Thread: Lucid dreaming during surgery?

Being put under anesthesia is not like going to sleep. You are made unconscious, but it's not sleep and you don't dream during it. You may have some strange dreamlike experiences when you are coming out of it, though. Your brain will feel so scrambled coming out of it that you won't know what's real and what isn't.

I always thought it would be frightening to have an LD during surgery because it made me think, what if you accidentally woke up?

Originally Posted by OneirosOnkelos

I always thought it would be frightening to have an LD during surgery because it made me think, what if you accidentally woke up?

Surgery...never again

Like what dms111 said. Being unconscious is not the same as sleep. You don't dream when put into a drugged induced "sleep". However one interesting to note that there are those that have had NDE's when put into a drugged induced "sleep" even though it is supposedly impossible to hallucinate during such a state but it happens.

That's not the experience I had at the dentist once when they gave me sleeping gas... I had crazy-ass dreams! I clearly remember when they pulled the mask off I still thought I was fully conscious, so I tried to tell them that, but all that came out was a muddled mumble that surprised me. Then suddenly I was standing in a little canoe in the exact center of a lake with the surface still as glass, and the canoe I was in starting to tilt to one side slowly. I put my arms out into a crucified type position and the boat was gone, I was now just floating a few inches above the water and continued to tilt.

Not sure if that was it or if I just don't remember the rest - it was a long time ago. And of course sleeping gas might be different form anaesthetics they use in surgery. The dream was incredibly vivid and awesome!!

Actually what would it be like, if not sleep? I guess you're saying it puts you directly into deep NREM sleep? Because sleep is unconsciousness.

The gas at the dentist dosnt make you unconscious. They call it laughing gas as far as I know instead of sleeping gas.

Well it sure did make me unconscious! Out like a light and dreaming away.

What would 'unconsciousness' be if not sleep? Your conscious awareness is not functioning, and you're not dead, so you must be unconscious. Or are you just trying to make a distinction between REM and NREM?

Here are a couple of snippets from this page about it:

The gas does not put you to “sleep” in the medical definition sense (either general or twilight anesthesia/sleep), but rather can truly allow you or your child to fall asleep during a procedure.

you get these little dream type things and when i was little I would have the same dream every time I got it.

Or maybe you're just saying that sedation is a deeper form of unconsciousness than sleep? Maybe one with even less brain activity than NREM? If that's all you're saying then I can agree - I just disagree with the statement that sleep is not unconsciousness. Most people seem to think they're somehow totally different.

The gas you got at the dentist is not the same type of anesthesia used during surgery, which is given to you in liquid form through an IV drip.

Originally Posted by Darkmatters

Actually what would it be like, if not sleep? I guess you're saying it puts you directly into deep NREM sleep? Because sleep is unconsciousness.

The state that anesthesia puts you in is unique to itself. You won't get the same EEG readings from anesthetic unconsciousness than you would with a person who is just asleep. The serious anesthesia used in surgery puts you into a very mild comatose state, which is not sleep.

Once I heard a surgeon on TV saying that when they tell you to pick a nice dream, count backwards, that's not entirely correct, because you will not have any dreams at all.


Here is something from this link

The similarities between the patients' dreams while under anesthesia and during natural sleep suggest that the dreams during anesthesia occur during the early recovery period when patients are still lightly sedated, but are in a definite sleep state, Leslie's team concludes.

OK thanks - I get it now.

soo.... wouldn't the mild work for when i really am asleep? i wouldn't know when i go from unconscious to asleep

It's highly unlikely, the sort of thing that would make an interesting film script but has little or no basis in reality. Probably best or you can guarantee that there would be a bunch of lucid dreamers who were getting anaesthetic drugs on the sly and putting themselves under!