Since breathing is automatic, it is something we do without realizing. 

However, what would happen if breathing were not automatic and you had to do it on purpose?

In case you are unaware, some people experience a disorder that causes their breathing to become non-automatic.

It is referred to as Ondine Curse congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS), or Ondine’s Curse in scientific parlance.

If a person with the disorder falls asleep, they will die. Scary!

Those with the disorder sleep with mechanical ventilators, which ensure normal breathing whenever they fall asleep. When they’re awake, they’d need to consciously breathe.

While this is very real as we have thousands of people with this disorder today—There are people who believe a mythical tale on how this came to life existence.

The disorder affects one in 30 million people, making it an extremely rare condition.

ACHS can develop as a result of severe injury or trauma to the brain or brainstem. Congenital cases are very rare and involve a failure of autonomic control of breathing. In 2006, there were only about 200 known cases worldwide.

As of 2008, only 1000 total cases were known. The diagnosis may be delayed because of variations in the severity of the manifestations or lack of awareness in the medical community, particularly in milder cases.

However, as there have been cases where asymptomatic family members also were found to have CCHS, it may be that these figures only reflect those found to require mechanical ventilation. In all cases, episodes of apnea occur in sleep, but in a few patients, at the most severe end of the spectrum, apnea also occurs while awake.

Although rare, cases of long-term untreated CCHS have been reported and are termed late onset CCHS (LO-CCHS).

There have, however, even been cases of LO-CCHS where family members found to have it have been asymptomatic. Again, lack of awareness in the medical community may cause such a delay. CCHS susceptibility is not known to be affected b

y sex or race.