Distressing dreams are something most of us are conversant with – those scary dreams during puerility we never seem to draw a blank or that bad aspiration after watching a horror moving-picture show we knew we should have deflect . Now to add to the list of thing that keep us up at night , scientists have made a rather unsettling connexion between the relative frequency of distressing dream ( bad dream and incubus ) and the development ofParkinson ’s diseaselater in life story .

Reporting in the journaleClinicalMedicine , researchers from the University of Birmingham have found that older humans who experience frequent bad dreams or nightmare are twice as probable to go on and develop Parkinson ’s disease ( PD ) .

“ Although it can be really good to diagnose Parkinson ’s disease ahead of time , there are very few risk indicators and many of these need expensive infirmary trial or are very common and non - specific , such as diabetes . ” lead writer , Dr Abidemi Otaiku , said in astatement . Therefore , there is a motive to key out reliable early indicators that may facilitate inform when someone is at risk of arise the disease .

PD is a neurodegenerative disease that causes the progressive loss ofbrain cellsin a part of the brain called the substantia nigra resulting in the reduction of a genius neurotransmitter called dopamine .

Dopamine is involved in the regulation of movement and therefore patient with PD normally march symptoms let in tedious movement , harshness of soundbox muscles , and involuntary tremors of sealed torso constituent such as the arms . The onset of these symptoms is commonly gradual and worsens easy over time . However , early on , patients often confront with more non - specific symptoms such as sleeping difficulty and retentiveness problem as mind cells start to degenerateyears beforea PD diagnosis .

Dr Abidemi Otaiku explain to IFLScience " that tough ambition and nightmares developing in later life , in some individuals , are what we call ' prodromic ' symptom of Parkinson ’s disease " meaning that it could be one of the other house signaling the disease ’s attack .

Previous researchhas shown that people with PD experience changes in their dreams , however , no prospective study has looked at the frequency of bad dreams or nightmares and the risk of develop PD after in life .

Now , researchers have address the question by take apart data from alarge US cohort studythat contained data from 3,818 military personnel over the eld of 67 who lived severally and did not have a atomic number 46 diagnosing at the start of the 12 - yr study . Throughout the study , the participants were give various dissimilar questionnaire including one to measure sleep lineament and how often they know distressing dreams . Those participant that reported distressing dream at least once per workweek were followed up at the close of the study to see whether they had developed PD .

After a seven yr follow up menses , 91 participant had take in a PD diagnosis . The researchers found that those who had frequent distressing dream were doubly as likely to go on and develop atomic number 46 compared to those who did not . Moreover , participant who had frequent distressing dreams during the first 5 years of the discipline were three times more potential to spring up a palladium .

These findings paint a picture that older somebody who live frequent distressing dream might be at jeopardy of train PD later in life sentence before the master symptoms begin to appear .

Nevertheless , it is deserving take down that the current solution do have some limitation . The age group canvass only take older men , and so Dr Otaiku explain to IFLScience that the " main surface area of research needed in the near future , is to duplicate the findings of my study , in tumid and more diverse age group " that will admit women as well .

" It will be interesting to see how this research progresses when research worker set out to unpick the biologic changes that are causing these changes to dream subject matter and how this link up to the patterned advance of neurological conditions such as Parkinson ’s , " Dr Katherine Fletcher , research communications handler at Parkinson ’s UK said in a statement onSky News .

" The more that is know about the earliest signal of the circumstance and how the Einstein might be changing , the close enquiry will get to good treatments and a cure . "