“One Possibility Being Explored Is That They Were Frightened To Death By Nightmares”

Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS) has a name now, but that wasn’t the case in 1977 when seemingly healthy Laotian refugees in America began dying in their sleep. While it was always suspected that irregular heart rhythms played a part in the mysterious deaths, more inscrutable sources have been suggested. Malign spirits? Nightmares? From Wayne King in the May 10, 1981 New York Times:

SAN FRANCISCO, May 9— The Federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta is conducting an intensive inquiry into the manner in which 18 apparently healthy Laotian refugees died mysteriously in their sleep in this country within the last four years. One possibility being explored is that they were frightened to death by nightmares.

The 17 men and a woman were members of a preliterate Laotion mountain society called the Hmong. About 35,000 Hmong are now living in the United States. Most of them fled their homeland after it was overrun in 1975 by the Pathet Lao.

The Hmong come from an isolated culture similar to that of the American Indian. Most of those who have been resettled in this country live in concentrated communities in Missoula, Mont.; Santa Ana, Calif.; Providence, R.I.; Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul, where the largest number, 10,000 to 12,000, reside.

Very few speak English. Their own tongue became a written language only a few years ago, and their adaptation to American life has been marginal. Until some relatively recent conversions to Buddhism and Christianity, their religion is animist, governed by spirits and manifestions of the soul.

Terror Induced by Nightmare

The cause of death of the 18 refugees in their own beds in the early morning hours remains a mystery. The deaths have generally been attributed to ‘probable cardiac arrythmia,’ or irregular heartbeat. Although pathologists have been reluctant to advance it publicly, one possibility being explored is an obscure pattern described in medical literature as ‘Oriental nightmare death syndrome,’ in which death results from terror induced by a nightmare.”