Gaby
Frequent nightmares in midlife and later may signal a higher risk of dementia.
We spend about a third of our lives asleep. Yet we know very little about why we dream, how the brain creates dreams, and, most importantly, what dreams mean for our health.
But dreams can reveal a surprising amount about brain health, says Abidemi Otaiyku, a research fellow at the British Institute for Dementia Research. In 2022, while at the University of Birmingham, he published a study on this topic in the journal eClinicalMedicine.
What Did the Study Show?
Otaiyku’s team found that frequent bad dreams and nightmares (disturbing dreams that cause a person to wake up) in middle or older age may be linked to an increased risk of developing dementia.
The researchers analyzed data from three large health and aging studies in the U.S. that included over 600 participants aged 35 to 64 (the first group) and 2,600 individuals aged 79 and older (the second group).
At the start of the study, none of the participants had dementia. Volunteers completed questionnaires that included questions about their nightmares. The first group was observed for nine years, while the second group was followed for five years.
The analysis showed that participants who reported more frequent nightmares at the start were more likely to experience cognitive decline (a deterioration in memory and thinking skills) later on. Over time, those participants received diagnoses of dementia more often.
Weekly Nightmares
Among volunteers in the first group who had weekly bad dreams, cognitive decline occurred four times more often over the next decade. In the older group, the rate was twice as high, according to Science Alert.
The link between nightmares and later dementia was stronger in men than in women.
For example, older men who had weekly nightmares were five times more likely to develop dementia than older men who reported no bad dreams. In women, the risk rose by about 41 percent.
Overall, the results suggest that frequent nightmares may be an early sign of dementia, with memory and thinking problems appearing several years or even decades before diagnosis. The effect appeared to be stronger in men.
Otaiyku says the good news is that nightmares — especially recurring ones — can be treated. Some evidence suggests timely treatment for nightmares can reduce accumulation of abnormal proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease, and researchers have reported cases of improved memory and cognitive function after treating nightmares.
Otaiyku plans to investigate whether nightmares can cause cognitive decline in younger people or whether they are simply an early symptom in some individuals. He also wants to study how dementia risk relates to how often people remember their dreams and how vivid those dreams are.
