As someone who faints as a hobby, I feel like writers are missing the potential of the really gross and nitty-gritty parts of losing consciousness. Donāt get me wrong, Iām a fan of the āthen everything cuts to blackā method too, but thereās more to it.
Unless youāre instantly knocked out cold, fainting is a really slow and annoying process. Mind you, your entire body is struggling to keep up with itself, so itās not just that your vision goes black and then you fall over.
What most people donāt like to mention is that for the first like, two minutes, you feel like youāre going to throw up or shit yourself. You feel jittery, nauseous, your guts are working against you. You have that feeling of āoh somethingās wrongā for a while, and sometimes it goes away and youāre fine, sometimes it doesnāt.
The first thing to go isnāt actually your sight or your hearing, itās your sense of touch. Your hands and feet get really uncomfortably numb, and once you canāt feel your hands anymore, Iād advise you or your character to get horizontal asap. Generally then you can just wait it out and youāre fine.
But if youāre an idiot like me and stay standing up, your hearing and sight go simultaneously. Slowly, but almost at the same pace. Your ears rush with blood, really loud, and theyāre very hot and flushed at this point. Your vision doesnāt blur, it goes black in spots that keep growing over time.
Your hearing lasts just a little longer than your sight. Once your eyes goā¦ yeah, youāre going to lose consciousness. But you can still hear stuff, even if itās muffled and distorted. I remember one time I fainted in the supermarket, I had the mind and composure to calmly ask the people around me (while I couldnāt see, feel and could barely hear) to please not let my head hit the ground and put my legs up so I could recover, and I still heard one of them go āoh shit yeah sureā.
Then your hearing goes, and then you can still feel yourself falling to the ground. Thatās fun!
Another thing to remember is that fainting is a way for your body to get you into a horizontal position, so blood can more easily reach your head. Once thatās accomplished, the unconsciousness generally doesnāt last very long. Youāre still going to have some uncomfortable pressure and rushing in your ears, but your senses will come back to you as soon as you lie down (whether you want to or not).
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