Strange, Violent Dreams Linked to Development of Dementia and Parkinson's Disease
What one dreams about now could predict future brain disease. Scientists have found that nearly all people with a sleep disorder that causes them to act out their dreams will develop a degenerative neurological condition like dementia, Parkinson's disease or multiple system atrophy.
Researchers are referring to people who act out their dreams, sometimes with violent thrashes and kicks. Such action is called REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD). During regular sleep, people go through rapid eye movement (REM) — the stage associated with dreaming. But the body is temporarily paralyzed in this dreaming phase, and the most it could do is twitch or talk in one's sleep.
Sleepwalking isn't part of REM sleep, but it is a part of the deep-sleep cycle when dreaming doesn't occur. RBD, on the other hand, is different as the body performs physical actions to match the vividly violent dreams. Another unique feature of RBD is that sufferers remember their nightmares.
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"Our research suggests sleep disorders may be an early warning sign for diseases that may appear some 15 years later in life," John Peever, a neuroscientist from the University of Toronto, said. Up to 80 percent of people who exhibited RBD develop one of three progressive brain ailments.
The first is Parkinson's, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that afflicts the motor system. The second is dementia, which causes forgetfulness, fluctuations in alertness, visual hallucinations and trouble walking. The third is a disorder called multiple system atrophy which affects the part of the nervous system that controls both voluntary and involuntary movement.
This finding is actually a follow-up to earlier efforts by another group that examined medical records of RBC cases in Mayo Clinic from 2002 to 2006. They identified 27 patients who developed RBD 15 years before showing symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases. Among them, 13 developed dementia, 12 developed Parkinson's, one with Parkinson's-dementia and one with multiple system atrophy.
