Note: This post contains mention of suicide.
If you've ever spoken to people who've woken up from a coma, you've probably heard a vast range of experiences — vivid dreams, recollections of different sounds, visits from deceased loved ones, nothingness, and more. So when u/jassandra asked those who have been in a coma what it was like, many people (both on Reddit and on BuzzFeed) shared their stories. Here are 40 of them below:
1. "I was in a coma last year. Coming out of it was just like waking up normally, but I thought I was being held against my will by a corrupt doctor. I even hallucinated that the doctor's niece was in my bed hiding from him, too. I tried to tell the staff, and even though I knew it was completely illogical, it felt so real. Eventually, a nurse came in — in a damn hazmat suit — and said, 'You were on a ventilator and in a coma for a month. You have COVID. You can't move because your muscles are atrophied. Nothing is holding you down, look.' She showed me everything, and I snapped out of it. According to my mom, she'd call every day and talk to me on speakerphone. The nurse said I'd nod along with what she was saying, so I guess I heard things but don't remember."
2. "My husband was in a 28-day coma when we were teenagers (and just friends). He doesn't remember a thing, but his heart rate would skyrocket when we would visit, so we were told we had to leave."
3. "My nana was in a coma for two months. She thought it was the '70s when it was really 2004. She remembered some of us as we were back then and some not at all. She said she was with her dead parents also, as well as her twin who died at birth. Whacky. She had severe agoraphobia after that."
4. "I was in a very bad car accident that shattered multiple bones, and I almost bled out. I don't remember anything except a few seconds of the accident itself. I was asleep for about 48 hours afterward, and it was completely blank for me. When I woke up, I knew I had been in an accident, and my parents talked me through what happened. After, the dreams I had while still in the hospital were weird. Because I was on heavy opiate painkillers and both of my legs were broken, I had many dreams in which I was running. Then, I'd jerk awake, subconsciously wanting to move my legs. I've never liked running, so it was also completely unique to my then-situation."
5. "You know when you're in such a heavy sleep that you don't dream — like when you're sick and take NyQuil to knock you out? It's totally void of dreams and heavy and restless. That's what my coma felt like."
6. "I had a stroke when I was eight and had to be put in a medically induced coma while on ECMO (a heart-lung bypass machine). I can't remember what went on around me, but I do remember being with my grandfather — who passed when I was one and a half."
7. "I went into a coma for seven days when I could not be woken up from anesthesia. I had gone to the emergency room for a bleeding ulcer. I don't remember anything about what went down. When I started coming out of it, I was praying to God to help me. I saw myself crawling out of a white hole. I was restrained to the bed, and I was on a ventilator. I was terrified. I thought it was the next day. Little did I know, days had passed. When I was fully conscious, everyone kept telling me, 'Welcome back.' Meanwhile, I'm looking at them like they were nuts, thinking, I don't know anyone here."
8. "I had a double sudden cardiac arrest and was technically dead. The doctors put me into a coma because there was a high chance of major brain damage and/or death. When they slowly brought me out of the coma, it was weird. I vaguely remember hearing some sounds (the music my brother was playing, voices from the hospital room, etc.), but I didn't see 'the light' or anything. However, I did see my mom next to me and thought it was a dream. She'd visited during the summer, and this happened in November, so I was like, 'Didn't you go home?'"
"I was so out of it. It's weird. I don't remember a thing, so it's like I wasn't there even though it happened to me if that makes any sense."
9. "I was put into a medically induced coma in June 2022 for four weeks. I collapsed on a beach on holiday after swimming in the sea. I was brought back to England via an air ambulance and blue-lighted to a local ICU. I was frightened when I woke up and didn't know what had happened to me or why I was in hospital. I had suffered huge amounts of really vivid dreams and believed I had two new hands because none of my jewelry was on them. I couldn’t understand what real life was and wasn't."
10. "When I was 13, I was misdiagnosed and given the wrong meds. I ended up with a swollen liver, and my organs were on the verge of failing. I'm not sure I went into a legitimate coma, but my family did say I was asleep for so long. I saw things happen while I was 'asleep,' like my sister crying and throwing herself on top of me, my mean aunt who cried over me, and my sister who lived abroad crying over the phone. I saw and heard everything."
11. "When I was 21 and in college, I attempted suicide via prescription meds and alcohol. Luckily, a friend had a feeling and called 911. I was taken in by ambulance, coded multiple times, started speaking only Spanish (I used to speak it but lost it all by age 6), and then started seizing. I was put in a medically induced coma for about three weeks and coded a couple more times. Eventually, they slowly woke me up, but it took a few days so I was hallucinating. I thought I was being attacked but in weird scenarios — like in a nursery or in my school's football stadium. I had to be restrained, but to me, the restraints were purple teddy bears. I know."
12. "I was in a medically induced coma for six weeks. I have absolutely no recollection of the 11 days prior. Because I was 16, I had to have around-the-clock supervision. My parents and grandparents reported that anytime someone mentioned my son (who was born 11 days before I entered the coma) or his sperm donor, my heart rate would drop and my blood pressure would skyrocket. While I was in the coma, I have few memories of being bathed and overall uncomfortable."
"I had a PICC line, chest tubes, catheter, feeding tube, and a breathing tube, plus my regular IV — so that may be why."
13. "When I was in the ICU for sepsis and pneumonia, I was put in a medically induced coma for about two weeks on propofol. I had the absolute worst dreams ever. It was like a whole anthology of nightmare after nightmare. There were demons all around me, accusing me of horrible things and telling me I owed millions and had to be a sex worker to pay them back. People were doing horrific things and blaming me for it. I was chased, and I even had a sleep paralysis episode where this really scary and gross old woman was on top of me trying to possess me. I fought her off, and later, my mom said I had ripped out my catheter. When I finally woke up, I was so happy to be alive. I was like Scrooge on Christmas morning."
14. "My husband was in a coma for 19 days. He had binge-watched Narcos while he was sick before the coma, so he dreamt he was a hostage in Mexico. At one point, he thought he was hanging by hooks in his neck from the ceiling. That's because he had slightly woken up and seen the wires and tubes above his head. He'd then been put on a sedative to paralyze him and thought he was trapped under a house. At the time, he was still kind of high from all the drugs, so he was only semi-lucid."
"He still has nightmares, and this was five years ago."
15. "My boyfriend was in a medically induced coma for four days after being hit by a drunk driver while on his motorcycle. He said they'd lowered the medicine for him to wake up a couple of different times. The first time he woke up, he started freaking out. He thought he'd been kidnapped, strapped down, and tortured — that people were trying to remove his organs to sell them. Because of that, they put him back under for a few hours. The next time they woke him up, the doctors brought familiar people into the room for him to recognize. His mom told him he was in a motorcycle wreck, but he kept denying it and didn't remember it at all. After she explained what happened, he was able to remember parts of the accident."
16. "My brother was in a coma for nearly three months after a near-fatal car accident. Sometimes, it was medically induced, and other times, it was 'natural.' He can't remember a lot — which he finds frustrating — but has described it as 'glowing fuzz.' Because he suffered a traumatic brain injury, we weren't sure how he'd come out of it, but he came out of it very gradually. The nurses always told me to talk to him, so I'd joke with him ('If you don't wake up soon, I'll put headphones on you and crank Clay Aiken!'). I do remember his heart rate going up and down with certain stimuli. The few times they brought in therapy dogs and placed his hand on them, his brain activity spiked and his heart rate calmed down."
17. "When I was 12, I had meningitis, but it was misdiagnosed for stomach flu. I was taken to the hospital last minute, and the last memory I had was 'falling asleep' while watching the emergency news on TV. I had no awareness of time at all. It's like going to sleep and just waking up what feels like a second later, but it's actually morning already. I had a sort of fever dream — which ended up being real — of my parents driving me to the ER, saying, 'It's OK,' over and over again. I couldn't move or talk, so it seemed more like a dream than something that was actually happening. I saw the lights of the ER parking lot, which made me close my eyes, and after that, it was like taking a nap."
18. "My dad has described his two-month coma after his car accident. He said he could hear bits and pieces of what was happening around him, but it was like a dream that he couldn’t wake up from. When my two siblings and I would come in and talk to him, his heart rate would go down. When his friends had come to sit with him and watch a football game, the nurses made them turn it off because his team started losing and his heart rate blew up."
"On my end, it wasn’t like the movies. He didn’t just wake up miraculously. It was two months of steady improvements. One eye opened, then a few days later his other eye was half-open, then he could wiggle a toe, then he could move his fingers, etc."
19. "I was in a medically induced coma for three days during my cancer treatment. My identical twin brother died around a year prior (also to cancer). The entire time I was in the coma, I was with him. We were in a large green field with lots of sun, and my conversations with him felt real. Other than that, I didn’t hear any of my family talking to me while I was asleep. It was just like I had gone to bed for three days, and I woke up feeling very tired."
20. "I was in a coma for two weeks, and I would not wish it upon anyone. I was in a long dream. I did realize I was asleep for a long time. I was still able to feel and hear, which was interpreted into my dream."
"My hands were restrained so I would not pull out any tubes, and my dream was that I was being held in a prison."
21. "I woke up one Monday in second grade and peed blood. I showed my mom. She called the doctor, and we went to the ER. The next thing I knew, it was Friday, and I was in a hospital bed. I had gone into a coma on Monday — that day, I had been really excited to go to a football game with my sister, who was eight years older than me and in high school — and woke up on Friday. I was bummed that I couldn't go to the game, but I honestly don't remember any of the out period. I just remember one minute being aware, and then the next minute, I was aware it had been five days. I was seven at the time, so who knows?"
22. "I was in a six-day coma after a brain hemorrhage. I recall nothing during the coma. I have a fuzzy understanding of my first week or two after waking up, having pieced it together by the stories I was told. Memories of the day(s?) leading up to it were temporarily wiped out, though they have since returned."
"This was over a decade ago, so take this with a grain of salt. My memory in general is imperfect at best. Also, I should mention that my coma was induced so they could stabilize me and drain the blood via my skull."
23. "My daughter was in a medically induced coma for two days from a drowning accident. She made a full recovery, but the things she told us freaked me out. She told us she played mermaid tea party with my dead parents, then described how she was denied entering the gates of heaven because 'St. Patrick' told her it wasn’t time yet."
24. "My wife was in a coma for about a month. I brought the kids to see her later after prepping them. Despite the initial shock at seeing her with a ventilator, they were vocally loving, hugged her, held her hand, etc. We sat in the room and talked. At one point, I asked the kids what their favorite vacation was. They both agreed it was the road trip we took from Vegas down to Arizona. My wife heard it all but in a hallucinatory way."
"We talked about driving all over and seeing all the incredible sights. We talked about rides and amusements along the way. It was nice, then they kissed her goodbye saying, 'See you soon.'
My wife now has — nearly 10 years later — a vivid memory of a second Arizona vacation she went on with us. She even asked me early on after she woke up if we had gone on vacation recently. Her mind went through every detail we talked about and even added to it as if it all actually happened. The memories of it are as real as any."
25. "I was in a coma for five days after they gave me medication to bring my blood pressure down. I don't know if it was a dream, but I experienced people doing painful things to me. I was praying that God would either take me or that I would wake up. When I finally did come out of it, I remember my husband and sister telling me everything was going to be fine. I didn't understand until my husband said, 'You've been asleep for five days.'"
26. "I was in a medically induced coma for about a week. The coma itself is not much to talk about. There is just a gap in your memory, even from before it happened. I don't even remember the accident that brought me there in the first place. Waking up is a much different story, though."
"Since I was fully dosed with painkillers and sedatives, I was basically high as a kite. And since the trauma I suffered was very serious, my brain constructed very stressful and vivid nightmares that I remember to this day."
27. "I was hit by a car when I was 5. I just remember some very weird 'dreams,' which I can still recall vividly 26 years later. Someone mentioned something about visiting another realm, and that's pretty close to the mark."
28. "I was in a coma for a little over a month, then half-awake for another month after that. It was like the longest, scariest dream of my life. I was medically induced by a fentanyl drip for about a week at first, and let me tell you, fentanyl is a demon. I had wacky dreams about fighting corrupt hospital officials, so my brain knew where I was."
"They didn't think I'd ever talk or walk again, but in the hospital bed, I laughed at an episode of That '70s Show and inclined every day after. I'm at about 85% health overall these days, pretty much an average guy.
Oh, and it was a head injury. I had a seizure in the bathroom that made me fall onto the sink."
29. "I went to the hospital with renal failure. When the nurse gave me my IV, I remember her saying, 'Uh oh...' My arm then got warm, and my dad moved my head so I wouldn’t see the blood. The next thing I know, I'm in a hospital bed, tearing through the desert at over 60 mph. I saw all sorts of weird things — specifically Ronald McDonald. My hospital bed would come to a screeching halt, and then I'd be in the living room of someone I knew. When I woke up, I had cards and flowers from all these people whose living rooms I'd been visiting in my coma. Oddly, the living rooms were always three-walled. One wall would be missing, and beyond that wall was the barren desert."
30. "I had a motorcycle wreck a few years ago. I was unconscious for two days. Honestly, it just felt like the worst, least-refreshing nap in the history of naps. When I woke up, I asked if the bike was OK."
"It wasn't. The driver was texting and blew a stop sign, and I ended up T-boning them."
31. "In fifth grade, I fell out of a tree and bonked my head. I woke up three days later in the hospital. While in the coma, I have very vague memories of hearing my dad read a book, my mom telling me she knew I'd pull through, and feeling a tube in my nose. These were always super fuzzy though, and I was never conscious during them. It was like a half-second of awareness of one particular thing (e.g. the way the tube felt being taped against my arm and wishing I could reach out and move it) and then back into nothingness. When I fell, I blacked out before I hit the ground — or, at least, that's where my memory fades. 'Fades' is really the best word because it was as if my consciousness was drained away to blackness and then nothingness. It was as if my body knew how badly it was going to hurt and shut down."
32. "I can only compare it to when you're little and wake up at a friend's house and don't know where you are. I was in a coma for two months after a bad car accident. I woke up alone in the hospital room and had no clue what happened or why I was there. For some reason, I thought I was 60 years old (I was in my twenties)."
"I had a neck brace on due to a broken neck, so I figured something was wrong with my neck but was unsure how or what happened. I was paranoid and scared but didn’t know why I was there. I used context clues to figure out I was in the hospital. It was frightening.
The coma wasn't medically induced, it was thanks to brain damage. After about five minutes, I decided to go back to sleep. Two months of sleep wasn't quite long enough."
33. "When my husband was 12, his family was driving home from a ski trip when a drunk driver hit them head-on. My husband was sent through the rear window and landed on his head. It was touch and go in the chopper to the hospital, and he was not expected to make it. He remembers nothing. He's not even sure how long he was in the coma. The last thing he remembered was skiing, and the next thing he remembered was his aunt telling him that his parents were dead but his little brother was okay. He lost about a year of memories."
34. "I was in a medically induced coma for two weeks because of swine flu. Because of the TV running in my room and the drugs they gave me to keep me under, I had the most cinematic dreams I've ever experienced. Somehow, the news of Oprah retiring filtered into my brain as dreaming about saving the whales with her in a submerged Chicago."
"During my coma, Oprah announced she was ending the Oprah Winfrey Show. I was very upset to learn this after the fact. Meanwhile, in my dreams, we had a champagne brunch. It was excellent. I was also a superhero who could fly and fought my enemies on the rims of volcanoes.
And then I woke up — not only could I no longer fly but my buddy Oprah had also betrayed me into retirement. I was crushed."
35. "During my two-week coma, I dreamt that I was in the middle of a cartoon-like desert with my horse, Rebel, and we were so thirsty. We came upon a saloon, but the owner wouldn't let both of us in, so I had to choose between saving myself from dehydration or sticking with my horse. This happened back in 2003. I was 14, and I had actually fallen off my horse, landing myself in a coma. It was caused by coming to a sudden stop after going really fast, causing frontal lobe injury and shearing between my brain hemispheres. I don't remember anything from the six hours preceding the fall. The last thing I remember is getting home from a camp counselor training weekend and needing to study for finals. My family was there through it all, and my mom spent every night with me in the hospital. Spoiler alert: I don't think I made a decision at that saloon."
"I had left-side paralysis and had to learn to eat, talk, walk, and everything all over. I bounced back pretty quickly and was in the hospital for four weeks total. The rehab therapists worked with me at home after that.
The real TBI frustrations started after school had started, and I would go into furious rages every night. It was awful. Thank God for my amazing family and the amazing healthcare teams. They were so supportive through it all. I have fully recovered physically and have some regular depression episodes that I treat with medication and talk therapy."
36. "I was in a coma because I fell 15 meters and broke nearly all of the bones in my back. It was horrible. In my dreams, I thought I was a time traveler or some kind of god. I thought I was shot by the police and other shit. I still have flashbacks to this day, and it is not fun."
"I am getting therapy to deal with it. It was confusing and horrible at the same time. When I woke up, I thought the nurses were torturing me and that I needed to escape. I started hallucinating a lot and couldn't even understand that I was in the hospital."
37. "I was in a coma for almost three months. I had a few vague dreams of people standing very close and shouting that I would be okay. I later met my chief surgeon — I had several operations while I was out — and nurses. While I didn't recognize any of them, their voices were very strongly familiar."
38. "I had Guillain-Barré syndrome. I hallucinated that my younger sister was dead and cut in half, and they were making me lay on her severed body. When I woke up, the first thing I asked was how she died. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. There were actually many times I believed they had put a random, dead body in my bed. I also thought the nurses encased me in concrete at some points. I was paralyzed, so that's just how my brain processed it."
"I was aware of people talking to me and being with me, I just couldn't communicate, and my brain processed everything in this weird dream world."
39. "I was in a coma twice. My first come was due to an accident, and the second was because of a burglary gone wrong. I had hit my head badly. Anyway, the curious thing is that I don't remember anything from the first coma. It lasted two days, and it felt very similar to a deep sleep. However, the second one lasted almost a week, and, from what I remembered, I kept dreaming about going to my favorite singer's concert."
40. "When my mom was in her late teens, she had multi-organ failure and went into a coma for three weeks. She said that she had the best dreams ever during it. When she woke up, she was in hospital surrounded by nuns. Their first words to her were, 'Jesus wants you for a sunbeam.' Then, when she looked through the glass, she could see her dad — who had been in another country when she went into the coma — so she thought she had died. She said that all she felt was pure peace, so she is not afraid of dying now."
Were you surprised by the range of experiences people have had in a coma? Do you have your own experience to share? Let us know in the comments below.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org. The Trevor Project, which provides help and suicide-prevention resources for LGBTQ youth, is 1-866-488-7386.