By: Natasha Archary
A new study has found a link between nightmares in childhood and an increased risk of developing cognitive conditions like dementia and Parkinson’s disease in adulthood.
Conducted by Abidemi I Otaiku from the University of Birmingham, UK, the study says there’s a likelihood that children who have frequent bad dreams will grow to develop cognitive impairment by the age of 50.
Otaiku says data was analyzed from a 1958 British Birth Cohort Study, with nearly 7 000 children between the ages of 7 and 11-years.
It was discovered that 262 of the 6 991 children had reported that they were diagnosed with a chronic medical condition and/or cognitive impairment by the age of 50.
In addition 5 others had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the same age.
Otaiku said while previous studies suggested that having regular nightmares in adulthood had adverse affects on cognitive development, the latest data says, distressing dreams at an earlier age pushes the risk of cognitive impairment up by 85%.
“This is the first study to investigate the association between distressing dreams in childhood and the risk of developing cognitive impairment of Parkinson’s disease.
Having persistent distressing dreams during childhood may be associated with an increased risk of developing cognitive impairment.”
Abidemi I Otaiku on his study
The findings of Otaiku’s study has been published in The Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine journal.
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