Dreams cause SIDS, scientist theorizes

[Ivan Seeking]

"A new theory links sudden infant death syndrome to dreams, suggesting babies may stop breathing because they are dreaming of being back in the womb, where they had no need to breathe."

http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id=C60E647E-01DD-4D88-9548-9F6B7F1A7016

 

[spacemanspiff]

what is the age range for SIDS? a couple of months at least? So if they did remember being inthe womb then that would imply them having it in long term memory. and infants don't really have much memory capability. There is a whole issue of brain development and memory, which is why no one really can remember much that far back, let alone being in the womb.

interesting idea though.

 

[Della]

This hypothesis is, in all likelyhood, bogus.

There are several theories about what causes SIDS, but most of them include something about temperature regulation being wacked out or respiration not working as well as it should.

This researcher theorized that dreams cause SIDS, and that is very unlikely to be true, but it is likely that SIDS may occur most often during REM sleep. REM is the stage of sleep during which dreams occur. Some other characteristics of REM include a basic shutdown of voluntary movements and other behaviors, like temperature regulation.

There is a relationship between temperature regulation and respiration, and that is that both are regulated by a similar area in the brain. It could be that infants who succumb to SIDS did not fully develop that particular chuck of the brain. Thus, either the temperature or breathing of the infant gets a little out of whack, either of which is more likely to happen during REM.

So, while there may be an association between the occurrance of SIDS and dreaming, it is not at all reasonable to conclude that dreaming causes SIDS.