Anytime a character on a TV show or movie goes into a coma, it's generally because of an extreme accident or health concern. Monitoring that person, anticipating their waking up, and the waking process is always highly suspenseful and a major plot point.
But for those who have experienced a coma in real life state that being in a coma is much quieter and more surreal than on-screen portrayals would suggest.
Curious, Redditor OwnMeBell asked:
"People who've been in a coma, what did it feel like?"
Just Time Passing
"It felt like no time passed at all. One second, I was out, and the next second, I was waking up. No dreams, no awareness, just nothingness."
- Bitter_Razzmatazz_71
"Same. I only realized I had been 'out' when I started to come to."
"I have memories of the day before, and then waking up five days later. Nothing between."
"Since this is getting some views; shout-out to the docs and nurses who staff the ICU and handle folks like us. We just sleep on beds, while the living free-fall through every emotion possible, against the backdrop of the happy-professionals who check the fluids, clean the beds, talk to family, while still managing their own lives."
"I didn't spend enough time 'awake' to get to know my caregivers, but when I was aware, it was clear that the staff and my wife and my mother were close."
"That day was a pivotal moment in my life, a literal emotional anchor... and for the healthcare providers who treated me, it was just part of the job. Wild."
- HoboBaggins008
Literal Time Travel
"I was in a medically induced coma for about 24 hours. It was like time traveling."
- DearAuntAgnes
"That’s how it feels any time I’m under. You just blink and you’re in a different place. If I wasn't hooked up to machines, I feel like it would be nice, to be honest."
- brolarbear
Coming And Going
"Spent several days in a medically induced coma after brain surgery years ago. I remember coming about a quarter of the way conscious a few times when I would be poked or prodded during exams."
"I would hear the conversations but could not feel any real sensation (as if my entire body had 'gone to sleep'). I had no ability to move my body or to speak."
"I sometimes wonder if that was a false memory. I had some really weird (and very vivid) dreams for a couple of weeks afterward and had difficulty maintaining short-term memories for at least a month."
- Unlucky-Classroom828
Staying True To Their Personality
"While doing my clinical rotations in school, I had the privilege of watching a man come out of a coma. It was relatively short, less than 48 hours, I believe."
"The first sign that he was coming back was that he rolled his eyes at something his sister said. It was fantastic!"
- sadi89
"My late wife was intubated and in a medically induced coma for almost 3 weeks following an auto accident in which she was critically injured."
"I was there when they extubated her and woke her up. It was spooky, the way she looked around, trying to figure out where she was."
"The first words out of her mouth were, 'Give me a cigarette,' followed by, 'Who are you?'"
"Her short-term memory had been temporarily wiped out, but somewhere deep in her brain, she still knew she smoked. Crazy."
- big_d_usernametaken
Dreamless Sleep
"For me, it was a DEEP dreamless sleep. Not aware of anything external. Woke up a week later and didn’t know who I was or who my family was."
- 1WarCanoePlease
"I've had three concussions. This is what it's like. S**t goes black, and then you wake up. I've definitely lost some things (memories) along the way."
"It's very disorienting with just a concussion, I can only imagine it's a mind f**k from a coma."
- Interesting_Tea5715
Major Life Events
"This is off subject, but I had a friend who was in a coma for a week, and it was right before 911, he woke up a week after 911. I cannot imagine how strange that must’ve been."
- maharg2017
"Also off subject, but I had a weird coworker/contractor who went off the grid into the deep woods or some shi for like three months just before 9/11 happened. Pretty much zero contact with the outside world."
"When he came back, he was shocked and upset by what happened. He sent this excessively long all-company email (it was like 30 people in the office, we all knew him) talking about his fears and anger and sadness and shock, etc."
"It was what we’d all been dealing with in our own way, but delayed by months. It was unsettling, like we’d all been dropped back in time but with the knowledge of the future."
"(As far as I know, that dude eventually dropped out of society completely. He pretty much lives in the woods or wherever full-time now. Homeless by choice, I guess. I know he drops back into town every once in a while because I’ve seen him walking around. I don’t know how he survives.)"
- GullibleWineBar
Just Waking Up
"My husband was in a medically induced coma last summer, he remembered being in the house, then it was dark, and all of a sudden, he was lying in a hospital bed. It had been almost five days."
- moomeansmoo
"This is actually one of my biggest fears. That I’ll be driving along one day and suddenly wake up in a hospital, confused and without any memory of being in a car accident."
- RedRedKrovy
"Happened to a friend of mine. Her husband is driving them home in the rain one day, then two weeks later, she’s waking up in the hospital to find out he’s dead and she barely survived. She had eight surgeries in that time period and remembers absolutely nothing."
- thedizzytangerine
Ready To Get Up
"Was in a ventilator coma during the pandemic. I don't remember going under, but I remember frantically calling my fiancée to say goodbye for what I thought was the last time."
"I don't remember dreaming or hearing anything for two weeks. When I came out, I was very confused and didn't remember much for a day or two. I lost the ability to walk for a week and had no hand-eye coordination and could barely operate my phone. I got stage four pressure ulcers(bedsores) that took four years to heal from."
"Apparently, I would 'wake up' and try to remove my breathing tube occasionally."
- BobknobSA
Relearning Everything
"I had a stroke at 28 years old. The last thing that I remember was being in so much pain and begging for something to help it. My head hurt so bad. It’s the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life… by far."
"At the first hospital, they were arguing about if I was having a stroke or if there was a spot on the film. One nurse whispered to my wife… GET HIM OUT OF HERE… HE’S DYING."
"At the second hospital, they told her I was gonna be a vegetable for the rest of my life. I woke up four days later. I had to learn to stand, walk, and several other things all over again."
- surveyor2004
Held Captive
"My husband was out for nearly a month. He has no memory of it."
"Once he woke up, he was still on a ventilator for another week. During that time, he had vivid dreams about being kidnapped and struggling to get free."
"He went for emergency surgery for a small bowel obstruction, and complications snowballed into respiratory failure/ sepsis."
"When he woke up, he'd lost 60 lbs and had to learn to walk again. The doctors wanted to send him to a rehab. They said realistically, he could be there for months, but he refused to go. He was just ready to go home. I thought he was going to come home and die; doctors were not optimistic."
"He was up and about on his own the first day home and kept improving each day. Within a week, he was out on the riding lawn mower. It made me appreciate just how quickly things can change."
- Nobod34ever
Super Uncomfortable
"I was out for about eight weeks after getting run over by a truck. Absolutely zero memory of the accident or the eight weeks I was unconscious. I woke up barely able to move my arms and legs from muscle atrophy."
"I was in and out of consciousness for the next couple of months after that. Some of the lucid dreams were horrifying. I didn’t want to fall asleep some days because some of the dreams seemed to go on for days. I was told I did a lot of talking in my sleep."
- dal1999
Occasional Moments Of Clarity
"I was in a coma for two weeks because of asthma earlier this summer. It was horrible. I was on ketamine and fentanyl."
"I would periodically understand what was going on. Like, 'Oh, I'm lying down and unable to move, or blink. What the h**l happened?'"
"Then the delusions started. I had the strongest, most realistic delusions trying to figure out what I was hearing 'on the outside.' I thought I was in a horrible car accident and was thrown through my car windshield."
"I thought my mom died in the accident. I thought I texted my family and friends. None of it was real. There's obviously tons more I'm not revealing. But ya. Do not recommend."
- jockohomeux
Listening From Beyond
"My gramps slipped into a coma, and doctors were unable to find any indicators that he was not a 'vegetable.' After three to four hours, the doctors let us know. Gramps had said he didn’t want to be kept on a machine, so we all prepared to say goodbye that night."
"I was the last one to go in. I held his hand and I spoke to him. Something inside of me remembered that I read somewhere, that in a coma, the last thing to go was hearing. I told him to come back to me, begged him to come back to me, to come home."
"He came out of his coma 30 minutes after. A couple of months later, I asked him how the coma was. Gramps said it was peaceful and there was a light he was gravitating towards, but he heard me say, 'Come back to me, please.' He heard me beg and decided to follow my voice, and there he was! Awake!"
"Unfortunately, the second time around (four-ish years later during the pandemic), he didn’t make it. But I’m comforted to know he heard me tell him it was okay to let go. That I loved him and I wasn’t mad."
"Rest in peace, you were the greatest man alive to me."
- lunaluccid
Focus On Recovery
"My father-in-law was in an accident when he was 18, and he was in a four-month coma. He doesn't remember a thing. The last thing he remembered was getting into the car, and the next thing was four months later, and he was in the hospital."
"The way he has described it to other people, it's such an interesting thing, a coma, your body just decides that you are too damaged to be conscious (if it's not medically induced). 'Divert all power to maintenance and recovery,' lol."
- farmyohoho
Comforting Thoughts
"Thank you for posting this. Not only have the responses been interesting to read, but they’ve been helpful for me. My sister died during a coma following a suicide attempt, and I’ve always wondered what slipping into that must have felt like for her. I hope she is at peace."
- Crimson-Rose28
"If it helps, my mum suffered a brain haemorrhage in the 80s. She said that when she was in a coma, essentially close to death, she felt so at peace, like lying on grass on a lovely summer day, not a care in the world."
"She always told me there is nothing to be scared of death, and it helped me when she actually died years later."
- Silvertain
We all know what comas look like in the movies, but it's unreal how surreal and dissociative these experiences actually were for these Redditors and their family members.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National
Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
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