Feb 28, 2023 20:00:00

People who often saw 'nightmares' in childhood are twice as likely to have cognitive impairment and Parkinson's disease is seven times

Studies have shown that having nightmares makes you stronger against real-world fears, but you don't want to have nightmares if you can, because they make it harder to sleep and wake up worse. A new study that analyzed data on whether children born in the 1950s suffered from brain disease 50 years later found that frightening dreams in childhood can be predictors of nightmares later in life.

Distressing dreams in childhood and risk of cognitive impairment or Parkinson's disease in adulthood: a national birth cohort study - eClinicalMedicine
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101872

Bad dreams in children linked to a higher risk of dementia and Parkinson's disease in adulthood – new study
https://theconversation.com/bad-dreams-in-children-linked-to-a-higher-risk-of-dementia-and-parkinsons-disease-in-adulthood-new-study-199822

Abidemi Otaiku, a neuroscientist at the University of Birmingham, in a paper published this time in The Lancet's open-access journal for medical professionals, eClinicalMedicine, discusses the disastrous dreams of childhood and cognition by the age of 50. We reported the results of a survey on the relationship with the risk of developing 'cognitive disorders' including dysentery and 'Parkinson's disease'.

Otaiku embarked on this investigation because of a study he published in 2022. In the study, Otaiku found that middle-aged people who had nightmares at least once a week were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with dementia or Parkinson's disease over the next 10 years.

'Nightmare' seen by middle-aged and elderly people may be a sign of dementia-GIGAZINE

In the study, Otaiku noticed that participants often said that they had frequent nightmares since childhood, and that the link between nightmares and cognitive impairment cannot be traced back to childhood. I'm starting to think.

Mr. Otaiku, who started the investigation in this way, first examined the data of the `` 1958 British Birth Cohort Study '' that followed all children born in the UK during the week from March 3, 1958 over the long term.

Since the data included 1965 and 1969, when subjects were 7 and 11 years old, mothers asked, 'Have you had a bad dream in the last 3 months?' Based on the responses, Mr. Otaiku divided the subjects into three groups: 'I do not see nightmares at all', 'I see them occasionally', and 'I often see them'.

Then, using statistical software, they examined whether the subjects in each group had been diagnosed with cognitive impairment or Parkinson's disease by the time they turned 50 in 2008, and found that children who regularly had bad dreams did not. They were 76% more likely to develop cognitive impairment and 640% more likely to develop Parkinson's disease than their children. The results were similar for both boys and girls.

Since this study only examined the relationship between nightmares and disease risk, it is difficult to clearly confirm the causal relationship, such as whether ``nightmares cause illness'' or ``nightmares and illness have a common cause.'' needs further research.

Mr. Otaiku said that both hypotheses are correct, after prefaced by 'guess'. According to Otaiku, the gene `` PTPRJ '', which is known to increase the risk of having nightmares, is also related to the increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in old age. In addition, it is thought that nightmares inhibit the brain's recovery process of sleep, which is a direct cause of brain diseases.

It's scary to hear that 'having nightmares as a child increases the risk of future disease by 640%,' but Otaiku says he doesn't need to worry so much. This is because only 268 (4%) of the 6991 people analyzed had regular nightmares from the ages of 7 to 11, of which cognitive impairment occurred by the age of 50. 17 people (6%) had Parkinson's disease, and most of the people who often saw nightmares did not have cognitive impairment or Parkinson's disease.

In his next research, Otaiku plans to use EEG measurements to explore the biological mechanisms that cause children to have nightmares. In the long term, he hopes to develop a cure for everyone who suffers from bad dreams, ultimately preventing the onset of dementia and Parkinson's disease through improved sleep quality and mental health. I was.