A third of our lives are spent asleep. Dreaming is a quarter of what we do when we’re asleep. The average person living in 2022 will have a life expectancy around 58 years. 73This is just six years of dreaming.
Yet, given the central role that dreaming plays in our lives, we still know so little about why we dream, how the brain creates dreams, and importantly, what the significance of our dreams might be for our health – especially the health of our brains.
My most recent study was published in The Lancet. eClinicalMedicine journalAccording to, our dreams can reveal surprising information about our brain health.
It is more specific that it suggests that having frequent bad dreams or nightmares (bad dreams that cause you to wake up) in middle and older age may be associated with an increased chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s.
I used data from three large US studies about health and aging to create the study. These included 600 people between 35 and 64 and 2,600 older people.
All participants had dementia-free status at the beginning of the study. They were followed for an average period of nine years in the middle-aged group, and five for the older.
Participants completed a variety of questionnaires at the beginning of the study, 2002-12. One asked about their nightmares and bad dreams.
I looked at the data and determined whether participants who experienced more nightmares in the beginning of the study were more susceptible to cognitive decline (a rapid decline of memory and thinking skills over time) or being diagnosed with dementia.
Weekly nightmares
My research showed that participants in middle age who had nightmares every week were four times more likely than those who did not have them, to develop cognitive decline.a precursor to dementia)The dementia rate increased by twice in the tenth decade.
It was interesting to note that the link between nightmares, future dementia and future sleeplessness was stronger in men than it was for women.
For example, older men who experienced nightmares every single week were five times more likely than those who reported no bad dreams.
However, women were only at 41% higher risk than men. Similar results were observed in middle-aged people.
Overall, these results suggest frequent nightmares may be one of the earliest signs of dementia, which can precede the development of memory and thinking problems by several years or even decades – especially in men.
Alternately, it’s possible that you have frequent bad dreams or nightmares and this could be a sign of dementia.
It is impossible to know which theory is correct due to the nature of the study. However, I suspect it is the first. However, regardless of which theory turns out to be true – the major implication of the study remains the same, that is, that having regular bad dreams and nightmares during middle and older age may be linked to an increased risk of developing dementia later in life.
Recurrent nightmares can be avoided, which is the good news. Treatable. The first-line treatment for nightmares is already proven to reduce the amount of abnormal proteinsThis article is linked to Alzheimer’s Disease.
Also, there have been Case reportsAfter treating nightmares, you will see improvements in your memory and thinking skills.
These results suggest that treating nightmares may help slow cognitive decline and prevent some cases of dementia. This is an area that will be of great importance in future research.
My next research project will be to determine if nightmares in young adults could also be associated with increased dementia risk. This will allow us to see if nightmares can cause dementia or are simply early signs in some people.
Also, I plan to examine whether dream characteristics such as the frequency with which we recall our dreams and their vividness, could help us determine how likely it is for people to develop dementia in future.
This research might not only help to shed light on the relationship between dementia and dreaming, and provide new opportunities for earlier diagnoses – and possibly Interventions in the past – but it may also shed new light on the nature and function of the mysterious phenomenon that we call Dreaming.
Abidemi OtaikuNIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Neurology. University of Birmingham
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