1. Your brain doesn't 'die' straight away
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It's understandable to think that all major organs - including the brain - shut down immediately after death - or at least no longer than a minute or so. But studies have shown that actually, the brain has 7 minutes of activity left in it after you die - so what exactly is it doing during that time?
2. Brain waves continue as though you're asleep
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Even after a person has been declared clinically dead, that doesn't stop the brain waves from continuing for these last several minutes. The brain waves act in a way that's very similar to what they do when you're asleep and the body isn't conscious, so almost like your brain is still dreaming.
3. Can normal brain activity be restored?
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In many cases of patient 'death', there are times when the person is declared clinically dead for a few minutes but brought back to life by doctors and nurses. Could this span of 7 minutes continued brain activity be what helps normal brain function to be restored once the patient is brought back?
4. Your body may be dead - but your consciousness isn't
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It's believed that even after the heart has stopped beating and the body is dead, this doesn't affect the life of the consciousness. It's possible for the brain's consciousness to continue working for these 7 minutes even after the blood has stopped pumping, which is also what contributes to this 'dreaming' experience.
5. You might then be 'trapped' in this state of consciousness
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Because you have no hope of your body moving or responding while your brain is still active, it's very much a feeling of being trapped in your own body - where your consciousness is still working, but there's no way you can talk, move or react when your body is 'dead' but your brain isn't.
6. And could even hear what's going on around you
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This can also mean that you can hear what's going on around you. How many movies or shows have we seen where people have these out of body experiences in the surgery room, or hear the doctors pronounce their time of death? This is because your brain is still working to be able to hear that, even though your body is officially dead.
7. You might be declared dead when there's still a chance of life
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Studies have also shown that people who suffer a cardiac arrest and officially die - and are declared officially dead - can be brought back to life, meaning a 'dead' body can have the brain still functioning, hear the time of death be declared, but still be able to be brought back to life after a heart attack.
8. Is 'brain death' true death?
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For this, you have to consider people on life support - patients may have their body still alive, their heart still beating, but their brain may have no function and be declared 'dead', which is why many people have the difficult decision of turning off the life support machine if there's no hope the brain can recover.
9. What is brain death?
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Brain death is when the brain has no access to oxygen, nutrients or anything it needs to function - with no hope of recovering. For those 7 minutes after 'body death', it might be that the brain is still having access to oxygen or nutrients until a time when it no longer does, and stops functioning.
10. The brain continues to function for those 7 minutes
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Doctors have observed patients in intensive care after the heart has stopped beating, and reported that for those 7 minutes, the brain does appear to still be functioning as it usually would. This is based on the electrical activity of the brain, and this brain pattern activity is very close to what it would be in a deep sleep.
11. It's not the same for every person
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The 7 minutes of activity isn't a set rule for every person, as it entirely depends, and sometimes a person may not have 7 minutes of brain consciousness at all. Some people may even have longer, some people a lot less. What is known is that
some level of activity is possible.
12. The brain's gamma waves become stronger
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The gamma waves in the brain continue at a low rate during the first steps of consciousness after death, but during these 7 minutes, these gamma waves actually become a lot stronger for this short period of time. This suggests that a person experiences this wave of heightened consciousness and awareness right before 'true death'.
13. Could this be 'life flashing before your eyes'?
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A lot of people who report near death experiences talk about their life flashing before their eyes, like their life being played as a movie. This heightened sense of consciousness with a gamma wave increase during those 7 minutes might also result in a heightened flash of memories speeding through.
14. Gamma waves are associated with processing memory
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The gamma waves in the brain are usually associated with memory recall in life, meaning they're responsible for how a person retrieves memories, works through old memories or even the things they think about or remember during meditation. This is why an increased gamma wave activity after death suggests a person is going through memory recall.
15. What else happens to your body right after you die? Your skin changes color
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And continues to do so for a very long time! You can thank gravity for that, too, as this is what makes blood pool in certain areas of the body resulting in purple-red areas. Not only that, how you die can actually affect the color you turn after death. You can turn green if you've suffered from sulphide gas poisoning.
16. You might make noises
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You can still make noise even after death. Any air left in your body, or any gas that is produced from bacteria, can result in a vibration on your vocal cords that can result in a moan, groan or even a squeak. It's more likely for this to happen if there's pressure applied, though, like someone trying CPR on your chest.
17. Your skin will look more smooth
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Even if a person is older in age with a lot of wrinkles, the skin can actually smooth out after death. This is because your muscles completely lose any tension they have once the body has died, resulting in skin appearing more 'smoothed out' and lose any wrinkles.
18. Hair and nails don't grow - but they do look like they're longer
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It's a common misconception that hair and nails continue to grow for a while after death. What really happens is that more of the existing hair or nail is exposed after death, which makes it appear longer than it was before. This is because skin around the nails, and the scalp, dries out after death and results in exposing more.
19. Foul gas will be released - but maybe not from where you think!
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If there's one thing most people know it's that death smells bad, and that's mainly because of the bacteria and gas being released from the body after death has occurred. While it's normal to release gas, the reality is it can actually be released from any orifice - including the mouth!
20. Your bowels and bladder will release anything stored there
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As we said in relation to wrinkles on the skin, all the muscles in the body relax after death - which includes the muscles of your bladder and bowel movement. This means it's very likely to release urine or feces after death once your muscles relax - as unpleasant as that is to think about.
21. You might still move a little
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Even though your muscles relax after death, it's still possible that they're going to contract intermittently, or twitch from time to time, which means there may be some movement in your limbs for up to several hours after your body has officially died. Which, as you can imagine, isn't too fun for the medical staff who see it!
22. Your body will soon turn cold
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Your body will gradually turn more and more cold after death, after the heart has stopped beating and blood has stopped flowing. The body will continue to lose a certain degrees Celsius of temperature every hour, for up to 30 hours after death, until it reaches an average cold temperature.
23. Understandably, you body will start to stink
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This is in addition to releasing foul smelling gas from your orifices, too. Your body will start to smell very sickly indeed due to the decaying of your internal organs, which results in the production of certain chemicals that give off a very foul-smelling scent. This smell can also be produced very quickly, too.
24. The body turns very stiff
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Due to chemical changes in the body and the stiffening of muscles, rigor mortis is expected within the first 12 hours after death, which is when your body will turn very stiff and rigid. This isn't a permanent thing, though, as a few days later your body should relax again.
25. Certain body parts will live longer than others
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Not everything dies at the same rate after you've been declared dead - as we know with the brain activity! - and certain body parts will live longer than others. It's actually possible for certain parts to live for hours after death. This includes skin, bone, eyes and even your heart (as although officially stopped, it can still be used for transplant).
26. Your body starts to eat itself
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Not a pleasant thought, but this is what technically happens when your body's cells are being broken down. The enzymes and bacteria in your body will begin to digest the cells - and this can happen more quickly in certain situations, such as dying from a bacterial infection where more bacteria is present.
27. Depending on the environment, your body fat could turn into soap
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No, seriously! It can. If the body is left to decompose in a particularly cold and damp environment, this can result in a process called adipocere, which is where the fat in the body is actually converted to soap. This is what results in a 'waxy' yellow look rather than decaying to bone.
28. Your eyes will change color
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Your eyes are also expected to change color after death, which can be witnessed if someone dies with their eyes open. It's usually the white of the eyes rather than the iris which changes color, and it will normally go blue or grey as it dries out. The process is known as tache noir.
29. It'll take around four months to decompose
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After death, it's going to take on average four months for the body to fully decompose, if kept at an average temperature of 10 degrees Celsius. Temperature plays a big part in the decomposition process, though, so if the body is kept in much higher temperatures, it's going to happen a lot faster.
30. No one truly knows
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The reality is that nobody can really know what happens after death, but it certainly makes sense why people might have near-death experiences, or think they see or hear loved ones when close to death and brought back to life, if the brain is still working for those 7 minutes. What do you think?