RealClearScience links to an article about an alternate theory of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS. Its essential element is that the infant may dream of the prior experience in the womb, when breathing does not occur, and thus in REM sleep mode, simply revert and stop breathing.
There is, the article claims, no practical way to test this hypothesis. However, recommendations to put infants on their backs, and not keep them too warm should help as this is likely to avoid sleep conditions that are womb-reminiscent: super warm and fetal positioned.
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I wonder if SIDS occurs in cultures that swaddle infants on a papoose or cradle board? These neonates tend to be kept warm, but upright and not fetal-positioned. It would be a good cross-disciplinary study between pediatrics and anthropology.
