Children who regularly have nightmares or distressing dreams are at 76% higher risk of developing cognitive impairment by the time they are 50 years of age. They are also 7 times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease by the same age, suggests a recent study in the journal EClinicalMedicine.¹

For this study, Abidemi I Otaikua from the Dept. of Neurology, Birmingham City Hospital in the UK used data from the 1958 British Birth Cohort Study to examine if distressing dreams in childhood had a correlation with risk of future cognitive impairment or Parkinson’s disease. Half of them were female. The British Birth Cohort Study follows the lives of all children born in Great Britain during the week of March 3 - 9 in 1958. The information on dreams was procured from the mothers at 7 and 11 years of age; according to the mothers, 78.2% never experienced distressing dreams; 17.9% had occasional distressing dreams, while 3.8% had persistent bad dreams.

Follow-up data revealed that out of the 6991 children included in the study, 267 (3.8%) had developed either cognitive impairment or Parkinson’s disease by 50 years of age. Compared with children who never had distressing dreams, those who regularly had bad dreams were at 85% increased risk of developing cognitive impairment or Parkinson’s disease by 50 years of age with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.85. When incident cognitive impairment and incident Parkinson’s disease were analysed separately, it was found that children with persistent distressing dreams had a 76% higher risk of cognitive impairment by age 50 (aOR 1.76). These children also had a 7-fold higher risk of Parkinson’s disease by age 50 (aOR 7.35).

This study has shown an association between regular distressing dreams during childhood and chances of developing cognitive impairment or Parkinson’s disease later on in life. These findings suggest distressing dreams as a potential risk factor for neurodegeneration. The authors recommend further studies to establish causality.

Reference

1. Otaiku AI, et al. Distressing dreams in childhood and risk of cognitive impairment or Parkinsons disease in adulthood: a national birth cohort study. EClinicalMedicine. 2023 Feb 27;57:101872. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101872.