We spend a third of our lives asleep. And a quarter of our time asleep is spent dreaming. So, for the average person alive in 2022, with a life expectancy of around 73, that clocks in at just over six years of dreaming.
Yet, given the central role that dreaming plays in our lives, we still know so little about why we dream, how the brain creates dreams, and importantly, what the significance of our dreams might be for our health – especially the health of our brains.
My latest study, published in The Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine journal, shows that our dreams can reveal a surprising amount of information about our brain health. More specifically, it shows that having frequent bad dreams and nightmares (bad dreams that make you wake up) during middle or older age, may be linked with an increased risk of developing dementia.
Overall, the results suggest frequent nightmares may be one of the earliest signs of dementia, which can precede the development of memory and thinking problems by several years or even decades – especially in men.
Alternatively, it is also possible that having regular bad dreams and nightmares might even be a cause of dementia.
I – Word Understanding
Clocks in – reaches to a total
Precede – to come or happen before something
II – Have Your Say
1, Can you remember the last time you had a nightmare? What was it about?
2, With the aging population in Japan, dementia is critically increasing.
What are the steps being done to raise awareness and prevention of dementia?
3, Personally, how do you take care of yourself to slow down brain aging?
