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SIDS: Are infants’ dreams a possible cause?

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https://bigthink.com/health/sids-dreams-possible-cause/

KEY TAKEAWAYS: Despite decades of research, scientists still don't precisely know what causes sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). One hypothesis suggests that infants dreaming of their time in the womb could be the cause. Since they didn't breathe as a fetus, if they act out the dream in real life, as adults sometimes do, they may pass away from oxygen deficiency. There's no good way to test the idea, so we may never know if it's true. If it were, it would sadly seem to imply that there is no real cure for SIDS.

EXCERPT: Yet there is another, far lesser known hypothesis that’s been around for nearly three decades. Originally outlined by Curtin University scientist George Christos, it proffers that infant dreaming, in exceedingly rare circumstances, triggers SIDS. As Christos originally outlined in 1993:

“A possible explanation… is where an infant dreams about when it was a fetus, when it did not have to breathe. The physical actions corresponding to the dream may cause the infant to stop breathing, resulting in possible death.”


Christos backed his contention with numerous lines of evidence, first noting that humans regularly act out content from their dreams in real life. When people dream of choking on objects, they can simulate choking in real life. When they urinate in dreams, they can wet the bed. Christos even cited a dream study from Stanford which found that when a subject dreamed of swimming underwater, he actually held his breath.

While children and adults almost always rouse themselves when any of these dream-actions invade reality, some infants may lack the neural circuitry to do so, Christos speculated. Without that circuitry, a baby dreaming of their time in the womb — when they didn’t breathe — could be deadly if they act it out... (MORE - missing details)
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