There is a widely held belief in South Korea, and possibly North
Korea (though no one knows because they have no contact with the outside
world), that leaving a fan on at night in a closed room will kill you in your
sleep.
One theory I’ve heard is that when a fan is blowing at your
face, it blows all the oxygen away from your nose, so you have nothing to
breathe, so you suffocate. Another theory is that your body will get too cold,
and you won’t be able to tell because you’re asleep, so you’ll die of
hypothermia.
I’ve asked one Korean friend about this. He says that if he
leaves the fan on, he will point it at the wall, so the breeze will have to
bounce off the wall rather than hit him directly. Korean fans, and our Chinese
fans, are equipped with timers, so the fan will turn off after a set amount of
time. At first I thought the fan timers were just nifty energy savers, but now
I realize that they are saving my life every night.
For more theories: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death
No comments:
Post a Comment