Often having bad dreams can be an early sign of Parkinson’s disease

This is revealed by a British study that has just been published in the scientific journal eClinicalMedicine by The Lancet.

Experiencing changes in your dreams, without any obvious triggers, can be an early sign of Parkinson’s disease. This is revealed by a study that has just been published in the scientific journal eClinical Medicine from The Lancet whose results indicate that the frequent development of bad dreams or nightmares in the elderly is associated with a higher risk of Parkinsonism.

To reach this conclusion, the researchers used data from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS), a large cohort study conducted in the United States between 2003 and 2011 and including clinical information from more than 3,800 people. healthy elderly living independently. At the start of the study, the men completed a series of questionnaires, one of which included a question about sleep quality. Participants who reported bad dreams at least once a week were then followed for a period of 12 years to see if they were more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. During the follow-up period, 91 cases of Parkinson’s were detected and, in particular, it was observed that men who had bad dreams more often were twice as likely to develop the disease.

Most diagnoses, according to the research, occurred during the first five years of the study, and participants who had frequent bad dreams during this time were more than three times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease. ” The findings suggest that older people may start having bad dreams or nightmares a few years before they develop the hallmark symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, including tremors, stiffness and slowness of movement – specify the researchers -. 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 neuroscientific research.“.

” Although it can be very useful to diagnose Parkinson’s disease at an early stage, there are very few risk indicators and many of them require expensive hospital tests or are very common and non-specific, such as diabetes. – explained the study’s lead author, Dr Abidemi Otaiku of the Center for Human Brain Health at the University of Birmingham, UK -. Although we need to conduct more research in this area, identifying the meaning of bad dreams and nightmares may indicate that people who experience changes in their dreams in old age – without any obvious triggers – should seek medical attention. .“.