Zombies, Do they bleed?

[yarri]

My money's on gills

[7oddisdead]

So muscle atrophy and brain damage, to a normal human(or cadaver)...but I suppose the question could become how would blood itself be affected by a lack of oxygen?..im just trying to build something in my mind here. If we had the presence of blood, bleeding...yet the lack of oxygen to the bloodstream...visually, how much different would that look? Say, to an open wound..and in a Sci fi type environment what could replace oxygen within the human body and still maintain some type of nourishment for the body? We could possibly be talking on a evolution of the species scale here...or...gills

[kek]

If blood does not have enough oxygen, it is blue-ish. That is why some visible veins appear blue. They are on the way back to the heart to get oxygen. (That is the simplified explanation).So if the blood did not have oxygen, and if the zombies were bleeding, conceivably their blood could be blue.

[7oddisdead]

man..my brain is swimming with possiblities..blue zoms...gills....bluegills....im done here..

[Anhysbys]

Oooh, the sleep thing is what gets at me. Sleep isn't necessarily for the human brain; the human brain can run off just being rested in a low activity state like say closing your eyes, but not falling asleep. Sleep is to rest the body; when a person sleeps the muscles have a chance to unwind and relax without having to be strained. This would mean that the "zombies" have limits. The dead don't need to limit themselves. They also have an active cardio-vascular system that keeps blood flowing to their nervous system and throughout the body. Whenever you see them in a scene without them noticing any survivor's they groan and gurgle in a breathing kind of manner which is not a form of communication *reference to the scene when a group of zombies surrounds the hummer while Saul and Angel are in the store and one of the zombies comes in*. They also seem to have a basic understanding of technology like the sensor doors on the store (not that they know how to use it, just that some doors already open for them conveniently). I get this wonderful picture in my mind of a zombie being pleasantly surprised and smiling and giggling at the open door like a toddler.

[nikvoodoo]

Oooh, the sleep thing is what gets at me. Sleep isn't necessarily for the human brain; the human brain can run off just being rested in a low activity state like say closing your eyes, but not falling asleep. Sleep is to rest the body; when a person sleeps the muscles have a chance to unwind and relax without having to be strained.

Sorry, but this is factually incorrect.

The Human brain needs sleep just as much as the body needs it to rest and recoup. Without getting the requisite amount of sleep (which does vary from person to person) cognitive awareness suffers, the person becomes irritable and becomes incapable of creating and storing new memories among other issues. If your brain doesn't get enough rest, just like the body, the brain begins to shut down and under perform on all functions. As a person who suffered from insomnia for years (and occasionally still do at times) trust me when I say if your Brain doesn't get a normal night's rest, it's horrible.

[Anhysbys]

Yes, I have some sleep problems too it's not that uncommon nowadays sadly.

What actually puts people to sleep is melatonin in the brain. Which Melatonin, you being an insomniac should know what this does, is used for jet-lag or sleep deprivation. It is created by the pineal gland in the brain during night cycles. It is what makes you go to sleep and regulates the sleep-wake cycles. The more this builds up the more your brain is fighting to put you to sleep. Your body mostly needs sleep to relieve stress, repair synapses (the connections between neurons), and repair the body. It also makes a great state for the brain to go into a low activity mode. I've felt plenty rested after just focusing on a wall or ceiling and thinking/doing near nothing, nearly as much as just getting a good night's sleep. The body can also be trained to "require less sleep to function" some people even able to function with only 5-10 minute naps occasionally (5-6) throughout the day. I ask you to lay down one day you get the chance and just lay there, make sure to keep your eyes open and just think. It frees the mind for me enough to get a restful feeling that lasts nearly as long as a regular nights sleep.

I had heard the the brain doesn't need rest from a source somewhere on the internet, but I couldn't relocate it so it was probably wrong (sorry) . After a little more research I stitched this little beast together. However what this means is the zombies brains are manufacturing melatonin, which is actually being used. So these WA zombies have sub-human functioning brains that retain their human traits. Although, it still points toward the fact that zombies can either feel stress, need to "repair and recharge" their brains or repair their bodies (or some combination of the three). Scarier than any zombie I've read/watched/heard of. These zombies seem less like zombies and more like reprogrammed humans.

[kek]

To the best of my knowledge, there has been nothing about the WA zombies sleeping. We do not know what they do when they are not around eating people and whatnot. We don'r see the zombies just laying down to take naps or anything. They just tend to disappear, and before the stadium went boom it appeared the zombies would congregate there. However, back to the point: sleep is very much necessary for the human brain, as nik has said, and as anhysbys corrected. So if the zombies are not sleeping (I don't know for sure) then that would wear their bodies down even more, and it would be done sooner. If they had blood running through their veins, that could aid in some healing, but that would also mean the zombies would bleed out. So there could be some way that the zombies are in a way, 'repairing' themselves, but it would not be as effective as a normal human body.

Blood is very necessary for the body to work properly, as is sleep. But without blood, the muscles need some other way to perform, to get oxygen which is necessary for muscle movement. Back to sleep- anhysbys said that the zombies might 'be able to feel stress, need to "repair and recharge" their brains or repair their bodies.' How would they be able to do this though? Sleep only does so much for the body, it provides a time that certain bodily functions can take over and repair the body itself. However, this requires certain physiological factors that do not seem apparent in the zombies. Blood, for one. As well as neurons, and since the zombies do not appear to feel pain (that I can tell, anyway) then they are certainly missing neural and brain functions that cause the pain impulses. This could be due to many reasons, however, without certain neurological connections the movements and actions of zombies would be severely limited.

Anyway, I just realized I am rambling yet again, my thoughts going all over the place, so I will leave it at this. For now.

[Anhysbys]

The part where Saul and Angel have just saved Burt and hooked him up to the IV when they wake up in the morning to find themselves surrounded and Saul asked Angel (if I remember correctly) something along the lines of "What are they doing? Are they sleeping?" As you hear snoring in the background, which Burt is awake by then (if I remember correctly again which I think it was actually multiple snoring voices/noises?).

Although that bleed out thing is correct, we have seen that these WA zombies are extremely adaptive and can survive even the most fatal looking of wounds, I mean look at Tommy he took a shot to the chest and got back up after faking them out. I wouldn't be surprised if loss of blood would affect them differently than a normal person.

Back to the sleep thing, it relaxes a majority of the muscles so they no longer work in the semi-strained state that they go through throughout the day, just from being active. Learned from working out that just going nonstop over a week makes you feel like Hell if you don't take a day to just go into a low-power mode and just avoid strenuous activity. Makes me think these zombies with their activity are just tearing their muscles to kingdom come, along with lactic acid build-up slowing them down.

I believe they can feel pain as removing the feeling of damage to the body is relatively hard to do without just removing feeling altogether (which Tommy obviously could as he got shot in the chest he reacted quickly and accordingly with intelligence). However, an extremely high pain tolerance seems more probable. This also leads me to believe that they do have blood as without blood, as you said oxygen can't flow. Leaving zombies with absolutely no feeling (which actually could contradict me if someone brings a non-blood side into this debate).

Rambling is good, it helps release your though at can stimulate thoughts that you wouldn't normally bring out and helps with connections.

[Wicked Sid]

It all depends on if they actually do need oxygen or not. We have no idea how this contagion (what I find to be the best word for it) works. Maybe they only breath out of muscle memory (something the contagion could not have destroyed). Maybe they sleep due to the fact that they want sleep, rather than need it or maybe as a way to pass time.

It is quite possible that the contagion has rewired the body to function off of much less oxygen, thereby removing the need to rest frequently. Pain could be a non-issue for them as the contagion may have eradicated the neural receptors which convey the feeling of pain which should cause fear.