system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Do people suffering a Persistent vegetative state sleep while in coma?
gpt
Well technically no as they're not in a coma.

A persistent vegetative state is not a coma they are not interchangeable terms.

At the most basic level in a coma the person appears to be asleep but can't be roused whereas a person in a persistent vegetative state appears to be awake but is non responsive to to any stimuli. In a coma the higher brain functions still exist whereas in a persistent vegetative state the more complex areas of the brain are dead and gone.

Do they sleep? Yes as complex thought, reaction to stimuli, intelligence and personality are not needed to sleep. What's left of the brain can handle sleep as technically amoebas sleep.

PVS is different to brain death as some of the brain is still functioning and no there is no hope of recovery as what makes the person themselves is dead and gone.