Dreams Could Be Behind Infant Deaths
A new theory
links sudden infant death syndrome to dreams, a Toronto newspaper reported
this week.
The Australian
scientist who offers the controversial theory in a new book on memory and
dreams says a dreamlike state may return these babies to the environment
of the womb, where their mothers supplied them with oxygen through their
blood, the National Post said.
"The reason
we can't find the medical cause of death is because it's in the mind of
the infant," said Dr. George Christos, a mathematician whose research has
focused on neural networks. His theory was inspired by sleep research experiments
in which adults stopped breathing when they dreamed of being underwater.
Christos suggests
making the sleeping environment less womb-like will reduce the risk of
SIDS.
"One could add
some white noise, like a radio playing out of tune, for example," he says
in his book Memory and Dreams: The Creative Human Mind.
--
Copyright 2003 by United
Press International.
All rights reserved.
|