Dr Abidemi Otaiku of the University of Birmingham, who led the research, said: "We've demonstrated for the first time that distressing dreams, or nightmares, can be linked to dementia risk and cognitive decline among healthy adults in the general population.
Dementia warning sign that appears in your sleep 'decades' before diagnosis Research indicates that frequent nightmares could be an early indicator of dementia, signalling the condition years before more typical symptoms emerge.
The research also highlighted a gender disparity; older men plagued by weekly nightmares are five times more likely to develop dementia compared to those without such disturbances, whereas for women, the risk only increased by 41%.
The University of Birmingham has called for further investigation to ascertain if nightmares in younger people could predict future dementia risk and whether other aspects of dreaming might serve as indicators.
While more work needs to be done to confirm these links, we believe bad dreams could be a useful way to identify individuals at high risk of developing dementia, and put in place strategies to slow down the onset of disease.".
