Cats and Dogs | Can They Die Due To Dreams?
Can your cat or dog meet fate in a nightmare?
“We can experience magic not allowed by the rules of the cosmos in our physical world.”
Realities of Sleep
Sleep is the better half of our lives. We can experience magic not allowed by the rules of the cosmos in our physical world. But what would happen if we dreamt something so terrifying that we didn’t make it out alive? And if that’s possible, then what about our children? Gasp! What about our fur children?
Wes Craven found inspiration for the work of nightmares from a true story.
Craven recalls that a small boy, a refugee from the Cambodian genocide, pleaded to his parents that he was afraid of going to sleep because he was terrified that he would be attacked in his nightmares and die.
The boy would lose the fight, and fall asleep. The parents paid no attention. To them, their baby explained that of a fictional story. During the middle of that night, screams of true terror broke out throughout the home. The parents, their hearts racing bolted to the boy as fast as they could but when they reached him, the kid was dead. The little one died during a nightmare.
Dogs, Cats, and The Realities We Share
Stanley Coren, a retired professor of psychology from the University of British Columbia writes that dogs dream. Coren says that dogs dream much like we do and in fact, they dream about whatever activities they typically do throughout the day.
Dogs and cats can have nightmares too. They can be heard growling, barking, shivering, and acting out scenarios in their dreams that appear stressful. Doberman pups may fight an intruder. Chihuahuas may take down a lion. The possibilities of what they see and dream are intriguing.
Do Dreams Take Lives?
“…This brings me to my dog. Goober is a basenji, and like many basenjis he hates water and being bathed. As soon as my wife finishes bathing him he bolts out of the bathroom door, finds me, and tries to hide behind me or under me. So one day Goober was forced to be cleaned and underwent his ritual of hiding behind me. Later that night he was sleep-running. He awoke with a start, and then bolted to my location to hide under my legs. This was very awkward as I was sitting on the toilet at the time. I believe that he was dreaming, and I believe that he was dreaming about having a bath. I believe this because he only engages in this behavior when a bath is involved.” — Simon Brown, Quora Writer
The Hmong community in Laos was recruited by the CIA to fight communists for control of the country. Soon, the U.S left the war and their allies behind. The Vietnam War ended in 1975 and in the 1980’s the United States received an influx of families from Laos. The Hmong were seen as traitors and were exiled.
Before the nightmares of their shaken lives could be settled, young men in their 20’s to 30’s began to suddenly die in their sleep. U.S health experts were shocked. Autopsies were performed but not a single reason for the sudden deaths was found. The men were dying in their nightmares.
With no reasonable explanation to give or prove, health experts named this malady “SUNDS”.
“The fatal ailment, later classified as Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS), has been investigated by the Center for Disease Control at length. However, the wave of SUNDS deaths among Southeast Asians, particularly the Hmong group, is still unexplained.” — Thad Morgan, History.com 2018
Do We Have Any Suspects?
A disease was discovered in 1992 by the Brugada brothers who appropriately called it “Brugada Syndrome”.
Joseph Kim, NORD Editorial Intern from the University of Notre Dame, and Ramon Brugada, MD, PhD, Girona Institute of Biomedical Research IDIBGI and School of Medicine, University of Girona, Girona, Spain are quoted in a report stating that, “In individuals with Brugada syndrome, the electrical impulses between the ventricles become uncoordinated (ventricular fibrillation) resulting in decreased blood flow. Decreased blood flow to the brain and heart may result in fainting or sudden death.”
Brugada syndrome is newly discovered. It is also considered to be a rare disease affecting 5 in 10,000 people. Because of these facts, Brugada syndrome is not a suspect in the deaths of the young Hmong men.
“Exiled, the spirits saw no other choice but death.”
Dogs, Cats, and Sudden Death
There is no record of any dog or cat ever suffering from Brugada syndrome or SUNDS. Sudden nocturnal death appears to have only affected the young men of the Hmong community that fought in the Vietnam war. Other Hmong believed that they were being punished by their ancestors for leaving their homeland. Exiled, the spirits saw no other choice but death.
Experts believed that perhaps it was the monstrous stress of their families being torn apart, losing the war, being exiled, and having extreme difficulty settling down in an alien country. The Hmong men, likely died of heartbreak and sorrow.
It seems that for now Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street will stay on Elm Street and away from us and our beautiful fur babies … for now.
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Sources:
https://misterbulger.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/laotianarticle4.pdf
https://www.history.com/news/nightmare-on-elm-street-real-inspiration-hmong-death
https://www.quora.com/When-dogs-dream-what-do-they-dream-about
