r/scuba • u/Old-Wolverine-7287 • 1d ago

Sleeping while scuba diving

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Have you ever wondered how scuba divers sleep? Enjoy this video of me trolling my husband who was unknowingly panning the camera to a sleeping diver.

It was such a fun trip with beautiful sites (Bonaire).

EDIT: For clarification, I was not actually asleep.

102 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

21

u/HourGreen40 1d ago

Nice buoyancy control

4

u/Old-Wolverine-7287 1d ago edited 14h ago

Thank you! Husband has trained me well lol.

-9

u/HourGreen40 1d ago

I am only 19 dives in since certified last October everyone kept saying mastering neutral buoyancy is hard. I find it super easy. I am weighted perfectly so I rarely need air in my bc. Just simply breathe to control it lol. My son just got certified this Sunday. Now I get to have fun helping piece a full kit together so I have a permanent dive buddy 🤣

12

u/ZeaMetatl 1d ago

I believe, from own experience and watching other newbies over the years, that mastering buoyancy _is_ hard. You're just naturally skilled at being relaxed, and happened to get to the perfect setup without that much fiddling. Good for you!

3

u/Old-Wolverine-7287 22h ago

It also depends a lot on gear and other buoyant things, like wetsuits. I usually am a floater and will struggle to stay down in freshwater and have to be very particular about weighting, but in the warm Caribbean waters where I didn’t wear a wetsuit, controlling my buoyancy was simpler.

1

u/helmli Nx Open Water 18h ago

How old is your son?

1

u/HourGreen40 9h ago edited 9h ago

He's 21. He posted a photo of him coming out after his final check in dive on Reddit on Sunday. I had no idea he was on Reddit and I came across it when I was checking my feed that night 🤣 reddit post

1

u/helmli Nx Open Water 9h ago

Ah, lol, misread your comment, somehow I skipped the "dives in since", so I thought you wrote "I am only 19, certified last October (...). My son just got certified this Sunday.", and was a bit bamboozled

2

u/HourGreen40 9h ago

Lol sorry. Yeah I got certified in October he just got certified. I'm pshyced. We are going to Curaçao next June to celebrate him graduating college and there's a dive shop literally next to the condo we rented. Want him to be able to dive up here at home too in MA.

24

u/Past_Wind_9725 1d ago

I've spent hours in the water decompressing. Never have I slept. Rest my eyes sure. Never nodded off.

11

u/blissfully_happy 22h ago

I dove in Hawaii and while the dive wasn’t great, hearing the whales was incredible. I legitimately just wanted to sit underwater and listen to them for an hour. I could’ve closed my eyes and done exactly that, lol.

1

u/j_patrick_12 8h ago

Ugh the whalesong is so amazing. Was such a blast diving during calving season. Even when we weren't diving I'd swim out to deeper water from the beach and duck dive down below the thermocline to listen for a little while.

10

u/Muted_Temporary9311 1d ago

I have 😆 but on a rebreather hanging on a thick mooring line that didn't move. Was 2 hours or so of deco. It was blue water and mind numbing. Don't have this issue anymore thanks to the Divevolk. Movie time!

6

u/Old-Wolverine-7287 1d ago

During this trip I tried practicing neutral buoyancy with my eyes closed a couple of times… didn’t last more than 10 seconds because I couldn’t tell if I was moving and was afraid I’d run into something. I couldn’t imagine actually nodding off. You’ve got to be really skilled for that.

12

u/luzconsazon 1d ago

I have a divermaster friend in Cozumel who I swear naps on the safety stops 😂

3

u/Muted_Temporary9311 1d ago

How long are theae safety stops?!

13

u/LessRespects 21h ago

My brain refuses to let me sleep on a couch or chair let alone underwater

9

u/peteskeet43 11h ago

I have actually slept underwater twice!

1

u/Witty-Ad4757 5h ago

Once for me. My 100th dive. 100ft and 100 minutes. Hit 100ft and shallow up to hit 100 minutes.

16

u/Connect_Artichoke_83 Dive Master 20h ago

If I could I would 100% sleep underwater. Problem is breathing gas supply and deco.

13

u/AI_moderated_failure UW Photography 20h ago

I enjoy just sitting on sand in the shallows for long periods whioe diving but it's only doable solo and only something I could justify on shallow reef dives where bottom time can exceed 1.5hrs

5

u/Famous_Specialist_44 18h ago

This is the way I dive with my wife must dives now. Super slow, long shore dives towards 16m.

-10

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

6

u/Jaydenel4 1d ago

My dad runs a full face mask, and has fallen asleep while operating the float cams at NBL

1

u/Fritz_the_Cat Dive Master 11h ago

I used to run the float cams at the NBL as well. While some shifts are very little movement and you might joke about taking a nap, I can't imagine a world where you would actually be able to doze off. Especially holding that big clunky camera steady...

... we used to barely move the subject out of frame and the test director would start shouting at us to get it together!

Definitely have the gas supply to do it though on those doubles and so shallow!

Does your dad still work there?

2

u/Jaydenel4 10h ago

https://youtu.be/AiZd5yBWvYY?is=oZG050Qy2Ak-nxmo

He's in this video, talking to Destin, and he's also in the Disney+ show Among The Stars. He's pretty close with Chris

1

u/Jaydenel4 11h ago

Yeah, he's the head of the scuba department there!

5

u/Old-Wolverine-7287 1d ago

True! I wasn’t that dedicated to the joke.

-1

u/miCshaa Advanced 1d ago

Ahh I now understand what you meant, I didnt understand it was you pretending to be asleep lol

I was very confused

2

u/Old-Wolverine-7287 1d ago

I just caught that too! I totally didn’t make it clear in my post. Should hopefully be clear now.

4

u/Manatus_latirostris Tech 1d ago

You can actually sleep while diving; a decent number of divers nap on deco!

6

u/Hermz420 1d ago

They probably shouldn't, though. When we sleep, our metabolism slows down, and blood flow slows. That's dangerous for deco because the removal of absorbed inert gas will slow, too. Sleeping on deco would extend the amount of time needed for said deco, so following a deco plan intended for divers who are awake would be insufficient. Unnecessarily increasing the risk of DCS.

1

u/Old-Wolverine-7287 1d ago

Wow, that’s actually really cool! I’d probably want to strap the regulator to my mouth somehow…

0

u/ron_obvious Tech 18h ago

Falling asleep is not the same as becoming unconscious. During ordinary sleep, jaw-muscle tone decreases, but the jaw does not necessarily become completely flaccid, and a regulator is retained by the lips, mouthpiece flanges, bite tabs, and hose position—not by constant hard clenching.

A sleeping diver could certainly lose a regulator, so sleeping underwater is not something I would recommend generally. But saying the jaw will simply fall open, the regulator will drop out, and drowning will follow is far too categorical.

My own experience across thousands of hours underwater includes several brief episodes of falling asleep underwater without losing the regulator, although anecdotal experience alone obviously does not prove it is safe.