Fight to Stay Conscious?

DiracPool

Yes, there is a medical justification for this. It is called, "if I'm awake, I know I'm not dead." The null hypothesis here is that there is every reason to maintain "awakeness" and awareness if you are in a medically compromised situation, and zero reason to fall asleep and maybe not ever wake up again.

So, in short, I'd say the only reason to not maintain awakeness would be if a medical team were already on the scene and had some reason to put you out.

Evo

This seems to be the most logical reason for someone to be conscious, if the patient is awake, they can answers questions like "Can you feel this?", if they can't, and they should, it gives the medical personnel clues as to potential problems.

jim hardy

I've had heart attacks , blacked out and flatlined three times.
Each time the nurses slapped my face saying "come back stay with us open your eyes say something".
I distinctly remember fading out into blackness and being pulled back awake by the encouragement from those wonderful nurses.

I think that staying concious somehow encourages your body to not go into shock and die. Getting patient to say something makes them use their lungs, which perhaps restarts breathing.

That's the view of this layman. Perhaps somebody from medical community has experience to share?

old jim

Pythagorean

I wonder if adrenaline secretion happens in the unconscious and if that could be a factor. Not just adrenaline in particular, but hormone secretion in general. Are certain hormone secretions only available when the waking circuits aren't being inhibited?

Monique

Yesterday I was watching a television program about a neonatal care unit, there I found the answer to the OP question

There was an early born baby with underdeveloped lungs that had to work hard to breathe and get enough oxygen. Babies get fatigued after a while, so the doctors decided to intervene and help the baby with breathing. For that they wanted to intubate her and to reduce the stress of the procedure they first put the baby to sleep.

During that time the doctor was explaining that putting the baby to sleep is necessary, but it is very dangerous as well: the baby won't fight for the breathe anymore and so the doctor needs to be confident that they can intubate the baby quickly or otherwise the situation could become dangerous.

So yes, even in premature babies being conscious and fighting is important for survival. At least when breathing is concerned, it's probably an evolutionary mechanism since people with breathing problems during their sleep also wake up to catch their breath.

lisab

OK, that makes sense. There is definitely a difference between the way someone breathes when awake compared to sleeping.