There are plenty of studies that talk about how to get into the ring to win the match, but not many talks about what happens when you get knocked out. There are many challenges that can arise when you get knocked out, but there are also some tactics you can use to get back into the game.
What Happens When You Get Knocked Out?
When someone is knocked out, they have temporarily lost consciousness because their brain has been deprived of oxygen.
This can happen in many ways – through a sudden head injury, severe bleeding, or choking – but whatever the cause, the result is much the same: The person stops breathing and their heart rate slows down until they eventually come back around again.
What happens outside of the brain when you’re knocked out?
First, it’s important to know that the brain is responsible for you being conscious of certain things. It can receive signals about what’s happening outside your body (like sound and light) but it also sends signals about what you feel, sees, or sense (like oxygen, your head hitting the floor, and pain).
These signals are transmitted through your body’s nervous system – which is made up of different neurons that transmit information to each other via neurotransmitters.
When you’re knocked out, the brain temporarily stops sending signals.
The first thing that happens when you get knocked out is that your body shuts down and you lose consciousness. This happens quite suddenly and it will be noticeable within about 10 seconds of the knock-out blow.
There will be 10 or 20 seconds before you start to breathe again during knocked out – during this time your brain will have suffered some damage because it doesn’t have enough oxygen to function.
Then, your body’s automatic nervous system takes over and causes you to start breathing again.
This is known as the mammalian diving reflex – which was first discovered in aquatic animals but has been shown to exist in humans too.
When this happens, our heart rate slows down and blood vessels in the arms constrict so that blood flows to the small muscles in our arms and shoulders instead. This causes us to slow down our breathing by about half – which keeps oxygen levels steady even though there is less oxygen in the blood.
What happens inside your brain when you’re knocked out?
When you’re knocked out, neurons in your brain temporarily stop working. These are the cells that communicate with each other to create different patterns of activity that control our speech, movement, and memories.
When you’re knocked out, your neurons can’t communicate properly and they can start firing dangerously (leading to seizures) or become less active.
When you wake up after being knocked out, it’s likely that parts of your brain will be temporarily unresponsive and you might experience some confusion and memory loss – but this will be temporary and it should start to improve as soon as you wake up.
Your brain cells that help control movement might also temporarily stop working – which can lead to stiffness or even paralysis in some parts of your body. Thankfully, these effects are temporary too and they usually disappear within a few hours – but they usually come back more quickly if you’ve been knocked out before.
Why are knockouts dangerous?
Knockouts can be very dangerous because the brain needs a constant stream of oxygen to work properly. Once the brain has suffered damage, it will start to swell up inside your skull and this can cause further complications with breathing, blood pressure, and even heart rhythm.
These effects are usually temporary but they can be very serious – especially if the swelling is severe enough to put pressure on your brain.
How long are you knocked out for?
The amount of time that someone remains unconscious depends on several factors:
- how hard the head was hit
- whether or not there’s any damage to the brain and
- how quickly first aid is administered.
Usually, if you’ve just been knocked out, it will only take a few minutes before you start regaining consciousness – but this might take longer if you’ve been knocked out before.
The quickest recorded recoveries from being knocked out have been as quick as 10 seconds, while some boxers have needed more than 20 minutes before they wake up after a particularly heavy blow.
If you’ve been knocked out, it’s unlikely that you’ll stay unconscious for any more than a few minutes. This is because your brain only has a certain amount of oxygen that it can use up before it starts to shut down – and there isn’t enough time to use up all of the available oxygen during a knockout.
Only in particularly rare circumstances will someone remain knocked out for an extended period of time – like boxer Prichard Colon who had to wait four months before waking up after being beaten in the ring.
Knockouts vs. Concussions
Being knocked out is similar to having a concussion – but they’re not exactly the same thing. A concussion can happen when you bump your head in a way that shakes the brain around a bit – which doesn’t have to be very hard.
If your brain gets jolted around within your skull, its nerve cells might start firing dangerously and stop working properly for a short time – leading to symptoms of a mild traumatic brain injury.
It’s easy to mistake being knocked out with having a concussion because both effects involve some temporary impairment in brain function.
However, there is one difference between being knocked out and having a concussion: when you have been knocked out, your brain will stop communicating with large parts of your body. This can lead to temporary paralysis in some cases – but it’s not the only effect of having a concussion.
If you’ve been knocked out, it’s likely that you’ll have some memory loss, confusion, and problems with movement when you wake up. If you’ve had a concussion, on the other hand, these effects might be more pronounced for longer periods of time – sometimes even days afterward.
If you think that someone has suffered a concussion or is showing signs of one, they should usually see a doctor as soon as possible if there are any concerns about losing consciousness or their memory.
Your brain cells are slowly dying off every day – which means that people who suffer repeated head injuries are at risk of progressing to a terminal condition. This means that people who are frequently knocked out can risk losing their life if they don’t see a brain injury specialist as soon as possible.
How quickly conscious is regained after a knocked out?
If someone has been knocked out once, then it’s unlikely that they’ll stay knocked out for very long. This is because the brain only has a limited amount of oxygen to use while unconscious and the knockout effect won’t last very long if this supply runs dry.
This means that unless you have a pre-existing condition or there’s some kind of complication, you should be able to regain consciousness within 10 to 20 minutes at most.
Is knocking out do memory loss?
In general, being knocked out will only affect your short-term memory and leave you with feelings of confusion and disorientation until you recover from your knockout. After that, it’s likely that your long-term memory will remain unaffected when you wake up.
Although not every knockout is as severe as professional boxer Prichard Colon’s 4 month-long periods of unconsciousness, it’s easy for almost everyone to mistake the effects of passing out – like feeling weak and woozy – with having a concussion or being knocked out.
This means that people who have been knocked out might end up trying to return to their normal lives and activities before they’ve fully recovered from their injuries.
Repeated knocked out effects
Sometimes, the effects of repeated knockouts can also be mistaken for something else entirely because people don’t remember what happened before they were knocked out.
When you’re first diagnosed with a concussion, your doctor should tell you about how long your symptoms will last and when it’s safe for you to return to your normal life.
Your doctor will also be able to tell you if there are any long-lasting effects of being knocked out – like brain damage or personality changes.
Side effects of knocking out during boxing
Below are the side effects of knocking out during a boxing fight.
- There are several different types of injuries that can be caused by getting knocked out – and they all have different side effects.
- Virtually every part of the body is likely to suffer if you get knocked out. This is because your brain has only a limited supply of blood and oxygen (which it needs to stay alive), so it can’t maintain all of your bodily functions while you’re unconscious. In fact, getting knocked out might even temporarily paralyze your entire body just before you lose consciousness.
- In some cases, people have been known to die after being knocked out because their bodies are unable to cope with the effects of being unconscious for too long.
- When you get knocked out, it’s likely that you’ll suffer an injury to either the head or the brain. There are two types of injuries that can occur when your head gets hit:
- A contusion (bruising)
- A concussion (a form of traumatic brain injury – TBI)
Concussions are one of the most common types of TBIs and they’re usually caused by falls or motor vehicle accidents. A concussion is classified as a mild TBI because it doesn’t always cause noticeable damage to your brain – which means that you might experience long-term effects of being knocked out without even realizing it. These effects include:
- Altered cognition (e.g., impaired memory, concentration, and judgment)
- Slowed thinking (i.e., slowed information processing and/or slower reaction times)
- Difficulty concentrating
- Feeling irritable or depressed, dizziness and headaches
- Getting easily distracted, drowsiness (i.e., falling asleep when you don’t want to)
Being knocked out can also cause an epidural hematoma. This is a condition that occurs when a blood clot forms between the outermost membrane of your brain (known as your dura mater) and the skull.
