A new international study finds older adults, especially men in their 60s, who have frequent bad dreams face a significantly higher risk of developing dementia.
SYDNEY: Older adults who experience frequent disturbing dreams may have a significantly higher risk of developing dementia, according to a major new international study.
The research led by the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing at Australia’s University of New South Wales found adults aged 60-69 who reported disturbing dreams were nearly four times more likely to develop dementia than those who did not.
Analysing data from more than 10,000 adults aged 60 to 89 across Asia, Europe, and South America, the study also revealed a strong gender-specific link.
Among men, weekly disturbing dreams were associated with a more than threefold increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease specifically.
Lead author and research fellow Darren Lipnicki said the findings suggest bad dreams could be an early indicator of dementia risk for some individuals.
“We found the strongest association in people in their 60s, which may suggest that disturbing dreams could be an early marker of dementia risk for some individuals,” Lipnicki said.
“It’s important to emphasise that not everyone who experiences disturbing dreams will go on to develop dementia,” he added, noting they may instead be an early warning sign of underlying brain changes.
The study, published in Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, controlled for a wide range of factors including sleep problems, medications, and physical and mental health.
Researchers also accounted for participants’ cognitive performance and genetic risk factors in their analysis.
Several possible biological explanations for the association are now being explored by scientists.
These include the theory that bad dreams could reflect very early brain changes, overactive threat-detection networks in the brain, or alterations in the body’s stress system linked to dementia risk.
