What do you do to unwind? Watch Netflix? Bike? Hike? Golf? Go for a run? Dine out with friends? Garden? Dance? Read? There are myriad ways to decompress and recover from the stresses and strains of everyday life. But for some, it’s not recreation unless they’re risking their lives.

Participation in so-called high risk, extreme or adventure sports has grown significantly in the last decade. Whether they’re big wave surfing, mountaineering, desert running, BASE jumping or free diving, more people are chasing an adrenaline high and sometimes dying in the process. Psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and neuroscientists say the motivation is not a death wish, but rather a yearning to feel alive — which reveals much about us as a society.

“We are living in a virtual, confused, hyper-technological, postmodern world where we’re all looking for real experiences,” said Orin Starn, professor of cultural anthropology and history at Duke University. “It’s a continuum of hipsters buying land to farm organic blueberries to musicians wanting to play original pre-jazz, old-time music to now, maybe getting out on glacier and trying to climb it.”

While reliable numbers are hard to come by, manufacturers and retailers of extreme sports gear such as climbing ropes and rigging, crampons, wingsuits (think jumpsuits with fabric flaps that make the wearer look like a flying squirrel) and parachutes report significant sales growth over the last five to 10 years. Travel bookings to the world’s premier jumping, diving, surfing and climbing destinations in Switzerland, France, Norway, Australia, Nepal and Brazil have also increased. Mount Everest has become something of a trash heap, as hordes of climbers have been less than fastidious in their ascents. And then, of course, there are the estimated 200 or so frozen bodies of those who didn’t make it back.