Finitude of Pain - Between Silence and Consciousness - SfN Decolonial Neuroscience LatBrain Bee

First-Person Consciousness

“I am the pain that crosses me. Sometimes discreet, sometimes a scream. In the waking body, I set limits, demand attention, teach prudence. But when I fall asleep, I begin to dissolve. I am silenced not by denial, but because the brain needs to let me rest. In this temporary finitude, I learn: I am not only suffering, I am also a sign of life in reorganization. Yet I discover that I am not the whole Damasian Mind: I am only an intense mark in the mental hyperspace, which can also exist in silence and fruition.”

Pain, Nociception, and the Damasian Mind

• Nociception: detection of potentially harmful stimuli, a biological process that may or may not become pain.
  
  

• Pain: when nociception becomes a conscious experience, integrated with emotions and memory.
  
  

• Damasian Mind: does not depend on pain to exist. It arises from the union of interoception (viscera, homeostasis) and proprioception (position and movement), sustaining the self in the body-territory.
  
  

• Central inference: pain is a peak in the landscape of mental hyperspace — an acute mark that forces consciousness to take a bodily stance. But even without pain, the Damasian Mind flourishes in states of bodily silence, calm breathing, and fruition.
  
  

Pain as a Reference of Existence

• Vital function: to signal injury, guide movements, protect tissues.
  
  

• Chronic pain: when the signal loses its adaptive role and becomes repetitive memory, trapping the Tensional Self in Zone 3.
  
  

• Pain and belonging: the body-territory suffers not only at the injured point but in the entire perceived volume — the existential space becomes tense.
  
  

The Natural Finitude of Pain in Sleep

• N1: beginning of tensional dissolution; hypnic jerks mark the release of muscle groups.
  
  

• N2: spindles stabilize attentional circuits, reducing pain vigilance.
  
  

• N3: pain threshold decreases, hidden tensions emerge (such as discomfort from shoes or mattress), allowing repositioning.
  
  

• REM tonic: adjusts proprioceptive references (Apus) in dreamlike scenarios.
  
  

• REM phasic: integrates feelings linked to pain into symbolic narratives, softening their emotional load.
  
  

Neuroscience of Pain in Sleep

• EEG: lower spindle density in N2 correlates with higher pain perception.
  
  

• fNIRS: prefrontal hyperactivity in chronic pain indicates failure of dissolution during N3.
  
  

• SpO₂: levels between 92–94% sustain high-performance attention during wakefulness; during sleep, they need to drop to allow pain to reorganize metabolically.
  
  

Blocked Finitude

When insomnia, sleep fragmentation, or hypervigilance (trauma, PTSD) occur, pain does not dissolve. The Tensional Self remains trapped in Zone 3, and the mind loses its chance for reorganization.

For Clinicians and Caregivers

• Promote sleep environments free of nociceptive stimuli.
  
  

• Encourage practices of fruition and metacognition before sleep.
  
  

• Explore non-pharmacological interventions (breathing, slow music, auditory stimulation of slow waves).
  
  

• In palliative care: reframe pain as part of a narrative of belonging, not merely as suffering.
  
  

Conclusion

Pain is a privileged mark of the Damasian Mind, but not its exclusive condition. It reveals the body in crisis and forces immediate belonging. However, silence without pain — steady breathing, rest, fruition — is also Damasian Mind. The nightly finitude of pain is an invitation: as it dissolves, pain opens the path for the body to return to Zone 2, where belonging and reorganization occur.