Parkinson's disease is thought to be an early sign of nightmares in older men.
Distressing dreams have been associated with Parkinson's disease, but this is the first study to investigate if these symptoms are a sign of the disease or a symptom of it.
Researchers found that men who experienced frequent nightmares were twice as likely to develop Parkinson's.
The majority of the diagnoses took place within the first five years.
Older adults could be screened for Parkinson's by asking them about their dreams.
Early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is a big challenge. By the time most people find out they have the disease, most of the dopamine-releasing cells in their brain stem have been lost.
Patients with distressing dreams are five times more likely to show rapid disease progression, according to a previous study.
"Although it can be beneficial to diagnose Parkinson's disease early, there are very few risk indicators and many of these require expensive hospital tests or are very common and non-specific, such as diabetes."
Identifying the significance of bad dreams and nightmares could indicate that people who experience changes to their dreams in old age should seek medical advice.
Researchers have been looking at the link between sleep and Parkinson's for several years.
Some Parkinson's patients experience bad dreams up to 10 years before they are diagnosed, and a quarter of them have had distressing dreams.
People with Parkinson's disease are four times more likely to have nightmares than people without the disease.
Parkinson's patients are more likely to have rapid eye movement sleep disorders, which can cause dreams to be reenacted during the night.
It hasn't been clear if these symptoms were caused by Parkinson's or prodromal, which is the term scientists use for minor symptoms that occur before major symptoms arrive.
A large sample of older men has been tracked by the current research.
The study found that people who reported frequent distressing dreams were more likely to develop Parkinson's.
Frequent distressing dreams were associated with a six-fold increase in the risk of developing a neurological disease.
It's difficult to say what's going on at a biological level in Parkinson's patients who experience nightmares without further research.
Men with Parkinson's are more likely to have disturbing dreams than women with Parkinson's.
There is a possibility that the late onset of nightmares is a sign of Alzheimer's disease.
Men are more likely to experience nightmares after age 65 than women are.
As the male brain ages, perhaps something is changing in the frontal cortex, which regulates emotion during sleep.
Researchers are going to use an instrument to figure out what that might be.
There was a study published.
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