Today you’ll be with me in Paradise.” No purgatory, no void, no becoming a god with your own planet, no 49 days of hallucinations or stuck in a samsaric cycle, and no “First get baptized and go to a particular church and donate money to a televangelist”.
>
> Thanks, Jesus. You’re invited to the ale house.
I once saw part of a movie, on TV, about the crucifixion. All the different groups were speaking their own languages from that period. And no, it most definitely wasn’t “The Passion of the Christ” I have no idea what the movie was.
The story continues to Jesus’ ascencion into Heaven. You see people in Heaven waiting for the arrival, and among them, smiling and happy, is that theif. I kind of liked that touch.
I’m a Christian believer. I’m not afraid of being dead, but the dying process scares me, I don’t like pain. But whatever happens, I know that when I die I’ll be in the presence of God forever. No more worries, no pain, just blessedness.
Although I must admit a buffet and bar would be cool. And having my pets back again.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-death-is-like-falling-asleep-and-never-waking-up/794574.md?page=2)