Nitrogen Narcosis and Scuba Diving Part I - What Is Narcosis, How Does It Feel?

Nitrogen narcosis is an altered state of mind caused by breathing nitrogen at a high partial pressure. The deeper a diver descends, the higher the partial pressure of nitrogen and other gasses in his air will be. For this reason, nitrogen narcosis is usually thought of as a function of depth. The deeper a diver goes, the greater the narcosis. (Learn how to treat nitrogen narcosis.)

Although nitrogen is the principle component of air (79%), other gases in a diver's tank are also narcotic at great depths, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide. For this reason, many training agencies are now referring to the narcosis caused by breathing compressed air at depth as “inert gas narcosis” rather than “nitrogen narcosis”. Of course, oxygen and carbon dioxide are not inert gases, so perhaps the best term to use is simply “narcosis”. Whatever you call it, the point is that more than one gas may influence a diver's level of narcosis underwater.

Narcosis has been called the “rapture of the deep” and many divers compare narcosis to a feeling of pleasant drunkenness. In fact, divers sometimes use the “Martini Rule” to roughly estimate the effects of narcosis during a dive. Depending upon the source, the Martini Rule states that for every 30 or 60 feet of depth, a diver experiences the narcotic effect of drinking one martini.

Depending upon the diver and the dive environment, narcosis may cause a diver to feel either positive, euphoric emotions or negative, stressful emotions. Both scenarios are dangerous.

A diver feeling overly relaxed and happy may fail to react appropriately to a dangerous situation because he feels that everything is fine. An example is a euphoric diver who notices that he has exceeded his tank reserve pressure, but decides to continue diving because he feels great and therefore isn't worried about running out of air.

A diver who experiences feelings of dread or stress may perceive problems which do not exist or may react inappropriately to those that do. An example is a stressed diver who notices that he has reached his tank reserve pressure. He panics, inflates his buoyancy compensator, and rockets to the surface because he is afraid that he will run out of air if he makes a normal controlled descent, even though he has more than sufficient air to do so.

Narcosis affects a diver's ability to reason, evaluate situations, decide on appropriate courses of action, and recall information. Narcosis also slows a diver's thinking and reaction times. In effect, a diver experiencing narcosis thinks less clearly and more slowly than he normally does.

Foggy thinking and reasoning underwater is dangerous. Even normal situations can lead to potential disasters as a diver's mental abilities decline. As an example, a diver who is negatively buoyant may fail to inflate his buoyancy compensator because he doesn't recognize the problem (failing to evaluate the situation). Or, he may try to compensate for negative buoyancy by kicking himself up (failing to decide on an appropriate course of action).

Do you know . . . What Is the Difference Between Nitrogen Narcosis and Decompression Sickness?

The threshold at which a diver becomes narced varies from diver to diver. Divers experiencing narcosis are frequently unaware that they are functioning at a sub-optimal level. A diver's altered perceptions may cause him to feel well enough during the dive that he does not realize that his motor skills and mental functioning are impaired, making narcosis difficult to self-diagnose. To make matters worse, the diver's buddy is likely to be experiencing the same narcotic effects as the diver himself, and may not be able to help him identify when he is narced.

To identify narcosis, note any unusual emotions (even good ones). Also be aware of difficulty perceiving information, such as reading your pressure gauge or dive computer. Many divers report having unusual thoughts during narcosis. For example, I once marveled at the huge, huge size of a butterfly fish and made sure to smile and wink at it so that it would know that I was friendly.

Divers have also reported bizarre effects such as salt water tasting sweet or seeing colors differently on their pressure gauge. The diver I mentioned in the introduction saw the world as sideways (which makes sense as he was laying on his side), but interpreted this information as everyone playing a silly joke on him and turning the whole world on its side. He didn't realize that he was the sideways one. While the effects of narcosis may feel enjoyable in certain circumstances, a diver should still take action to counteract narcosis the moment he notices it because he will not be able to efficiently and appropriately react to unexpected situations.

Narcosis and Diving Part II: How to Treat and Minimize Narcosis When Scuba Diving