When a person goes to sleep, does he become unconscious?

As far as I know, being unconscious and going to sleep is two different things.

Ye i think you go unconscious during sleep, cause i been unconscious once and it feels the same.

Philie it's not the same.

When you are unconscious you can easily choke on your tounge which something you don't do while you sleep.

All you wanted to know but were afraid to ask...

Taken from: http://library.thinkquest.org/25553/english/basics/brain/index.shtml

The brain follows cycles during sleep. These cycles last between 90 and 100 minutes each, therefore repeating 4 or 5 times in a course of one night. Sleep is categorized into two different types: NonREM (http://library.thinkquest.org/25553/english/basics/brain/nrem.shtml) sleep and REM (http://library.thinkquest.org/25553/english/basics/brain/rem.shtml) sleep. The cycle begins with NonREM sleep: stages one, two, three, then four. Then, the stages quickly reverse, reaching REM sleep, which is the dreaming period. The cycle then starts over. As the cycles continue during the night, there is less deep sleep (stages 3 and 4) and more dreaming (REM sleep).

http://www.dreamdoctor.com/better/improve/sleepcycles.shtml

"Despite recent advances in understanding sleep, we still know very little about it—especially REM. The primary reason sleep is elusive to us is because psychologically, by definition, it is an unconscious state."

"When we are unconscious, our memory suffers as well. This explains why we typically don’t remember much—aside from the occasional dream—from our usual seven or eight hours of sleep."

All it means is that you brain is not conscious of the things surrounding it, like the environment. The brain is always conscious about things in your body and that's what stops you from dying when you go to sleep.

An unconscious person is different then a sleeping person. You can't wake up an unconscious person just by touching them or moving them. When you are unconscious your body has no control over the muscles, but when you sleep you do move around your eye twitch.

You are misunderstanding the meaning of the word unconscious in that content.

Originally posted by Bogdan
http://www.dreamdoctor.com/better/improve/sleepcycles.shtml

"This explains why we typically don’t remember much—aside from the occasional dream—from our usual seven or eight hours of sleep."


? - What's to remember? :sleeping:

They are two different things. Conscious means possessing the faculty of knowing one's own thoughts or mental operations. It's possible to be conscious while being asleep. Have you ever had a dream where you knew you were dreaming? Well, then you were conscious. :)