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People say this but I don’t understand why. I don’t think there’s any reason to believe we meaningfully cease to be “continuous” while asleep, in fact we’re not even unconscious when we sleep, our brain keeps processing stimuli, in parts of the cycle we dream, etcetera.
While sleep isn’t the right thought experiment, think of cryogenics: it works for the wood frog, which can come back from being completely frozen solid, so there’s no reason to believe that our consciousness can’t be fully interrupted and resumed.
Which ones? I’m never truly gone still in my bed. And as someone who has died coming back from death is not the same as waking up. One I lost days of memory after being brought back, I don’t loose days when I wake up every morning.
What do you mean? You’re only dreaming during REM sleep. That’s only part of the sleep cycle. And the loss of memory is irrelevant here. We’re talking about continuity of consciousness and its implications from a philosophical perspective. We’re not talking about your soul being out of your body or something.
At least I think that’s what you’re trying to say? Some of your grammar makes your comment difficult to parse.
Sometimes dreaming and sometimes recalling doesn’t prove you always have a stream of consciousness.
You have different sleep phases each night, some are entirely dream less. Large groups of your neurons sync up during NREM sleep, firing at the same time. I don’t see how consciousness can survive becoming basically a pendulum. People awoken during NREM in studies usually say they weren’t experiencing anything. Maybe they were and just didn’t remember, we can’t prove that, but it seems unlikely and it couldn’t be much of an experience while most of your brain is busy flashing on and off again like a flickering lightbulb.
Then think about cryogenics. The wood frog can be frozen solid and come back to life by thawing, so there’s nothing fundamentally preventing our existence from becoming discontinuous
This doesn’t mean much. You only dream during REM sleep, one phase of your sleep cycle. But there are periods during every night where the lights are off and there’s nobody home.
No it isn’t. You’re only dreaming during REM sleep. This is like, sleep cycle 101 here. The periods of deep sleep where your brain is doing its deep repair work? Your consciousness is not just reduced, but absent entirely. During slow-wave sleep, you have no awareness. The reason you haven’t noticed these while you are sleeping is because you cannot be aware of your own periods where you completely lack awareness.
Just as you said, that depends on definition. And since we know jack shit about how conciousness works all of those definitions (minus one) will be flawed. Going by some definitions that include this, you could say you die every second. I had restless nights thinking about this and the only conclusion I came to is that it’s ironically not worth losing sleep over this, because if this is true then one you can’t do anything about it two you won’t even notice it. Alternatively this is a flawed perspective and you are just overthinking something that isn’t even true.
Fun fact: if continuity’s the only definition of self, then we die every single night, and a different person who thinks they’re us awakes
People say this but I don’t understand why. I don’t think there’s any reason to believe we meaningfully cease to be “continuous” while asleep, in fact we’re not even unconscious when we sleep, our brain keeps processing stimuli, in parts of the cycle we dream, etcetera.
While sleep isn’t the right thought experiment, think of cryogenics: it works for the wood frog, which can come back from being completely frozen solid, so there’s no reason to believe that our consciousness can’t be fully interrupted and resumed.
This isn’t true. Dreaming is only during certain periods of the sleep cycle. Through many parts of the night, you are truly gone.
Which ones? I’m never truly gone still in my bed. And as someone who has died coming back from death is not the same as waking up. One I lost days of memory after being brought back, I don’t loose days when I wake up every morning.
What do you mean? You’re only dreaming during REM sleep. That’s only part of the sleep cycle. And the loss of memory is irrelevant here. We’re talking about continuity of consciousness and its implications from a philosophical perspective. We’re not talking about your soul being out of your body or something.
At least I think that’s what you’re trying to say? Some of your grammar makes your comment difficult to parse.
Not entirely true. I’ve had dreams while asleep or heard things that really happened only to recall th em later when I awoke.
Sleep might represent a reduction in consciousness, but I’m still a stream do consciousness.
Sometimes dreaming and sometimes recalling doesn’t prove you always have a stream of consciousness. You have different sleep phases each night, some are entirely dream less. Large groups of your neurons sync up during NREM sleep, firing at the same time. I don’t see how consciousness can survive becoming basically a pendulum. People awoken during NREM in studies usually say they weren’t experiencing anything. Maybe they were and just didn’t remember, we can’t prove that, but it seems unlikely and it couldn’t be much of an experience while most of your brain is busy flashing on and off again like a flickering lightbulb.
Then think about cryogenics. The wood frog can be frozen solid and come back to life by thawing, so there’s nothing fundamentally preventing our existence from becoming discontinuous
This doesn’t mean much. You only dream during REM sleep, one phase of your sleep cycle. But there are periods during every night where the lights are off and there’s nobody home.
When your brain is always active during sleep.
No it isn’t. You’re only dreaming during REM sleep. This is like, sleep cycle 101 here. The periods of deep sleep where your brain is doing its deep repair work? Your consciousness is not just reduced, but absent entirely. During slow-wave sleep, you have no awareness. The reason you haven’t noticed these while you are sleeping is because you cannot be aware of your own periods where you completely lack awareness.
Just as you said, that depends on definition. And since we know jack shit about how conciousness works all of those definitions (minus one) will be flawed. Going by some definitions that include this, you could say you die every second. I had restless nights thinking about this and the only conclusion I came to is that it’s ironically not worth losing sleep over this, because if this is true then one you can’t do anything about it two you won’t even notice it. Alternatively this is a flawed perspective and you are just overthinking something that isn’t even true.