Nightmares in men in particular are linked to an increased risk of dementia

Middle-aged people – especially men – who have frequent nightmares are more likely to be diagnosed with dementia later in life, a new British scientific study shows.

This was already known to be the case for Parkinson’s patients, but new research now shows that the nightmare-dementia link also applies to people without the particular neurodegenerative condition.

The researchers from the Center for Human Brain Health at the University of Birmingham, who published the relevant publication in the medical journal “eClinicalMedicine”, reported that nightmares can become very frequent several years or even decades before the most characteristic symptoms of the disorder appear. dementia, such as memory and mental function problems.

“We have shown for the first time that stressful dreams or nightmares may be associated with the risk of dementia and cognitive decline in healthy adults in the general population. This is important because there are very few risk markers for dementia in early middle age. Although more study is needed to confirm this, we believe that bad dreams can be a useful way to identify people at high risk of developing dementia,” said lead researcher Dr. Abidemi Otaikou.

THE study analyzed data on 605 people aged 35 to 64 and 2,600 aged over 79, none of whom had been diagnosed with dementia at the start of the study, which lasted an average of nine years for the first younger group and five years for the second.

It found that middle-aged people (35-64) who have bad dreams on a weekly basis are four times more likely to develop cognitive decline (often a precursor to dementia) within the next decade, while older people with frequent nightmares are twice as likely to be diagnosed with dementia .

The nightmare-dementia association was found to be stronger in men than in women. Thus, elderly men with nightmares at least once a week are five times more likely to develop dementia than elderly men without nightmares. In women of the same age with nightmares, however, the risk is increased by only 41%.

Similar research in even younger people will follow on whether nightmares increase the risk of future cognitive decline and dementia. It will also investigate whether other factors, such as how often we remember our dreams or how vivid they are, are related to the likelihood of dementia later. The biological basis of bad dreams will also be studied using electroencephalography and magnetic resonance imaging.

RES-EMP

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