Is there any brain activity? Is it like being in a long sleep or something else? Answer if YOU have ever been under anesthesia.
2007-01-28 12:43:52 · 4 answers · asked by ♫ijustwannaplaymymusic♫ 2 in Social Science ➔ Psychology
Last year I had a procedure and experienced anesthesia. I watched the liquid come down the tube and I watched as it entered my arm. The next thing I knew I was waking up. It was an hour later. I had zero sensation of time, because the higher-order thinking part of my brain was shut down. This doesn't happen during normal sleep, and that's why we dream. Normally, the brain associates images during sleep, creating dream sequences. But during the anesthesia...NOTHING. As if one hour of my life had been stolen away.
2007-01-28 15:08:54 · answer #1 · answered by ? 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Each type of anesthesia has an effect on a part of the nervous system, which results in a depression or numbing of nerve pathways. General anesthesia affects the brain cells, which causes you to lose consciousness. Regional anesthesia has an effect on a large bundle of nerves to a particular area of the body, which results in losing sensation to that area without affecting your level of consciousness. Local anesthesia causes you to lose sensation in a very specific area.
Some of the drugs that produce general anesthesia in large doses can be used to produce sedation, or "twilight sleep" in lower doses. Sedation can be given in many ways. A common example of an anesthetic gas that is used for sedation is nitrous oxide or laughing gas.
If you are scheduled to have surgery, you may be told not to eat anything for eight hours. It is very important that you follow whatever instructions you are given for not eating or drinking anything prior to surgery. Why? Because when you are given anesthesia, you lose the ability to protect your lungs from inhaling something you're not supposed to inhale. When you are awake, you can usually swallow saliva and food without choking because part of the swallowing mechanism involves a reflex that results in covering the opening into the lungs. When you are anesthetized, you lose that reflex. So, if you have any solids or liquids in your stomach, they could come up into your mouth and be inhaled into your lungs. The result could be very serious lung damage.
2007-01-28 12:48:55 · answer #2 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your brain goes into its "sleep" mode. You usually don't dream, hear, or see when this happens.
2007-01-28 12:46:55 · answer #3 · answered by JOURNEY 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
sleeps
2007-01-28 12:51:44 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋