Suspended animation

Suspended animation, also known as cryofreeze, was the slowing of life processes by external means without termination. Involuntary bodily functions like breathing and heart beats may still occur, but they could only be detected by artificial means. Extreme cold was used to precipitate the slowing of an individual's functions; use of this process has led to the developing science of cryonics.

Suspended animation took place throughout the galaxy in various forms including the sleeper ships that carried Human settlers from Coruscant in the days before the Old Republic, carbon-freezing (as in the case of Han Solo on Cloud City and the Black Sun criminal Czethros), various Sith Alchemical techniques and the Imperial Procurator of Justice Lord Hethrir's "sleeping coffins," which kept the subject asleep and alive via life-support systems. However, there were some cases of subjects dying while being held in suspended animation. It also had the effect, after only a few months of suspension, of temporary blindness, nausea, and firing nerves upon awakening.

Text and facts from the “Suspended animation/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.