S UDDEN U NEXPECTED N OCTURNAL D EATH S YNDROME
Since 1977 more than a hundred Southeast Asian immigrants in the United States have died from the mysterious disorder known as sudden unexpected nocturnal death syndrome (SUNDS). SUNDS had an unusually high incidence among recently relocated Laotian Hmong refugees. All but one of the victims were men, the median age was thirty-three, all were apparently healthy, and all died during their sleep. Despite numerous studies of SUNDS, which have taken into account such varied factors as toxicology, heart disease, sleep apnea and other sleep disorders, genetics, metabolism, and nutrition, medical scientists have not been able to determine its exact cause. Medical opinion appears to favor an impairment of the electrical pathways and specialized muscle fibers that contract the heart. It is widely held, however, that some type of intense stressor is likely an additional risk factor.
The medical folklorist Shelley Adler postulates that a supernormal nocturnal experience that is part of Hmong traditional beliefs can trigger the fatal syndrome. The experience is referred to as a "night-mare," not in the modern sense of a bad dream, but rather in its original denotation as the nocturnal visit of an evil being that threatens to press the very life out of its terrified victim. Hmong refugees in the United States experience a culture-specific manifestation of the universal nightmare phenomenon. The Hmong Nightmare (known as dab tsog ) causes cataclysmic psychological stress, which can trigger sudden death. Although the Dab Tsog attack in Laos is related to the worldwide nightmare tradition, the peculiar stresses of Hmong refugee experience transformed its outcome. The power of traditional belief in the nightmare—in the context of the trauma of war, migration, rapid acculturation, and inability to practice traditional healing and ritual—causes cataclysmic psychological stress to male Hmong refugees that can result in SUNDS.
See also: C AUSES OF D EATH
Bibliography
Adler, Shelley R. "Ethnomedical Pathogenesis and Hmong Immigrants' Sudden Nocturnal Deaths." Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 18 (1994):23–59.
Hufford, David J. The Terror That Comes in the Night. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
Parrish, R. Gibson, Myra Tucker, Roy Ing, Carol Encarnacion, and Mark Eberhardt. "Sudden Unexplained Death Syndrome in Southeast Asian Refugees: A Review of CDC Surveillance." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review 36 (1987):43–53.
SHELLEY R. ADLER
It's horrible thinking that you're not alone in your dark bedroom, but then not to be able to move or fight back is even worse. People think you're nuts or tell you that you just had a bad dream, but it's so much more than that!
However, "dab tsog" only occurs while one is dreaming. In each of my experience, what I normally see (in dream) before being paralyze is a black figure. And by the time I know it, I'm already trying to get myself free from the paralyzation. No matter how much I scream, no one could hear me, no matter how much I try to move, I couldn't. Sometimes, it happens so often that when I see this figure (in dream), I already know what's up (kind of like O'shit, brace for impact).
Another thing, family members who have a Hmong Shaman or a Xwm Kab (majority of Hmong family has this, unless they go to church) in their household are more likely to experience "dab tsog." That is because as a Shaman, their Thaj Neeb (Shaman altar) is like a gateway between the dead and the living, allowing the Shaman to trance into the spirit world. However, by having such an altar, it also allows spirits (good and bad) to enter the world of the living. The Xwm Kab is simialr to a Hmong Shaman's Thaj Neeb, but ment for household without a Shaman present (living there).
I can almost gurantee that all the Hmong men who died of SUNDS had either a Thaj Neeb or Xwm Kab present in their home.
Only people who understand our culture will truely understand what I'm talking about.
Twenty something years later, I have yet to have it happen again. Or so bad that I'd never forget it. As someone else mentioned, I try to never sleep on my back. Just like that movie Cats Eye. Little troll demon will come, sit on your chest and suck your breath out.
I also learned about this from the show 1,000 ways to die. Crazy to read other peoples stories and see that we're all affected the same way.
Funny enough I was told on some tarot card readings that my death will be; suffocation. SCARY!!
Please reply...
myself until I was 8. The only way I was able to cope with that
change was to wrap a blanket around my whole body and leave my
mouth out to breath. I would still wake up mulitple times throughout
the night, sometimes somewhat sweaty and feverish.
I'm starting to notice even more that when I'm sleep, a fourth of the
duration I can see what's going on around me while asleep and still
dreaming, or so it seems to be that way. I have recently learned that
it is called ASP. I've been experiencing things that can also be
described as SUNDS every month or so.
I try to convince myself that I'm fully awake during the day, but I know
that I'm not. It's kind of like saying, "It's hot," when it's cold, but you do
it anyways because it was proven to raise your body temperature. I
usually forget my dreams five minutes after waking up, but whether
or not I remember them, they seem to mentally/physically drain me
during the day.
I've done a little research on SUNDS in the past, only to find that it is
fairly typical among men in certain Asian ethnic groups. I'm female,
but I'm partially Filipino and Chinese, so I guess I'm one of the few
exceptions to this common ground. But still, little is known about it,
so I assume that assumption is inconclusive or just wrong. The first
time I had that attack happen was the beginning of last year. It consisted
of a flash of demonic faces, the feeling of suffocation, and I honestly felt
as if I was going to die. Before this happened, I looked at my clock and it
was 11-something pm. I closed my eyes and fell asleep only to think
I was awake during the SUNDS episode. I remember seeing some
part of my room, but with a small mirror on the wall that wasn't
normally placed there, then being suffocated, eyes shut, with no
ability to scream. To be honest, I prayed, but it didn't work. So I relied
on singing a comedic song in my head and I regained
conciousness, only to find that only 10-15 minutes have passed.
I have since lost my fear of putting myself to sleep. The way I did this
was just by not thinking about it too much. Although, I still do wake
up in shock on ocassion with my breathe racing the pace at which
my heart pumps.