<p>So I've been living with my new roommate for about a week, and things have been going pretty well. The temperature in our residence hall is kind of high, and so I got a fan to make it easier to sleep, but my roommate says it's dangerous??</p>
<p>I've always slept with a ceiling fan on in my room since I was little without any problems, but he won't believe me! What's going on? I was anticipating roommate problems, but not something stupid like this. He says people have DIED from this back home (he's an Asian international student), but there's no way I couldn't have heard of this happening somewhere in America.</p>
<p>What should I do? It doesn't sound like he's going to budge, but I really need a good night's rest now that classes have started up.</p>
<p>I don’t get it. Do people really die from sleeping with a fan on in Korea (or wherever he’s from), or is my roommate crazy?</p>
<p>I was pretty sure it wasn’t dangerous (seeing as I’m still alive after years of sleeping with a fan on), but he seems adamant about it. Besides, it’s a standing fan, so it would only be pointing at me anyway, so what difference does it make to him?</p>
<p>Should I just wait till he sleeps and then turn it on? I don’t want to **** him off when there’s a long year ahead, but I don’t see what else I can do. Maybe if I show him that I slept with the fan on for a night without any problems, then he’d be OK with it? He really seemed afraid though.</p>
<p>It’s a really weird thing people in Korea think, but no, people don’t really die from leaving a fan on. But I really don’t know what you should do about it.</p>
<p>When my daughter was about three years old, I put her down for a nap in a room with a ceiling fan, it contributed to her having a seizure. She did not die but it was a very frightening experience. I refuse to let her sleep in a room with a ceiling fan to this day. She is 19 and attends college. She is not Korean nor male so she is not your roommate, but maybe something similar happened to him when he was a young child. </p>
<p>Or maybe he gets cold easily and is just screwing with you.</p>
<p>So was he making up the thing about people dying? And this is a common belief in Korea? I mean, if no one actually died from sleeping with a fan on, why would people in Korea think that?</p>
<p>@Yenmor:</p>
<p>OK, maybe he has some medical condition then? That seems like a private thing to ask about though…</p>
<p>It’s more likely he’s screwing with me though - he said that “people” (as in people he doesn’t know) back home have died, so it doesn’t sound like a personal issue.</p>
<p>Or is it maybe a genetic thing that’s only common in Asians (like black people and sickle cell anemia)?</p>
<p>I don’t completely understand it, but it’s sometimes called Korean fan death, it’s a cultural belief. just search “Korean fan death” on google and you can find all the info you’d want.</p>
<p>Just read an article on Wikipedia about it…</p>
<p>“In summer, mainstream Korean news sources regularly report on cases of fan death.”</p>
<p>This is probably what my roommate was talking about when he said people have died from fan death. But the Wikipedia page also says it’s a “superstition”. How can newspapers be reporting on “fan death” when it’s a superstition?</p>
<p>Maybe in a tabloid, but not in serious newspapers. And I wouldn’t take it seriously even if there was such a report.</p>
<p>Besides, “miracles” are usually something that can’t be explained at all. But if someone dies from “fan death”, wouldn’t a simple autopsy show otherwise? And doesn’t the fact that more than 300 million people in America go about their lives without ever worrying about this “danger” show that it’s wrong?</p>
<p>Wow, this is crazy:</p>
<p>“Belief in fan death is common even among knowledgeable medical professionals in Korea. According to Yeon Dong-su, dean of Kwandong University’s medical school, “If it is completely sealed, then in the current of an electric fan, the temperature can drop low enough to cause a person to die of hypothermia.””</p>
<p>Even a medical school dean in Korea believes in this crap! No wonder all these Asians are coming to America for college - the colleges over there must be crap.</p>
<p>100 babies dies while sleeping and of those 95 had fans going in their room when they died … therefore using fans increases the odds a baby will die in their sleep. </p>
<p>Alternative interpretation … the babies dies of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrom) and in addition 95% of people have ceiling fans so, as expected, about 95% of the babies who died in their sleep had ceiling fans. Blaming the fans is mixing causation and correlation.</p>
<p>Can you switch out of this room? Why should you have to suffer in the oppressive heat because of his fear of fans? I would take it up with the RA/administration!!</p>
<p>And I thought it was bad when people were telling me not to loft my bed because I would fall off and die… </p>
<p>If the fan really matters (and it might. Some dorms are absolutely sweltering), I would calmly talk to your roommate and show him the info you found about the “Korean fan death” being false. If he still keeps insisting you get rid of the fan, maybe you could see if the RA would talk to him.</p>
<p>It certainly is dangerous. Just ask Tiger Woods…he ended up getting whacked with a 7-iron, losing his family, and out a ton of money for sleeping with fans. Oh wait…different kind of fan.</p>
<p>Seriously, are there any Korean-American students that you know that might be able to convince your roommate that their fears are irrational? If so, it might mean more to them coming from someone with a similar heritage. In any case, be gentle how you approach the subject with them. It’s definitely irrational and seems incredibly silly to most people, but nobody likes to have their beliefs ridiculed.</p>
<p>If it can’t be resolved between you, work with your RA to get a new room assignment for one of you. While many roommates have to work out differences in personalities, habits, religious beliefs, etc. this is a matter of physical discomfort. You need to respect them to a certain point, but this sounds like too much. Depending on the occupancy level of your dorms though, it may take a while to find a new room for one of you and you never know what/who you’ll end up with. I hear the voodoo practicioner down the hall is looking for a new victim…er, I mean…roommate. Good Luck.</p>
<p>“Even a medical school dean in Korea believes in this crap! No wonder all these Asians are coming to America for college - the colleges over there must be crap.”</p>
<p>Flickering or flashing lights can trigger seizures in someone who has a certain kind of seizure disorder, so it’s possible light seen through the rotating blades of a fan could be a trigger. But there are ALL kinds of things that could trigger such a response like, say, watching TV. So, yes, a ceiling fan could contribute to a seizure but that’s not a reason to condemn them. The number of people who are susceptible to such a response is vanishingly small in the scheme of things.</p>
Good Luck.</p>