Post 6: The Mystery that is Bangungot

As I mentioned in one of my articles, I love eating. I have a fondness for snacking during night, especially if I have some extra school-related work to do, since it helps me stay awake and give me a bit of energy to pursue my tasks. Most of the time, my mother will catch me heating up some leftovers from dinner earlier, and she would always say "Huwag ka kumain ng marami, baka magkabangungot ka." ("Don't eat too much, you might get nightmares.") I've tested it out one time --please don't try to do it though, since there's a popular belief this causes acute pancreatitis, or the inflammation of the pancreas-- and ate a lot before sleeping. I woke up feeling fine, to be honest.

I told my mother about it and asked what the big deal is, she didn't look pleased about what I did and explained that there were a few instances where people slept on a full stomach and never woke up; most of them had no visible signs that they died. I got a bit curious, so I went on and started to look up bangungot on the internet, and it gave me two results.

First was about a local Philippine folk legend called a Batibat, a vengeful creature that sits on its victim's chest or face, and immobilizes and suffocates them. The second one is what we call "Sudden unexpected death syndrome", which is the closest thing as the one my mother told me.

According to this article I found, it seems the phenomenon isn't exclusive to just the Philippines, but to other Asian countries.

 "The unexplained deaths have stunned the estimated 200,000 Thais in Singapore, where they provide mainly low-cost labor as domestic servants and construction workers. Concern is so great that the Thai government dispatched a team of medical investigators from the Public Health Ministry to Singapore last week, but they returned home Tuesday without having solved the mystery."We didn't come up with any conclusion," said Ong-art Klamphaiboon, the public health official who led the delegation."

The phenomenon is so mysterious, that there is only little to no articles that could explain why this happens. Some say it's due to eating, as with my mother; while others say it's due to heart failures, despite the contradiction that no damage is seen on the sufferer, including internally. In the near future, perhaps we'll find out. But for now, there's nothing much to do but to be careful and take extra precautions.