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TORONTO, Aug 05, 2003 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A new theory links sudden infant death syndrome to dreams, a Toronto newspaper reported Tuesday.
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.
