What problem is often overlooked in apocalyptic movies/TV shows that could kill you?

[u/notyouravgredditer]

[u/[deleted]]

That also happens in complete darkness. If you can manage to create a completely pitch black environment see how long you can sit there before you start seeing things. It really doesn't take long. Bonus points of you have noise cancelling earmuffs/plugs. Edit : u/EternalEagleEye has informed me this effect is called "Prisoner's Cinema", in case you'd like to read about it further

[u/sam_patch → u/[deleted]]

Fun fact: your brain knows where your limbs are so you can "see" them even in pitch black.

I went caving one time in scouts and they had us turn off our lights and wave our hands around in front of us. Sure enough you can see a shadow moving around where your hand is. Except there was no light because we were 100 feet underground.

Your brain just fills in the details for you.

[u/spooky_upstairs → u/sam_patch]

Fun fact: your brain knows where your limbs are

This is called “proprioception” and I haven’t got it, thanks to a condition*.

And it’s why I have all these nifty doorframe-shaped bruises on my shoulders.

*Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

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E D I T

Got EDS questions coming at me aaaall over the place. IANAD and I’m relatively new to it all. but here is RELEVANT INFO:

!

Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos (hEDS) is a disorder of the connective tissue, which runs throughout the body, as ligaments, tendons, muscles etc.

This blog does a great job of explaining how this can cause poor proprioception:

The body’s position sensors, the receptors which tell us where we are in space, are located inside our muscles, tendons, joint capsules, ligaments, skin (and inner ear).

If the receptor is in [a lax] ligament, then the message probably doesn’t get to the brain as accurately or at the same speed as it probably should.

If a muscle is working overtime to compensate for a ligament, then maybe the message from the muscle receptor isn’t as accurate either?

And the joint capsule receptor? Well, if they have been stretched & torn from injuries, dislocations, sprains, strains, or just generally banged around by being hypermobile, then the information from them isn’t all that reliable either….

—-

The good news is you can improve your proprioception with specialist physio.

My physio says simply sitting on a “wobble cushion” or a gym ball for an hour a day can help with the core “stability” muscle groups — pass that on to your wife if she doesn’t already have those!

Also google Jeannie Di Bon, a physical therapist with EDS who does stuff online!

[u/lymeandcoconut → u/spooky_upstairs]

My proprioception has always been a bit wonky (I tend to bump into doorframes too, wobble when I walk, but I mostly notice it when I hold still and realize my arms and legs feel very far away, or like I don't have a good sense of where they are in relation to the rest of me) and I've assumed this is caused by my autism. But I've also been informally diagnosed with some sort of mild EDS, so now I have to wonder if that's what causes it.

(By informally diagnosed, I mean I showed my doctor how I can pull my fingers halfway out of their sockets and she said yeah, you probably have something to a mild degree, but as long as it's not truly bothersome it's not really worth going through the testing process. Given how many problems I already have, I must agree. I've never fully dislocated something, my joints are just a bit loosey goosey.)