Older people who regularly have restless, frightening and distressing dreams are twice as likely to be later diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease than other patients.
- Dreams can reveal important information about the structure and functioning of our brain.
- The researchers plan to use electroencephalography (EEG) to study the biological reasons for the evolution of dreams.
“Parkinson’s disease is associated with alterations in dream phenomenology, including an increased frequency of nightmares. Whether distressing dreams can precede the development of Parkinson’s disease is unknown.” This is what scientists from the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom) wrote in a study published in the journal eClinicalMedicine. To find out if there is an association between the frequency of nightmares and the risk of occurrence of this neurodegenerative pathology, the researchers analyzed data from a large American cohort.
The research reviewed by the team was conducted with 3,818 men over the age of 67 for 8 years. At the start of the work, the participants, who did not suffer from Parkinson’s disease, completed a series of questionnaires, one of which included questions about the quality of their sleep, more specifically the frequency of agitated and distressing dreams during course of the last month. The volunteers who reported having nightmares at least once a week were then followed up to see if they were more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Nightmares can double the risk of Parkinson’s disease
During the follow-up period, 91 cases of Parkinson’s disease were identified. According to the authors, participants who frequently had nightmares had a twice as high risk of developing the pathology as those who did not. Most diagnoses were made during the first five years of the study. Participants who regularly had agitated dreams during this period were three times more likely to suffer from Parkinson’s disease.
According to the scientists, this discovery offers hope for the establishment of a screening program that would allow patients to start treatment earlier. “While we need to conduct further research in this area, identifying the meaning of nightmares may indicate that people who experience changes in their dreams in old age, without an obvious trigger, should seek medical attention,” said Abidemi Otaiku, lead author of the work, in a statement.