As a compliment to the thread about near death experiences I’d really like hearing people’s experiences of losing consciousness under general anesthesia and what’s it like coming back.
Also interested of things anesthetists may have noticed about this during their career.
It isn’t like anything. One moment you are counting down, the very next moment you are waking up. Time does not pass for you. It’s one instant (counting down) to the next (waking up.) It’s very strange. Like you skipped through time. Like you magically moved forward in time instantaneously. You will never have memories from when you are under.
Honestly, I’ve wished that experience was possible for other times. I know it’s dangerous and that’s why it’s not. But general anesthesia is just such a better experience than local. Eg, I had a dental filling the other day. That uses local anesthesia and it’s quite stressful (especially as my first time undergoing that). I found myself wishing it was as convenient as how general anesthesia is just blink and it’s done.
I also wish it were so easy to fall asleep. It sucks tossing and turning at night (especially when there’s something big going on the next day, which only makes it harder to fall asleep), knowing how anesthesia can knock you out in seconds. My understanding is that anesthesia isn’t sleep and won’t give you the benefits of sleep, but the experience of drifting off so fast is still what I want from sleep.
I’ll give you a piece of advice that’s been very valuable to me, especially in the case of getting injections, which is always difficult for me. In the lead up to a local anaesthetic, and during, take a short-to-normal inhale through your nose (depending on your lung tolerance) and do a loooong, extended exhale, as long as you can extend it without needing to take too big a gulp afterwards. When you exhale, this pushes your diaphragm up into your heart, slowing your heart rate down and significantly decreasing the physical effects of anxiety.
It works very, very quickly, and if you do it for up to 5 minutes, the heartrate lowering effect can last several hours. Doing it regularly (5-10 minutes a day) has long term positive effects for your overall cardiovascular health, too.
I’ve never been one for meditation, but practices like that have probably been helpful to so many people because it naturally takes advantage of the relationship between breathing patterns and heart rate variability.
There are even more ‘tricks’ like this, such as the double inhale. Taking two very quick breaths in succession before that long exhale is even better at reducing your heart rate and generally calming you down. You’ve even done it before, but you wouldn’t know it.
Children in particular will do this, and it can happen naturally when you’re sobbing. Sometimes you’ll take two short inhales like “huh, huh!” before going in for another cry rather than one big gasp- and this is why!
I hope this really helps you out, because it’s very quick and straightforward, but boy does it work fast. Sometimes I’ve only remembered to-do it halfway through an unpleasant experience and it still banishes burgeoning pre-syncope and nausea. Good luck!