Is sleep just a free trial of death?

[Eternal Sleep!]

If so then death itself is not so bad. That's why depression sucks so much when you awake and you get that relief from that monster when you sleep. Or if you go under narcose you're totally unconscious, at that time you don't know if you are alive or dead. It's just when you wake up you understand you were 'gone' for some time. I see death as something like this sleep > unconscious > coma > death. Step 2 could in theory for the person already conceived as death because there is no 'observer' anymore registrating things in the brain. I don't think we should fear death because it's just nonthingus just like unconscious. Also far before a person dies he/she is in coma and that means no feelings, no pain etc. only a beating heart and breathing. If you don't have that anymore you're officially dead, but you wouldn't know it because you were gone long ago. What do you guys think about this?

 

[NotBart]

Maybe, but I wouldn't like death to be like a vivid dream. I like the idea of death being just like before you were born, but I don't know, that still doesn't makes completely sense to me. There may be something, we just can't know what it is

 

[Square251]

Death with benefits.

 

[J&L383]

Perhaps sleep, and dreams, are on your way towards death. Everyone has their own opinion (and nobody has any proof yet), but I think that death is absolute nothingness.

 

[CW36]

Yes, and perhaps heaven and hell are the dreams and nightmares we all experience.

 

[Ambivalent1]

No anesthesia is a better example. no dreaming

 

[NoHorizon]

When sleeping you dream and your senses are still active (hence why you'd wake up to a loud noise). Death will be like before you were born - just nothing.

 

[CW36]

When sleeping you dream and your senses are still active (hence why you'd wake up to a loud noise). Death will be like before you were born - just nothing.

I meant metaphorically.

 

[Wyldfyre4948]

I remember when I had my wisdom teeth removed and they put me under. One second I was there with the iv starting, and the next I had my hat and watch on again. Didn't remember putting anything on. Just a sudden rush of consciousness. Don't know where I was during that time but it wasn't bad.

 

[ablationaaa457]

Yeah, I think what Wildfire said about being put under anaesthesia makes the most sense. I feel like it'd be a complete cessation of everything, so that means we'd feel nothing, not even the perception of time passing by like it might when we're sleeping and still dreaming. With that said, sleep's probably the closest approximation to death that we can access on a regular basis, in that we're still letting go of most of our senses and partially peering into the void. Personally, that's a big part of the reason why going to bed and falling asleep is usually the only thing for me to look forward to on a daily basis.

 

[TakesOneToKnowOne]

I started reding a year ago (did not progress much), the book 'Bardo Thodol' (The Tibetan Book Of The Dead). As I understood it explains a journey with three stages (bardos), similar possibly to dreams, which mostly ends with rebirth. The goal is to escape the rebirth (attain liberation), as far as I remember. I did not go too much into it, yet I think this is what Tibetan Buddhists believe. Carl Jung also gave a preface to the book, which ups it's credibility a bit in my eyes, since he is a famous psychologist.

This is a part the conversation I had with ChatGPT about the stages:

- Chikhai Bardo: Immediately after death, the individual experiences the "Clear Light of the Ultimate Reality," which is a state of pure consciousness and luminosity. This is often described as a very subtle and profound experience, and those with deep spiritual realization may attain liberation at this stage.
- Chonyid Bardo: If the individual does not attain liberation in the Chikhai Bardo, they move to the Chonyid Bardo, where the peaceful and wrathful deities appear. The peaceful deities appear first, over the course of a week, followed by the wrathful deities during the second week. The appearance of these deities is understood to be a projection of the individual's mind, and recognizing them as such can lead to liberation.
- Sidpa Bardo: If liberation is not attained during the Chonyid Bardo, the individual moves to the Sidpa Bardo, the bardo of rebirth. Here, the individual experiences various visions and signs related to the process of taking rebirth.

 

[Minsu]

Very deep sleep might look like death. I imagine nothingness like a super deep sleep that lasts forever

 

[FuneralCry]

For me, sleeping is the closest thing I can experience to not existing which is why I see sleeping as being the best way to pass the time but of course temporary sleep could never offer much relief, only permanent, dreamless and eternal sleep could do for me. I very strongly believe that when we die we just return to the state of being completely unaware where everything is finally forgotten about.

Death could never be "bad" as all that is bad is as a result of existence, to die means to finally be free, non-existence is the absence of all harm.