So let’s say a normal healthy person with no medical problems or disabilities suddenly had a minor nosebleed when asleep. Not a bleed from the great vessels, just a normal breach. Could they bleed to death, or would the stream either seal up or not be enough to kill the person within hours. Could it render the person unconscious until he died or support arrived?
I’m curious because I once had some nosebleeds when asleep, which penetrated the pillows and sheets all the way through and actually completely drenched the sheets and blankets. Even when I woke up, they were actually wet and juicy to the touch.
You only lose a tiny amount of blood in a nosebleed. It can make a huge mess, but it only takes a little blood to make a huge mess.
Incidentally, this is true of fake blood, too. I know from experience that a blood squib the size of a marble is enough to cover half of a stage in blood.
Death from a nosebleed is possible, but it is extremely rare, and the fatal cases usually involve some other issue like a clotting disorder, tumor, drug use, aneurysm, hypertension, injury, or some sort of anatomical deformity. Death by asphyxiation (due to the blood filling the airway) is also possible.
If you truly are otherwise normal and healthy, then the chance of death isn’t quite zero, but then the chance of death from an airplane crashing and landing on you isn’t zero either. These types of things are so rare that they aren’t worth worrying about.
People tend to wake up when their breathing is interrupted, whether it’s by an accumulation of liquid in the airway or by a vengeful spouse’s pillow pressed over their face.
I mean minor as in easily manageable and very survivable if the person was conscious, even without any advanced medical aid at all.
I heard that also sometimes people might wake up if there is liquid trickling down their face, and that process is usually reliable. Do you think that you would wake up if that happened, and is there such a mechanism?
Healthy people can donate a pint of blood and rarely suffer any major ill effects. A pint of blood is a lot. You could go Carrie all over your bed and probably be fine.
Nosebleeds stop on their own. Sure, putting your head back/squeezing your nose/stopping the flow helps it stop a bit faster, but they’re not just going to keep flowing unless you are an untreated sufferer of severe hemophilia.
I suppose if you are a hemophiliac, but normal person? if it could i’d have never lived through childhood.
Damned sinuses used to dry out crack and bleed all over
You can’t bleed to death, unless it’s an absolutely epic nosebleed. The vast, vast majority of nosebleeds will simply trickle or drip-drop-drip-drop for a while, then dry out of their own accord.
What might be a hazard to you, if sleeping during a nosebleed, however, is that the blood might trickle back down your nasal cavity and into your windpipe and possibly lungs. That could cause all sorts of trouble.
Source: I had frequent nosebleeds as a child, so frequently so that I had to undergo a nasal-cauterization procedure around age 7. I believe I have also had nosebleeds while sleeping, too.
A friend’s father bled to death while napping in his recliner. A hemorrhoid burst while he was asleep. The chair and carpet soaked up so much of it that he was already pretty well bled out brfore the stain started to creep out.
A year or so ago I was awakened thinking I had a really runny nose. It was – running with blood. It stopped after a while but started up again later that day and was gushing so much I went to the ER. They stuffed something up the nostril and sent me home. The next day blood was gushing right through the stopper, so I went back. While I was there in the ER, both nostrils began streaming. “We can’t send you home like this,” they said, as they stuffed some very uncomfortable devices up my nostrils. I was hospitalized for about 3 - 4 days. I am not a hemophiliac. This never happened before, or since, and I have no idea why the event occurred. I suppose it might have eventually stopped on its own, but then again, maybe it wouldn’t have.
BTW, the ENT told me they now advice tilting your head forward, not back, and pressing the nostrils closed. The pressure of the blood helps the clot to form.