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Life ‘probably’ does flash before your eyes when you die, doctor reveals
There’s a saying that life flashes before your eyes when you die, and a doctor has revealed that it’s not a myth.
One 2022 study found that your brain stays active after your heart stops beating and produces similar patterns to dreaming.
Life ‘probably’ does flash before your eyes when you die
“When you die, your life probably does flash before your eyes according to science,” Dr Karan Rajan confirmed on TikTok.
Known as life review, the phenomenon has been widely reported in near-death experiences, with many claiming all of their memories were presented to them rapidly.
We found out it’s likely to be true by accident in 2022 when an 87-year-old patient�died while his brain was being monitored, the doctor explained.
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The man had developed epilepsy in his later life, so was being studied by doctors at the University of Tartu, Estonia. They used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure electrical activity in his brain and detect seizures.
However, during these recordings, the patient had a heart attack and passed away. This allowed the scientists to record the activity of a dying human brain for the first time in history – and their findings were crazy.
‘The brain may be playing a last recall of life events’
They measured 900 seconds of brain activity around the time of his death and found the brain waves were similar to those that occur during dreaming, meditation, memory retrieval and information processing.
These are the same high-cognitive functions that are associated with memory flashbacks, so the patient really could have been seeing his life flash before his eyes in the moments after he died.
“Through generating oscillations involved in memory retrieval, the brain may be playing a last recall of important life events just before we die, similar to the ones reported in near-death experiences,” Dr Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville, said.
However, we don’t know exactly how long your life is flashing before your eyes. Studies suggest that brain activity usually continues for “several minutes” after a person has passed away, Cleveland Clinic explains.
However, doctors at one Canadian intensive care unit found one patient had brain activity for 10 whole minutes after dying, while other brains stopped almost immediately.
“It’s eerily comforting that at the end, you’ll be watching the greatest home movie ever,” Rajan concluded.
Dr Karan Rajan is a UK Surgeon who works for the NHS. He shares his health expertise with more than 5.3 million followers on TikTok and is also a Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College London and the University of Sunderland.
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