So I was watching Batman The Animated Series, episode “Paging The Crime Doctor”, and I remembered a long time ago someone on the forum here had to be put under for a surgery.
Who, if anyone, knows if you actually dream under sedatives?
Moved from Quest for Lucidity.
There are different kind of sedatives, anaesthetics, narcotics used for surgery, depending on the health state, age, and the duration of an operation, the use of other medics and so on. It has a reason why there is always an anaesthesist in an OP room.
So, different drugs will cause a different depth of coma. In a study here 300 persons were tested for their coma depth (bispectral index) during an operation and were asked for dreams afterwards. 22% of them, mostly young persons, males and people who often dream while sleeping notmally, said they were dreaming. All patients were in almost the same depth of coma.
This is quite interesting, as usually we only remember dreams we had while REM phase, and REM phase is close to waking up naturally. Of course they did not have “rapid eye movements” when being in a reversible coma, neither they were close to wake up naturally.
I was put to sleep when I had my wisdom-teeth taken out. All I really remember is sitting down in a chair, the doctor taking my arm and telling me to breath deeply. Moments after, I opened my eyes and it was over. It really seemed that only seconds had passed, but physically I felt very different. I could barely walk. It kindof felt like every ounce of energy was sapped from my body in a couple seconds. Whether I dreamed or not, I don’t know. But even when I forget my dreams after waking up normally, I am still aware that quite a bit of time had passed. This time stands alone with that feeling of time not passing. I don’t remember exactly what was used to put me to sleep though.
Drugged people have trouble being lucid in waking life, so chances that they would become lucid in a dream while being drugged seems very slim.
Actually, no. It all depends on what drugs you use, how much you use them, how you use them and when you use them. I would explain more deeply, but I’ve been warned earlier about this kinda talk so I won’t.
Sometimes when I’m at the dentist I have very noticeable hallucinations, but I never fall asleep and actually dream. I suppose that if I did, however, I might have a chance to lucid dream.
I don’t think you would be able to dream under sedatives, since the purpose of sedatives are to make you completely unconscious so you won’t feel any pain. Even in normal dreams you have some degree of consciousness, so it is doubtful you would dream in a completely unconscious state.
Actually thats not true. I have had various different medications designed to ‘put me to sleep’ 
and have had very different experiences within those states. I have had many surgeries and I dont ever remember dreaming or being aware of anything under a general aneasthetic. The last thing I recall is usually a burning sensation as they inject the meds and someone telling me to breath deeply, pressure on my throat. Seconds later I am aware of being somewhere else, trying to wake up or hearing someone telling me to wake up. Time is always stood still when I have surgery, like no time has passed but you know it has because they have operated. It is a split second later, at least it seems to be, thats muddling to say the least. Sometimes I have been paralysed but awake and that has been terrifying. 
Every surgery I tell them to make sure it doesnt happen it was so frightening I worry it will happen every time. It was not SP though merely bad timming between the two different meds- one to sedate/put you to sleep the other to paralyse everything to protect you during surgery. They put a breathing tube in place as the body is paralysed. In my case twice the sedative has worn off significantly earlier than the other drug resulting in my being aware but unable to move or communicate. I couldnt even swallow and managed only to make a grunting sound when trying to let them know that I was awake. I wanted them to notice I could not swallow and it was distressing but I couldnt do anything at all for what seemed like a long time. I dread that happening again but usually they take note of my experience and look out for any signs of distress so as to stop my discomfort much quicker.
A totally different experience was my medically induced coma. During those months I dreamt a great deal and remembered a lot of my experiences. However, I was also aware of what was going on around me even though I was asleep. I just didnt know I was aware of it and my mind converted it into my dream experiences. As there was no sensory stimulation I assume my brain created some to understand the things I was aware of…hope that makes sense. Things that happened to me whilst I was in the coma I woke up talking about but I did not describe the situation as it happened. I knew what I had felt but my brain created a whole other situation to attribute the feelings to…eg I had ice packed around me by the nurses whilst I was asleep, in my dream I was in a freezing ocean that clung to me where ever I went. My brain created alternate realities for quite a few of the things that happened, it was only when talking through it later that we realised I had obviously been aware to some extent of what was going on but my mind could not make sense of it so created a different version with the same physical feelings. 
Finally I had been sedated but not put to sleep, I was also given strong analgesia. 
The combination of the two caused the most vivid LD I can recall having. I wasnt asleep but I was dreaming it was most strange. I knew what time it was but also that what I was doing was not real and I kept trying to ‘wake’ myself to get back to reality.All three of those experiences were different types of medical sedation and all three produced entirely different ‘dreaming’ experiences.
Cooel! 