It’s the same. I had surgery last year and it seemed like it was over in an instant. When you’re asleep your mind drifts in an out of different levels of awareness and consciousness from time to time so you have some experience of time passing. With anaesthesia in my experience there’s just nothing. Trying to remember what it was like, you might as well be trying to remember what it was like before you were born.

Yes. I found it incredibly disorientating, even after the event because time has passed and I have no awareness of it.

I had my first full anesthesia experience as an adult - emergency but minor surgery, so not an extremely scary ordeal. I was very distinctly trying to pay attention to the process of going under, as in: do i feel it fade? etc.

I remember doing the countdown thing and also trying to see if i could notice it at all like going to sleep. but, just like an off switch, no state change, just a full stop (but without something like "blackness"). First woke up to voices of nurses chitchatting across the recovery room and knowing everything was okay.

But as another comment put it, I can only imagine death being similar (if instant/unexpected/while sleeping/etc), just without the coming back. Which is scarier.

When I was a kid this once happened to me by just sleeping. I closed my eyes at night, opened them seemingly immediately and it was morning, feeling absolutely rested.

It was pretty weird and amazing, and never happened again. I haven't heard anyone reporting something like this, but I'm almost sure it must have happened to other people too.

A similar thing once happened to me as a kid, albeit with a twist. I counted down from 10 quite slowly and opened my eyes once I reached 0 - only for it to be morning.

It happened to me once or twice. It felt great, and I still think about it sometimes several decades later.

I also thought about it reading the comments here.

In the last decade, I was put under mildly (?) for an outpatient surgical procedure. I remember trying to tell the doctor that the framerate of my eyes was stuttering (and that I was more observant of such things than some people, due to my career), them telling me to "stop trying to talk" and me trying to say "okay". Next was trying to get oriented in the recovery room to tell the nurse how much pain I was feeling.

In my youth, I was put similarly under for impacted wisdom teeth. I remember becoming aware of the noises and forces on my neck mid-procedure, then opening my eyes and trying to make noises and facial expressions to get their attention. I am not sure how much time passed before I heard one person say, "he's coming out", they paused their work and then it was lights out until recovery again.

In both cases, the anesthesia was explained to me in advance as mild in that my autonomic breathing would still be there, and I could probably respond to them if they talk to me, but I wouldn't remember any of it. Apparently, there is a deeper anesthesia where you are so suppressed that you need more life support and monitoring.

I also had anesthesia for the first time as an adult, but I did kind of feel something as I was going under. It felt like my mind was melting away, and at the same time my hearing was fading out. It was kind of a pleasant feeling to be honest.

>But as another comment put it, I can only imagine death being similar (if instant/unexpected/while sleeping/etc), just without the coming back. Which is scarier.

You can't imagine it, because it lacks time. There's nothing to imagine.

I guess I was unclear - i was referring to the "just disappearing and not even knowing it" part more than the experience of something lapsing whilst you are unaware.

Maybe, but would that be the same you, or as though someone had made a copy of you?

"A difference that makes no difference is no difference.'

So how would you feel if I offered to make two copies of you, but in the process your body would be instantly and painlessly destroyed. That's twice as much of you. A good deal, yes? I could offer to do the same for your children. You'd have twice as many loving kids to look after you in your old age.

I would take all of those deals. And if I could somehow upload, I'm releasing my model and weights under copyleft to ensure there are plenty of me around operating automatic doors, flying taxis for uber, enjoying time, and yes, probably being tortured by some sicko in VR.

Why would it be a copy and not you?

The last time I was under anaesthesia was in 2004, so my memories are definitely hazy here, but from what I remember, they started wheeling me into the OR while giving me something potent. It felt good, like in the morning when your alarm goes off but sleep feels so wonderful and pleasant that you just want to shut your alarm off and go back to sleep. Years later, I heard an addiction to whatever drug they used here was what killed Michael Jackson, and I don't blame him one iota for being addicted to that stuff. And as I was being given that stuff, the doctor was saying some things to me about... something (I remembered what he was saying back in 2004, but it's been almost two decades since so that memory is gone), maybe it was the "count backwards from 100" thing I heard about in fiction. And the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the recovery room, my mouth was super dry, and I was out of it and loopy for an hour or two. It was like my brain just... turned off for the entire surgery. This was before the first time I ever got really drunk (I wasn't old enough to drink at the time), but in hindsight the "loopy" feeling for the first hour or two after waking up felt no different from all the times I've been drunk off my ass since.

When I was put under so my wisdom teeth could be pulled out, I remember the IV line being put in, the doctor starting to count down from 10 and maybe getting to 7, and then suddenly I was in the parking lot with my mom actively walking out of the place. I confusedly asked if we should go back so they could actually do the operation, and then I realized there was gauze wrap in my mouth from the completed operation.

My experience under anaesthesia was exactly like you described. One second I was lying in the hospital bed, with a doctor sticking a needle into me. Then the next second I was waking up in another hospital room. Time travel - absolutely no sense that I'd been asleep or dreaming. It's exactly like you said, like I felt like I simply hadn't existed during the intervening time.

Now I know what it feels like to be dead.

> Is it the same under anaesthesia

My experience with general anaesthesia was exactly like that. I was talking about bikes with the surgeon. 0 nanoseconds elapse. I'm waking up in another room.

This is what I imagine death is like.

This is what it was like for me. Last thing I remember from my surgery, they loaded me up with some Valium, and then placed a mask over my face. I remember breathing a few times and then nothing, instantly faded to black. The however many hours later I woke post surgery, without recall of anything.

I've also fainted from blood pressure drops and that was a lot different. That was much more dreamlike, I remember lying on the floor contemplating whether I should get up or if I was just dreaming. It was all very quick, but felt much slower.

I read a thread at Reddit about people that have been in a coma. Most of the people said they had no idea of the time passed. No dreams, no nothing.

Other people said they dream like during the night, but had less awareness of time. So not like when I sleep and sometimes feel that this dream is stupid/frustrating/repetitive and either I should wake up now or the dream should change.

Not quite so for me, needle in then suddenly I'm waking up elsewhere, but I felt that some, but unquantifiable, time had indeed passed.

Edit: not quite true, I felt a significant chunk has passed but I could not have estimated it. The nurse who was sitting next to me waiting for me to awake told me it was 20 minutes. That was far shorter than it felt.

OT: what's heroin like (when used not to excess)? I have some drug experience but none with H or opiates in general, and admittedly no plans to, but I'd like to know.

When not used to excess it's kind of shit honestly. When I was still relatively new to being clean I had a couple of relapses and each time I would just spend the whole time puking and scratching myself raw, and once I'd run out again I wouldn't have much desire to buy more. You need to already have a decent opioid tolerance before it becomes more enjoyable.

I mean don't get me wrong it feels good, but there's no way you're able to function at all

Very useful, thanks!

Man, this would be a great way to travel. I'd love to wake up on my hotel bed, after having my body transported in a containerized body box or whatever.

I've had both experiences: anesthesia, nothingness, waking up; and anesthesia, dreams, waking up. Usually it's the former though.

Mine was not. I had knee surgery, and I had vivid dreams of an arousing kind. I heard later that that was not uncommon.

It depends, I guess. I had dreams while under, at least once.