Hungry-Eye

Public epidemiologic record
Property of the Royal Atheneum of Hövnís, Eörpe

Parasomnia

Rare

Immediate

Chronic

Hungry-Eye is believed to be caused by exposure to contaminated media and person-to-person communication featuring the entity Tooth-As-Eye, leading to recurring nightmares that over time grow more severe.

Etymology & Definition

The name is based on the description of symptoms given by the first patients diagnosed with the disorder: they all claimed their dreams to be haunted by a large, staring and hungry-looking mouth-eye.

Classification

Hungry-Eye is classified as a parasomnia that in it's initial stage function similar to nightmare disorder.

History

Hungry-Eye was first named and officially recognized as a condition in XX, after it had begun to spread rapidly among the population of several worlds within the United Worlds and the the Wheel. By the time the origin of the condition had been traced down, it had become a pandemic within all major galactic states except the the Ascendancy.
Epidemologist T. Oroguster was instrumental in locating the vectors of transmission and tracing the spread back to its source. They discovered that the primary vector was likely a memetic virus in the form of an imaginary entity later dubbed 'Tooth-As-Eye'. An individual would begin to experience symptoms of Hungry-Eye soon after being exposed to media referencing the entity in any shape or form.

Vectors

The first piece of infected media was a jittertattle shared on a meshspace dedicated to young adults engaged in review and discussion of contemporary myths and legends. It was first suspected that the story had a memetic virus embedded within it, that had conditionals that'd allow it to search for copies of itself, deriative works or related media also featuring Tooth-As-Eye to infect. But even after extensive analysis neither the original story, nor any of it's spawned media, contained any traces of malicious neuroware.
The authors that had created original works featuring Tooth-And-Eye were located and interviewed. Each one, including the author of the first jittertattle, claimed theirs to be a true story experienced by them and though very few could be 100% verified, the claims correlated to the far-progressed symptoms of Hungry-Eye they displayed. None of the interviewed authors were deemed to have access to the knowledge, finances, or technology - even illegally - to develop a neuroware of this complexity.
When Tooth-And-Eye could not be traced beyond these authors, T. Oroguster's efforts were redirected toward containment and prevention. With the aid of experts within sleep medicine and psychology, a combination of medication and a cognitive therapy program was devised to treat victims of the conditions which proved effective in 96.6% of the cases.

Preventative Measures

The pandemic was successfully contained in XY after the issuing of a widespread taboo on the mention and depiction of the Tooth-As-Eye entity in any shape or form. All existing media featuring it or its likeness were purged and/or removed and/or destroyed.
A year after the pandemic was officially declared over, several controlled tests were issued on willing subjects to check if mentions, depictions or descriptions of objects similar to Tooth-As-Eye - first without mention of it, and later including the entity. After it was determined none of the test subjects had contracted Hungry-Eye, the general taboo was lifted.
The original jittertattles that started the pandemic, and their related works, remained banned in all major galactic states.

Cause & Transmission

The condition was initially thought to be caused by a memetic virus, but was later discovered to have additional, not fully mapped, conditionals for infection that surpasses their known limitations. Whether this means that Tooth-As-Eye is a new, advanced form of memetic virus or something else entirely is yet to be determined.

Susceptible Species

The condition can likely only be contracted by individuals that fulfill at least two of the following criteria:

• Are sapient.
• Have an affective understanding of the concept of eyes and teeth.
• Have functional refractive eyes and rooted teeth.
• Have a set of biases and associations related to eyes and teeth.

What the listed conditions mean is that an individual very likely has to know how what it's like to have eyes and teeth, rather than just know of eyes and teeth: what they are, how they look, how they function, to become a valid target.

— Notation by Dr. Carin-Sehler

Symptoms & Progression

Upon contracting Hungry-Eye, a victim will begin to show symptoms immediately the next time they go to sleep.
The first week they will dream normally, with the only difference that an eye with teeth for eyelashes will be present somewhere in the background. Nearly all interviewed patients expressed knowing that the presence of this eye didn't belong in their dream, though levels of distress could vary from mild disconcert to palpable anxiety. As well, patients that normally would not recall their dream upon waking, or only remember fragments of it, stated they'd suddenly start remember them with clarity and detail.
In the following week the dreams become increasingly dominated by the presence of the Tooth-As-Eye, where it will gradually transition from a faraway background feature to a threatening presence looming over or closely stalking the patient throughout the dream. Many will at this stage begin to suffer symptoms similar to nightmare disorder: they can begin to thrash about and scream or yell, and may suddenly awaken. Upon awakening, they'll usually be alert and oriented within their surroundings, but experience increased heart rate and suffer symptoms of anxiety. Many also have trouble falling back to sleep and can develop a fear to do so.
Sleep deprivation and a dysphoric emotional mood eventually develop as their sleep keeps being disrupted or they plain refuse to sleep, affecting their ability to go through with everyday tasks efficiently and correctly.
Between the third and fourth week, the majority of patients suffered hypnopompic and/or hypnagogic hallucinations, where they see the Tooth-As-Eye somewhere in the perifery of their field of view during the transitional state between sleep and wakedness. This was in 24.7% of the cases accompanied with sleep paralysis.
After approximately five weeks, nearly all patients had begun to develop symptoms of psychosis where they'd become conviced Tooth-As-Eye was stalking them in the real world and would not accept contrary statements that what they saw and/or heard wasn't there. Most at this stage suffered from severe sleep deprivation, as well as paranoia and anxiety. Though there are no reported deaths due to Hungry-Eye, a few patients in the late stages of the condition confessed to having suicidal thoughts.

Related Articles

Below is a number of articles that according to T. Oroguster's findings and research are all related to the Tooth-As-Eye phenomena.