Can A Dream Kill You? Can it?

[salamangkero 0]

there is a phenomenon that happens my country, or in some south east asian countries, called bangungot which tells that people can actually die from dreams.

Wow, you don't happen to be from the Philippines, do you? Y'see, I'm a Filipino too

 

I do remember my psychology professor telling us that death due to dreams, or bangungot is a phenomenon localized in south-east asian countries. To loosely translate it, it is a bad dream, a nightmare although, unlike westerners' nightmares which are no more than bad dreams, bangungot is of a particularly fatal kind. By superstition, it is said that consuming large amounts of food before sleeping, or sleeping practically immediately after a sumptuous meal, is a trigger for a person to experience bangungot

 

Although we could all agree that people with frail heart or other cardiac problems might begin dying due to a particularly stimulating dream, victims of bangungot are not always those with heart problems. In fact, it can claim the life of just about anyone, although here, when someone is old enough and dies in his/her sleep, we simply say it's due to old age and not bangungot

 

Oh yeah, one other thing, I think nightmare was a, err... "female" word. I remember listening to our professor that the Filipino's bangungot is, well, traditionally, male: an entity that uses certain... appendages... male appendages... and accessories to prevent a sleeping person from breathing through the mouth or nostrils. Uh, imagine as you will, mortals.

 

All in all, I do think it is possible to die from dreams. It's kinda like that Matrix-stuff, ne? Whatever happens to you in the Matrix also happens to your real body

[Bruce517 0]

Yeah i think it is possible but it matters what you define as a dream because many people die in their sleep from a result of many things, also many people have heart attacks from simple increases of heart rates with other conditions tied in so you could die from the increased heart rate a dream produced... idk just a thought?

[anwiii 17]

screw that noise. dreams don't kill people. i believe you can die in your sleep or while your dreaming. i believe dreams can have effects on people that can cause them to die but it would be something else entirely killing that person. not the dream.also, if you het the ground when falling, you don't die also, when you die in your dream, you wont die. not from the dream alone mind you. i remember studying dreams in my phych II class in college. a lot of theories.i've always been facsinated by dreams. i believe they can call upon the subconscience and call upon another reality that a lot of people are unaware of. i remember when i first was able to control my dreams. trippy experience. blacked out the first couple times and woke up. i always wanted to fly in my dreams so i taught myself how to fly in my dreams using stupid little lessons i had someone teach me within my dreamas far as dying though. i was stabbed after a chase dream. i died in my dream and saw myself floating over my body in my dream. i woke up soon afterwardsi know some of you may think i'm crazy when i say this next part but i believe other people can enter your dreams. almost like freddy kruger in a way. don't laugh i'm serious. there is energy out there that a lot of people don't know exists or know how to control. the people who try can sometimes enter in to your thoughts while you dream. they can possibily manipulate your dream if they are good enough. if they want to be harmfull, they can possibly kill you in your dreams. this is only possible when your sleeping and more open to certain energy. but it wont be the dream itself killing you or injuring you. it would be that energy form. that form could be another human being or someone who has already past awaynow one thing that was strange to me when i was dreaming was i actually burned myself in my dream i guess(i don't remember it too much) because when i woke up, i had a burn on my arm. two burns in fact. to seperate burn streaks. to this day i haven't figured that out. what i was told once about it was that someone close to me tried to contact me through my dream.i don't understand them fully, but i am VERY facinated with dreams. it's another world some of us will never experience fully...just like scuba diving. whole other world beneath the ocean. but the ocean will always be more realistic to people than dreamsi believe if we didn't have dreams, we would die. not the other way around. they help us cope in our real lives. answers can be found in dreams. so can peace and experiencing things you would not normally experience when you are awake.

[cangor 0]

I do actually think a certain type of dream can kill you, but only if you have a mental or physical condition which makes you that fragile... I, like anwiii, find dreams really interesting, but I'm kinda pissed off that I don't dream that often... Something interesting about dreams that has happened to me is that I was shot a gun from behind, and I woke up and felt a really strong sting in my back. I think dreams can incorporate what is happening to you in the outside world at the time, perhaps.

[Forbez 0]

If you dreamt you were flying, tripping or falling and your body actually moved because of this. Then, perhaps. YOu could fall out of your bed onto something sharp. But this are all consequences of the dream, not the actual dream itself.I truely doubt there is any possiblity of dieing from any dream you had.

[Saint_Michael 3]

We been watching to much Nightmare on Elm Street with Freddy killing you in your dreams, and like everyone else I don't think its possible and I doubt no one will be testing that theory out or not. As for having dreams of you dying that I would be true though or rather was your near death the emotions from that will kick you out of your sleep, and that has happen to me a few times.

Edited December 30, 2007 by Saint_Michael (see edit history)

[ozzi 0]

I think it's possible if you are with a bad hearth dissease or something so, actually many persons can't manage their own dreams when they're very awful

[Master.M 0]

I don't think that dreams can kill even if you're dreaming of things but if you sleep walk and do the wrong thing then that can obviously kill...But i heard dreams for different people change. Wat i mean is that if you have a problem that's not solved than you sleep walk a lot..but if you have a nice and quiet life than i don't think your dream can effect..By the way did you guys notice that you dream mostly if you wake up at dawn and stay awake for an hour then if you sleep again you get lots of dreams. and this dreams you can remember even after waking up!! (Its weird to talk about dreams!!!)

[Master.M 0]

I don't think that dreams can kill even if you're dreaming of things but if you sleep walk and do the wrong thing then that can obviously kill...But i heard dreams for different people change. Wat i mean is that if you have a problem that's not solved than you sleep walk a lot..but if you have a nice and quiet life than i don't think your dream can effect..
By the way did you guys notice that you dream mostly if you wake up at dawn and stay awake for an hour then if you sleep again you get lots of dreams. and this dreams you can remember even after waking up!!

(Its weird to talk about dreams!!!)

[bishoujo 0]

I guess you could die from a heart attack? Or suffer from anything that inflicts harm on your psychological well-being. But I'm pretty sure you can't suffer from any physical injury just because you dream about it. But if you dreamt that you were hitting yourself, then you may probably be thrashing around in bed, hitting yourself too and this may result in some serious injury. We're never safe in life eh?

[Liam_CF 0]

No, because dream's are not real.However you could walk of a bridge or something when you are sleepwalking, but that's different.

[Kokushibyou 0]

ehh....I think some dreams may be able to kill older people...a dream could make your heart beat extremely fast, and it might be able to put someone into shock...if its a horrible nightmare. So....yes, I think a dream could help cause a heart attack.

[KansukeKojima 0]

A dream cannot kill you, it would have to have a will of its own... and that doesn't really work...You could die during a dream, or as Kokushibyou just said..

[Reekun 0]

Craz I recognize your sig from RSCommunityI've had plenty of dreams where I died before I woke up, and I didn't die so I think it debunks this myth...--I can see a heart attack ending someone's life.Like once I was being chased through a casino by a man with a big head like a bobblehead and he corner me and I jumped off the 20nd story through a window and woke up before I hit the ground and got up from bed scared out of my witsI still sleep with a night light on now...Psychology at its finest here?

Edited January 27, 2008 by Reekun (see edit history)

[usedragon 0]

There is a scientific fact that by your dream. Your dream can kill you. Do you think this is true or false? =]

Hm, this is really a debatable type of discussion that could go either way and never stops with 1 answer. It's "I don't know", but I would have to go both ways. Heart Attacks, past memories, or emotional stress could result sucide or injuring your body. There are some that dreams cannot kill you because it's all in your head. Dreams is like an reality of your mind, you can feel, touch or smell in your dream that looks very real, but it's not.

There was a dream I had long time ago, I thought I was awake, but I was still sleeping.