[nomel]

There’s a little subtlety to it. In some (all?) parts of Asia it’s intentional misinformation to reduce power usage.

[EarthMephit]

No I think that there's more to it than superstition - We often blame things on superstition when we don't understand them ourselves.

I've been playing around with sleeping with a fan & air-conditioning and I always notice that my throat is all dryed out in the morning from the air flow directly over my face.

I need a couple of glasses of water to re-hydrate after sleeping with a fan or air-conditioner, so if its not too warm a night I prefer to leave them off. I seem to get a better night's sleep too, but maybe that's just because it's a cooler night.

[mmooss]

Aim the fan at your legs; in my experience it cools effectively (I assume because blood is circulating) and dehydrates less.

[nomel]

You should look into this more, including the state sponsored news reports of fan death.