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Comment by karmakaze | Hacker News Reader

This is interesting in that I never understood that fainting is different than what I'd experienced a number of times through my life. In my case, there's no sensory input but is rather simply low blood pressure (often combined with low blood sugar) and getting up quickly after being very inactive for a long time results in a blackout, fast but gradual fade-to-black and crouching to the ground.

On the other hand, my mother who could be actively busy in the kitchen and talking to me across the room behind her, then if I'm standing close behind her as she turns around surprised to see me standing there, will fall flat on her ass. She doesn't pass out but it's definitely something along the lines of the mechanism described here.

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This happened to me recently. I was in the kitchen and decided, for whatever reason, to stretch. There was a drawer open a few feet away. I held the stretch for long enough to induce this blackout, and it went almost exactly as you describe. The next thing I remember is a ten second fade-in to awareness: I'm sideways on the floor making gibberish noises and holding the back of my head. The drawer, now above me, was knocked off its rails. As I reflexively got up from fainting, I did not have awareness of the open drawer, and bonked the back of my head on it.

It was an extremely interesting moment of observing conscious awareness that I think about all the time.

Sometimes I can make this happen if I take a long enough breath and keep it in. I kinda like it, doing it only while sitting ofc

Same for me if I stretch my neck at the correct angle. I kinda like it too, inducing syncope and feeling that awareness drift away, plus the lack of situational awareness while my systems come back online is fascinating.

The thing you describe happening to you is known as “orthostatic hypotension.”

Good to know. I read that increasing salt intake can help. Searching this now, I see normally recommended daily is about 2000 mg sodium, but for those with this condition about (between 150 and 250 mmol of sodium or) 10 to 20 g of salt.

Looking up the relationship of mg sodium vs mmol: To convert mmol to mg of sodium, chloride, or of sodium chloride, multiply mmol by 23, 35.5, or 58.5 (the molecular weights of sodium, chloride, and sodium chloride), respectively. So 150 and 250 mmol of sodium is 8775-14625 mg sodium or 4.4-7.3 times the normal daily recommended amount.

This makes sense now that one morning I was feeling off and I did the usual things like eat something, drink water, even some coffee. The only thing that fixed it was eating a bag of chips.

> gradual fade-to-black

There's also a "gradual fade-to-white" fainting (vasovagal syncope).

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