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Drugged Honeybees Do the Time Warp

Posted by Unknown on from the wasn't-i-just-in-the-hive? dept.

sciencehabit writes "Waking up from surgery can be disorienting. One minute you're in an operating room counting backwards from 10, the next you're in the recovery ward sans appendix, tonsils, or wisdom teeth. And unlike getting up from a good night's sleep, where you know that you've been out for hours, waking from anesthesia feels like hardly any time has passed. Now, thanks to the humble honeybee, scientists are starting to understand this sense of time loss. New research shows that general anesthetics disrupt the social insect's circadian rhythm, or internal clock, delaying the onset of timed behaviors such as foraging and mucking up their sense of direction."

19 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Not Rocky?! by slimjim8094 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Damn, was expecting something quite different from the title.

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    I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
    1. Re:Not Rocky?! by zombie_striptease · · Score: 4, Funny

      Seriously, especially since bees are thought to communicate chiefly through dance!

  2. Natural Clues by DesertFly · · Score: 2

    I had always assumed that things like light levels were more to blame. That, and one of the first things I do when waking in the morning is look at a clock. When I went under to get my wisdom teeth out I awoke with no time-telling device handy to immediately know how long it had been. Of course I was also slowly coming out of literally being drugged out of my mind, so who knows...

    1. Re:Natural Clues by Chatsubo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My anecdote would be one time I nodded off for a nap, and woke to orange light outside my window, my watch indicating around 7 o'clock. I suddenly 'realized' I'd overslept and leapt from my bed in a frenzy trying to get ready for work, I rushed into the kitchen going "I'm late!"..... when my stunned S/O pointed out that it's "7 pee em" and my sense of time started to return, I had to completely re-orient myself. I looked down and foolishly realised I was already dressed, and she was making dinner, not breakfast.

      I don't think we really are able to track time when asleep, we just assume when we wake up it must be morning because we've been doing it all our lives. At least, that's what happened to me that time.

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      > no, yes, maybe (tagging beta)
  3. General for Wisdom Teeth? by jamesh · · Score: 2

    Unless your Wisdom Teeth are completely buried in your gums, get them done in the dentist chair under a local and don't be a wimp.

    1. Re:General for Wisdom Teeth? by djl4570 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I did all of mine on locals. The uppers came out easily when I was in college in the seventies. I played softball later that afternoon. About ten years later I had the lowers extracted. These were full bony impacted that required something resembling a cross between vice grips and a slide hammer to remove. Dr. Armel did an excellent job and I learned that you can sleep standing up while on Percodan and Valium. Not as exciting as thinking I'm enrolled in Hogwarts and carrying an invisible light saber but it was still impressive pharmacopeia..

    2. Re:General for Wisdom Teeth? by risom · · Score: 4, Informative

      AFAIK the problem mostly isn't the size of the jaw but the position of the teeth: They more often than not come out diagonally, and thus pushing out the other teeth while growing. You can see that under x rays while they are still completely inside the jaw bone.

    3. Re:General for Wisdom Teeth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Local anaesthetic? No way bru, always ask for imported!

    4. Re:General for Wisdom Teeth? by ledow · · Score: 2

      I had all four wisdom teeth removed simultaneously, along with a shed-load of baby/milk teeth that refused to budge aged 18. I required surgery for something else that needed the milk teeth gone (because the adult teeth pushing through would have just wiped out the benefits of the surgery otherwise) and in the process they saw four wisdom teeth that also had to come out (same reason - them pushing through would have altered the position of everything in my mouth).

      To do that, they had to break my jaw and clamp it open for over two hours. You can be the big brave man if you want and go local but, you know what, just the boredom and inconvenience and discomfort of sitting there for that time while they fiddled about wasn't worth it. I'm not squeamish - hell, when I had my toenails removed I sat and watched it out of interest (and it would have been far more interesting without some nurse trying to get me to lay down all the time "in case I passed out" - in the end I had to tell them I wasn't moving because it was my body and I was going to *watch* everything they did. And of course I didn't pass out. Why do people pass out just seeing something a bit manky?). But the teeth going was just basic sense - I'm not going to sit there for hours with a dry throat, broken jaw, basically feeling like I'm going to choke all the time while people root around in my mouth and I can't move.

      When I came round, my cheeks looked like I had mumps or turned into a hamster, and I was bruised and battered all over the face because of what they needed to do. Admittedly they gave me painkillers, etc. for afterwards but I didn't bother to take them because it didn't hurt (it was sore, but nothing you'd take medication for even on a normal day).

      Be the big man, if you like. Hell, 99% of the time a local is just fine, but with any anaesthetic and a properly working response to it, it's nothing to do with pain, but comfort and convenience.

      (That said, my ex has a genetic condition where most sufferers of it are immune to the effects of anaesthetics and - over time and because of acclimatisation - almost all painkillers. You have to give the anaesthetist warning and a lot of the time they go for an overly-powerful general to make sure you're really out, even for the simplest of dental work)

    5. Re:General for Wisdom Teeth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I'm not trolling, and I'm sorry if this offends, but when you think of blacking out at parties as normal, perhaps you need to have a long hard look at your drinking habits. Think, "Am I *that* guy? The guy who gets wasted at *every* party?"

      I'm not some soppy recovering alco, but I did go through a few years where I was treating booze (and black-outs) the wrong way. Hopefully I've misunderstood your post. If so, I apologise for boring you.

    6. Re:General for Wisdom Teeth? by GaryOlson · · Score: 2

      They also made sure I didn't wake up in the middle of the procedure...

      The dentist cracked my lower right tooth in half for the extraction, I woke up and grabbed his arm right at the wrist. An excited flurry of action and I was back under. I think they upped the dose after that.

      --
      Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
  4. What they didn't delve into.. by Metabolife · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... was whether or not the clock returned to normal over time. Could a 3 hour surgery cause long-term insomnia?

    1. Re:What they didn't delve into.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Circadian rhythms are phase-locked loops, driven (at least mostly, and in humans -- dunno about bees) by blue light (which sunlight has plenty of and wood fires, lamps, and candles don't), so if you're in an environment where it wouldn't resync after anesthesia, you're probably already in free-run (~25h cycles) and thus (if you don't live on Mars) experiencing at least mild insomnia. Try melatonin supplements, turning off lights, especially fluorescent, LED, or other high-CCT lights, in the evenings, and/or re-calibrating your monitor to a lower CCT if you use a computer much shortly before bedtime.

  5. Just a jump to the left? by Chas · · Score: 4, Funny

    I swear man!

    If I see any bees dressed in curly wigs, lingerie, fishnets and heels, I'm SO outta here!

    I refuse to be caught LIKE THIS!

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    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  6. Anesthesia stories by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My disorientation is that I didn't "wake up" after my knee surgery so much as "get shaken until I threw up" followed by demands that I vacate the premises for the next person. The surgery ran over time due to a routine complication, and the conveyor-belt outpatient hospital didn't have enough recovery beds for me to wake naturally from the extended anesthesia. In the end, they wheeled me into the parking lot, vomiting the whole time.

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    Learn to love Alaska
    1. Re:Anesthesia stories by isorox · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My disorientation is that I didn't "wake up" after my knee surgery so much as "get shaken until I threw up" followed by demands that I vacate the premises for the next person. The surgery ran over time due to a routine complication, and the conveyor-belt outpatient hospital didn't have enough recovery beds for me to wake naturally from the extended anesthesia. In the end, they wheeled me into the parking lot, vomiting the whole time.

      But the republicans are always scoffing about how terrible the NHS is, and how your "pay $10k to give birth" methods are so much more civilised.

    2. Re:Anesthesia stories by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      Well, compare our infant mortality rates to yours and get back to me.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    3. Re:Anesthesia stories by slowLearner · · Score: 2

      Well, compare our infant mortality rates to yours and get back to me.

      I just did http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate and the UK is 35th on the list with the USA being 49th.

      Just to point out being higher on the list is better

      So now what?

  7. Re:Still doesn't explain by darthdavid · · Score: 2

    Don't stick you dick in beehives while you're tripping (hell, don't do it when you're straight either...). Problem solved.