What does it feel like when you go under and wake up from general anesthesia?

Feelings Will Differ: Depending on how long the procedure lasts, how extensive the surgery is, your general medical condition and the types of medications you take routinely. After some procedures, a longer "wake-up" is desirable; for others, an immediate "wake-up "may occur, though you my have no memory of the events postoperatively until much later! prolonged sedation or antegrade amnesia are at work here.

Depends: Going under is generally a rapid process taking only ten seconds or so. You may feel euphoric or dizzy at this time. Waking up from general anesthesia is somewhat different. It is dependent upon which medication you have been given and you individually. You could wake up peacefully and rapidly. Alternatively some people get what is termed emergence delerium and some people will feel sedated.

Very Few Know: With modern anesthetics we try and shut down the memory of the patient before they go to the or. Once they can't remember what happened, it is very hard to find out what they felt as they went to sleep. Without sedatives the very medication that is used to put people to sleep blocks memory formation, so we have the same problem. Same with waking up. Patients come to in the pacu after the op.

Lose time: Many of my patients state that the time under anesthesia is like lost time --not sleep. They have no sense of what happened during the period of anesthesia and it is like they went through time.

Very Few Know: With modern anesthetics we try and shut down the memory of the patient before they go to the or. Once they can't remember what happened, it is very hard to find out what they felt as they went to sleep. Without sedatives the very medication that is used to put people to sleep blocks memory formation, so we have the same problem. Same with waking up. Patients come to in the pacu after the op.