by Cryosleep, also known as cryogenic hibernation or cryogenic suspension, refers to a hypothetical process where a person is cooled to very low temperatures until future medical treatments are developed so they can be revived. The practice aims to treat diseases that currently lack a cure by allowing medical technology to advance far enough to treat conditions that were previously fatal or untreatable.
The Science Behind Cryosleep
Achieving it requires cooling the human body to extremely low non-freezing temperatures, usually around -320 degrees Fahrenheit or below. At these cryogenic temperatures, all biological functions and metabolic processes essentially stop, halting any further progression of diseases or aging. Some key scientific concepts that make it theoretically possible include:
– Cryopreservation: Freezing cells and tissues at cryogenic temperatures can minimize ice crystal formation and cell damage for future thawing. This allows biological materials to remain viable after being frozen and thawed.
– Suspended Animation: Lowering body temperature slows down or completely stops all biological and chemical processes in the body to an undetectable level. This supports the idea that life can be preserved without normal functioning until temperatures are raised again.
– Nanotechnology: Future microscopic medical robots and devices could potentially revive a Cryosleep patient by repairing any cellular or tissue damage from freezing at the molecular level. Nanomedicine is a promising scientific field that could revolutionize medicine in ways needed to resuscitate a cryopreserved person.
– Anti-Aging Research: Studies indicate slowing metabolism may help halt the biological aging process. If freezing achieves effective suspended animation, cryosleep patients could theoretically be revived many decades or centuries into the future when aging can be cured or reversed. This offers the hope of indefinite lifespans.
The Procedure and Process of Cryosleep
The current procedure for human cryopreservation involves replacing blood and tissues with cryoprotectant solutions to prevent ice formation prior to extreme freezing. Here are the basic steps:
– Patients stop eating and drinking around 24 hours beforehand for bowel cleansing. Laxatives may be given.
– Anesthesia is administered and the circulatory system accessed. large bore catheters are inserted into major blood vessels.
– The blood is drained from the body and replaced with a cryoprotective solution like glycerol or DMSO to prepare cells for freezing.
– The body is cooled slowly at a rate of 1°C per minute until it reaches very low temperatures between -130°C and -270°C.
– The cryoprotectively preserved body is placed into long term storage in liquid nitrogen cooled tanks at -196°C until future technology allows revival.
– Future physicians would slowly rewarm the body, remove cryoprotectants, and hopefully restart biological functions with advanced medical therapies or nanorobotics.
Risks and Challenges
While promising as a theoretical life extension technique, cryosleep through whole body cryopreservation faces significant uncertainties and risks if attempted today:
– Ice crystal formation: Freezing and thawing causes severe ice crystal damage to cells and tissues that has yet to be overcome, even in short term animal studies. Major new anti-freeze discoveries would be needed.
– Lack of Revival Success: No person has ever been fully cryopreserved and later revived. It remains unknown if cryopreservation is reversible or can cause permanent damage.
– Advanced Technologies Required: Major breakthroughs in medicine, nanotechnology, anti-aging and other fields would be needed to have any hope of safely resuscitating someone after decades of cryogenic storage.
– Legal and Ethical Quandaries: There are doubts about the legality and ethics of signing up patients for an experimental procedure that has never restored life in complex organisms like humans. Informed consent is unclear without knowing risks.
– Cost and Insurance: Who would pay the extremely high costs of long term cryogenic storage and care facilities for decades or centuries until revival may be possible? Insurance does not cover unproven future technologies.
The Future Research
Despite current limitations, research into technologies continues driven by the hope that suspending death could one day be achieved. Nanomedicine is making promising strides, anti-aging therapies are progressing rapidly, and medical technology is advancing at an exponential pace. Some scientists predict that within this century, humans may be successfully cryopreserved and revived for the first time, validating it as a viable form of cryonic life extension. Advocates argue this gives hope to terminally ill patients today and pushes scientific frontiers in ways that could benefit all of humanity. Skeptics counter that true reversible whole body cryopreservation remains firmly in the realm of science fiction for the foreseeable future and dangerous false promises are being made. Only continued experimentation will determine if science can achieve the dream of controlled reversible suspended animation and extend lifespans through cryosleep.
*Note:
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
