The average person will be fine. If you are a (remarkably) heavy sleeper, if there are drugs or alcohol involved, if you have any neurogenic disorders or have difficulty protecting your airway, you have a much higher risk of a negative, potentially lethal outcome.
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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Not an issue for me. I'm 6'4". The only way I'm drowning after falling asleep in the bathtub is if my legs dissolve.
I've fallen asleep in the bath for maybe 20-30 minsand didn't drown. As a sample pool it isn't large, but it's some first hand experience.
To be fair, I'm tall, so I was wedged nicely in.
Yeah there’ve been a couple other people on this thread that have said the same thing. Seems like so long as you’re sober and healthy then it should be fine
I was not sober on that occasion.
I see
If worried about falling asleep and drowning, you can always take a household pet in the tub to nudge you awake.
Little-known fact is that cats are very good at this.
I'd put my concerns elsewhere: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6748192/
Very interesting and potentially useful information. Thank you!
I assume you'd wake up upon aspirating water. But also, maybe I'm just tall and have had short bathtubs, but it takes contorting to get my head under water
Yes, a person can drown in as little as 2 inches of water.
But do you drown instantly? Surely as soon as you got water in your throat you’d wake up and start coughing or something
Dry drowning... That shit is low key terrifying
The cautionary stories came about with the era of bored housewives who drank heavily and took pretty heavy prescription drugs...
But they were also wealthy so rather than say OD or suicide they "fell asleep" in the bath.
And I'm sure more than a few murders got wrote off as the same thing. A housewife that habitually passes out deeply could just got tossed in the tub.
Because like you said, no sober person is staying asleep till they drown.
But people hear the cover story and believe it, so they warn people about something that just won't happen
Very interesting take. I think you might be onto something. Similar to the concept of 'fan death' in Korea. I've heard it's often the go-to cause of death when the real cause of death is considered embarrassing or shameful
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Possibly, but you might just pass out and drown. Theres also something called Dry Drowning where you get enough water in your lungs that you slowly suffocate, even when not in the water any more. Its about minimizing risks. Sleeping in the tub increases your risk of drowning.
But do we have some real stats around it?
Because like OP, I've heard it my entire life and have never heard of someone drowning in the tub without being drugged up or really ill.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26046678/
A bathtub drowning is one of the leading causes of death in a bathtub. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how reliable the drowning-related signs could be for identifying a bathtub drowning in the cases of death in the bathtub. Performing a retrospective review of 92 deaths in the bathtub in Maryland, 71.7 percent were the presence of bathtub drowning and 28.3 percent were the absence of bathtub drowning. Three leading contributory causes of death were cardiovascular disease, drug/alcohol-related death, and seizure disorder in both groups. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups in relation to a history of recovery from the water (95.5% and 38.4%, p<0.001), foam in the air way (33.3% and 15.4%, p<0.05), watery fluid in the sphenoid sinuses (81.8% and 11.5%, p<0.05), hyperinflated lungs (36.4% and 3.8%, p<0.01), and watery fluid in the stomach contents (40.9% and 3.8%, p<0.01). More than triple overlapped drowning-related signs could be beneficial for the diagnosis of a bathtub drowning. A comprehensive investigation incorporating a thorough scene investigation, gathering of the victim's medical and psychosocial history, and a meticulous full autopsy is necessary to elucidate both the cause and manner of death in these cases of death in the bathtub.
So there are usually contributing factors like age, alcohol/drugs, or other medical issues. So ask yourself this: Can you be certain that you will never have a medical issue in a bathtub that might lead to you drowning? Have you ever bathed while drunk or high?
That makes sense. But I feel like the warnings about not falling asleep in the bathtub are often handed out generically, including to people who are perfectly sober and in good health
They are given to you when you're sober, in the hope you'll remember them drunk.
I can understand that. As I get older I do consider more and more how some people have health issues and just arent aware of it until something drastic happens. This isnt really even specific to bathtubs, just at any time its possible to have a seizure or pass out, among a million other possibilities
Yes some stats would be nice. If it were really that dangerous to fall asleep in the bath I think it would be negligent to let children take unsupervised baths, yet kids do all the time (at least I did when I was a kid). I think thats because most people intuitively know that drowning is not super likely
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Or less. All it has to do is cover your mouth and nose.
There's more than just drowning.
Hypothermia is a risk of the water isn't kept warm. And most likely someone's going to fill the tub and let it sit, so it would quickly lose its warmth. Don't assume because you're cold you'd wake up.
Even assuming you start with room temperature water, it'd be several hours before you start feeling the effects of hypothermia. Given the water starts off warm, it's only a bathtub of water so body heat will keep it above room temperature, and you're (probably) in a small room that'll help hold in the heat, I'd say you'd more than likely be okay assuming you don't sleep more than 8-10 hours. If you pass out in the tub for something like 16-24 hours then I'd be more worried.
In some ways, I'd be more concerned about what would happen in the drain plug wasn't completely watertight and the water drained away, particularly if you weren't naked and were wearing clothing that holds in water like cotton.
Most people wake up when they get cold. If you have a sleep disorder or have taken medications that make you sleepy, them it could be a problem.
Yeah I live in a cold climate and wake up from getting cold all the time
I fall asleep in the bath all the time. It's comfy in there.
I also fall asleep in the tub, never had any issues.
This thread is wild simply because I don't know any adult humans who actually take baths, and I have honestly always assumed the reason they exist at all is for washing small children.
I near exclusively take bubble baths. Some nice epsom salt, soft music, chamomile tea. It's the best!
You should try it, maybe you'd be less of a judgey sour puss.
Your life is very sad.
I like a hot tub, but I don't get the bath thing. It's not remotely the same.
It's not the same it is way better.
Not the shower/tub combo bath, those kinda suck, but a jacuzzi or soaking tub with a book is excellent.
I use a shower/tub combo but its not the really small modern ones were its just a pointless lip. Its still way great to soak for an hour or so.
I roughed it like that in college with a book and a hookah, but a little bigger is a lot better to me if you're average height or taller. Otherwise it's tough to get knees and nipples in the water at the same time.
They're relaxing for most people. I'm too tall and don't thermoregulate well enough anymore for them to be anything other than squeezing into a small space where I get dizzy from the heat, but it's a common form of relaxation
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