Nightmares in your 60s may be an early warning sign of Parkinson’s, according to a study.
The researchers found that men who had bad dreams at least once a week were three times more likely to develop the paralysis condition.
The findings by academics at the University of Birmingham come from a 12-year analysis of 3,800 older men.
Dr. Abidemi Otaiku and colleagues urged people who experience changes in dreams in old age to “seek medical attention.”
Early diagnosis of Parkinson’s, which causes muscle tremors and stiffness, is key to monitoring and treating its progression.
Over time, it progressively worsens as more brain cells die, and patients eventually find it difficult to carry out their daily activities.
There is still no definitive test for Parkinson’s, which means that patients are often not diagnosed until the faint tremors occur.
Dr. Otaiku said it would be “very helpful” to find a way to detect the condition earlier.
Researchers at the University of Birmingham found that men who had bad dreams at least once a week were twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease within 12 years than those who did not.
Researchers now think that intense, vivid and frightening dreams may be one of the first signs of Parkinson’s.
Parkinson’s can cause nightmares, they said, due to damage to parts of the brain that regulate emotions during sleep.
The study, published in the journal Medicina eClinica, followed 3,818 men who did not initially have Parkinson’s between December 2003 and May 2016. All participants were 67 years old or older.
The men came from six centers in the United States: Birmingham, Minneapolis in Alabama, Palo Alto in California and San Diego, Pittsburgh and Portland in Oregon.
Patients were asked to complete a four-visit sleep questionnaire asking how often they had trouble sleeping due to bad dreams.
No definition was given for bad dreams, and participants were able to respond from zero to three times a week.
The researchers also tracked Parkinson’s diagnosis rates over a 12-year period to determine if the condition was associated with sleep quality.
They controlled for both nightmares and Parkinson’s-related factors, such as insomnia, depression, alcohol, smoking, diabetes, and hypertension.
The results showed that 91 men developed Parkinson’s during the study.
The analysis found that men who had trouble sleeping at least once a week due to bad dreams were 2.01 times more likely to be diagnosed.
This increased 3.38 times in the first five years of the study.
Early research on how parts of the brain cause dreams suggests that damage to the right frontal lobe may trigger more distressing episodes.
This is something that happens in people with Parkinson’s because of the degenerative effects of the condition.
Parkinson’s disease affects approximately one in 500 Britons and one in 330 in the United States, with most patients aged 50 or over.
Boxer Muhammad Ali, comedian Billy Connolly, and actor Michael J Fox are among those who have or have experienced this condition.
Source: Daily Mail
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