You will usually stay in the recovery room until you are stable and waking up safely. For many procedures, people wake up about five minutes after the anesthetic is stopped, but they may not be fully alert right away. After general anesthesia, some people move to a recovery room for monitoring, and depending on the surgery, they may go home or to a regular hospital room within a few hours. For some major heart surgeries, recovery can be longer and you may go to ICU or HDU instead, with breathing tube removal often four to six hours after surgery, or later in complex cases. Verify the exact plan with your surgical or anesthesia team in case they want something different for you.