Greg_S_H
Senior HTF Member
From watching television and movies, I've always heard that one must be prevented from falling asleep while suffering the initial effects of a concussion, or risk death. I got to wondering about the medical explanation for this, and did a search. Strangely, the only hits I was initially getting were movie synopses, fan fiction based on existing properties, and original fiction. No medical sites seemed to address the issue. I finally found this article, containing the following information:
Unless an HTF doctor can dispute this information, it seems to me that doctors used to recommend this course of action for purely observational reasons, and medically ignorant patients mistakenly believed it to be necessary for survival. It was then introduced into the mainstream by Hollywood writers, and has now become a widespread myth.
Please feel free to list your own favorite movie myths, preferrably with some kind of documentation to dispute them, as I did above. Maybe we can get a little HTF Mythbuster squad going.
In that spirit, I call the myth of death by sleep after a concussion to be BUSTED.
Unless an HTF doctor can dispute this information, it seems to me that doctors used to recommend this course of action for purely observational reasons, and medically ignorant patients mistakenly believed it to be necessary for survival. It was then introduced into the mainstream by Hollywood writers, and has now become a widespread myth.
Please feel free to list your own favorite movie myths, preferrably with some kind of documentation to dispute them, as I did above. Maybe we can get a little HTF Mythbuster squad going.
In that spirit, I call the myth of death by sleep after a concussion to be BUSTED.