A study finds that frequent nightmares could be an early warning of
Parkinson’s Disease.
According to experts at the University of Birmingham, older adults who begin
to have nightmares or disturbing dreams could be displaying the early
symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
In a cohort of older males, recent research that was published in the
journal eClinicalMedicine found that those who often had nightmares were
twice as likely to eventually receive a Parkinson’s diagnosis as those who
did not.
Although prior research has revealed that people with Parkinson’s disease
have more nightmares and disturbing dreams than adults in the general
population, the possibility of utilizing nightmares as a risk factor for
Parkinson’s has not been explored.
Lead author, Dr. Abidemi Otaiku, of the University’s Centre for Human Brain
Health, said: “Although it can be really beneficial to diagnose Parkinson’s
disease early, there are very few risk indicators and many of these require
expensive hospital tests or are very common and non-specific, such as
diabetes.”
He continues, “While we need to carry out further research in this area,
identifying the significance of bad dreams and nightmares could indicate
that individuals who experience changes to their dreams in older age –
without any obvious trigger – should seek medical advice.”
The team used data from a large cohort study from the USA, which contained
data over a period of 12 years from 3818 older men living independently. At
the beginning of the study, the men completed a range of questionnaires, one
of which included a question about sleep quality.
At the conclusion of the trial, participants who had at least one terrible
dream each week were followed up on to see if they were more likely to be
given a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.
91 Parkinson’s patients were identified throughout the follow-up period. The
people who had frequent bad dreams were twice as likely to have the
condition as those who did not, the researchers discovered. The majority of
diagnoses were made in the first five years of the research. Participants
who had frequent nightmares throughout this time period were more than three
times more likely to acquire Parkinson’s disease.
The results suggest that older adults who will one day be diagnosed with
Parkinson’s are likely to begin experiencing bad dreams and nightmares a few
years before developing the characteristic features of Parkinson’s,
including tremors, stiffness, and slowness of movement.
The study also shows that our dreams can reveal important information about
our brain structure and function and may prove to be an important target for
neuroscience research.
The researchers plan to use electroencephalography (EEG) to look at the
biological reasons for dream changes. They will also look at replicating the
findings in larger and more diverse cohorts and explore possible links
between dreams and other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Reference:
Distressing dreams and risk of Parkinson’s disease: A population-based
cohort study by Dr. Abidemi I. Otaiku, 8 June 2022, eClinicalMedicine.