Sleep and Death..... Normal or Scientific?

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What comes to your mind when you think about death, or do you simply avoid the thought because it is completely scary? One of my new friend called in this morning to tell me about her father's death, she was really scared because they both had a conversation yesterday before he went to bed and just this morning, he was found dead.
We both had our minds filled with lots of questions about how, when, and what could trigger a situation like that?

Religious bodies are of the opinion that, a man passes away when the supreme creator thinks the time spent on earth is up, and it is time to leave, but certainly, science has a different idea on death and demise.

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"Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new." A strong speech by Steve Jobs.

Medically, there are two types of death, the clinical death and the brain death.

In the case of a clinical death, the cardiovascular system ceases operation, the organs stops getting supplies of nutrient and oxygen because respiration and pulse stops. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a very common way to revive patients, which has proven to work for a long time.
Brain death, on the other hand, would mean that there is a failure of cerebrum, cerebellum and brainstem. It will however interest you to know that, there is a possibility of brain-dead woman to still carry her child, but the definition of being brain-dead remains a huge controversy.1

Do we even have to die.

It is already a norm that humans die after sometime, while some get lucky to live until old age before death comes knocking others do not and while there are circumstances of natural death occurrence, there are other unnatural circumstance that could result to the death of the individual like accident and other health issues.

We know that different species die after few days of pro-creation but as humans, we require more time to perform parental duties to our offspring and of course, the life expectancy is naturally longer for us. Jeanne Calment was the longest human to ever live, she lived for 122 years.
Truth is, nature finds no need for us after sometime and then death occurs.2

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Possible reasons for death while sleeping.

One major reason why we have a good number of sleep to death situations is because, humans spend about one-third of our lives sleeping. It is a different case when an older person with possible ailment dies while sleeping and when a young person who possibly hasn't been diagnosed of any terminal health conditions, sleeps calmly and refuses to get up the following morning. Some other situations could have possibly transpired between the moment of rest.

  • Carbon monoxide poisoning.

  • Some sort of carefully planned homicide.

  • Medications taken to treat medical disorders has the possibility of increasing the risk of death.

  • Drug overdose.

Other serious medical conditions that could trigger the situation are;

  • A respiratory failure that disrupts how the heart functions.
    When there is a sudden heart attack, blood flows into the brain and can in turn result into a fast respiratory failure. There could also be a case of the lungs getting too filled with fluid.

  • Heart attack: In the case of a heart attack, the blood vessel responsible for the supply of muscle tissue becomes obstructed, which in turn results in the supply of damaged or dead tissues, could translate into a complete heart failure.

  • Arrhythmias: This condition could disrupt the required charge to fire off the muscle, this would lead to having irregular contractions which could turn out too fast or too slow and if this occurs during sleep, it is definitely a disaster.

  • Stroke: A heart rhythm that is irregular could result in a clot that moves to the brain and of course creates a stroke. If patience has hypertension or high blood pressure, the possibility of having a stroke is also increased. A stroke attack can occur during sleep.

  • Lung cancer.

  • Pneumonia.

  • Emphysema.

Do you know that animals also mourn their dead?

According to some researchers, elephants were found to stay with their dead regardless of not even being of the same family herd, Dolphins as well have been found staying around their deceased.

Some sleep disorders could also cause death while sleeping.

  • Chronic seizure during sleep, which is a sleep disorder, could result in sudden death.

  • Obstructive sleep apnea can also result in death while sleeping.

  • Insomnia and sleepwalking are also conditions that could lead to death during sleep.3

For futher studies.

https://www.dw.com/en/the-science-of-dying/a-48372592

https://bigthink.com/life/death/

https://www.verywellhealth.com/why-do-people-die-in-their-sleep-4098302

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27902417

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Hi, I am Tobi a writer, speaker, relationship blogger, and lover of good music. I love making friends and learning from people. Want to hear me speak on relationships and general life issues, you can find my podcast channel Here and listen to any episode for free, do not forget to subscribe and share with friends. I sincerely appreciate every love I get from members of the community, and do well to keep them coming.



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4 comments
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Death is the only certainty of life. We will all get there at some point. What matters is what we do and how we behave until that moment, that will occur anyway. For that reason, I can think and talk about death without any problem, and at any time. This sometimes makes me looking like an emotionless person (which is untrue, believe me).

Cheers!

PS: now I understand the connection with your other blog.

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Thanks for your time dear @lemouth, it is always good to read from you. I sincerely believe that there will be less evil and more good in this world if we are all concious of the fact that death is inevitable, but there are people who are comfortable with perpertuating evil and wicked acts everyday and I am left to wonder if they ever think about leaving this world.

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I cannot add anything to these words. You are correct, unfortunately... If only everyone would try to do their best to make this world a better place... :/

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