The research shows that adults who have nightmares every week are almost three times more likely to die before 75 years than those they rarely have.
Waking up a nightmare can quickly make your heart, but the effects can go well over an intense night. Adults who have nightmares every week are almost three times more likely to die before 75 years than those who rarely have.
This alarming conclusion – which has yet to be revised from couples – comes from researchers who have combined data from four great long -term studies in the United States, accompanying over 4,000 people between 26 and 74 years old.
Initially, the participants reported how often the nightmares interrupted sleep. During the following 18 years, the researchers recorded how many participants died prematurely – 227 in total.
Even after considering common risk factors such as age, sex, mental health, smoke and weight, they discovered that the people who had nightmares every week were almost three times more likely to die soon – a risk similar to that of intense smoke.
The team also analyzed the “epigenetic watches” – DNA chemical brands that act as a biological mileage counter. The people tormented by frequent nightmares were biologically older than their birth certificates suggested in all three watches used (Dunedinpace, Grimage and Phenaage).
Science behind the silent cry
Accelerated aging represented about 39% of the nightmares and early death, suggesting that everything that is causing nightmares is also bringing body cells towards the end.
But how can you never emit a cry of leaving a mark on your genome?
The nightmares occur during the rapid sleep phase, when the brain is highly active, but the muscles are paralyzed. The sudden increase in adrenaline, cortisol and other stress hormones can be intense like anything experienced while we are awake. If this warning sign touches night after night, the response to stress can remain partially activated during the day.
Stress continues the body. It triggers inflammation, increases blood pressure and accelerates the aging process by wearing the protective ends of our chromosomes.
Furthermore, being suddenly awakened by nightmares interrupts deep sleep, the crucial moment in which the body repairs and eliminates residues at cellular level. Together, these two effects – constant stress and poor quality sleep – can be the main reasons why the body seems to age faster.
The idea that disturbing dreams are prefiguring health problems is not totally new. Previous studies have shown that adults tormented by weekly nightmares are more likely to develop dementia and parkinson, years before the start of any daytime symptoms.
The growing tests suggest that the areas of the brain involved in dreams are also influenced by brain diseases, therefore frequent nightmares can be an early warning sign of neurological problems.
The nightmares are also surprisingly common. About 5% of adults report they have at least one per week and another 12.5% ​​say they have monthly ones.
Since they are frequent as well as curable, the new discoveries put nightmares as a possible public health objective.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (TCC) for insomnia, image test therapy – in which patients rewrite the end of a recurring nightmare while they are awake – and simple measures such as keeping the room fresh, dark and without screens, have shown to reduce the frequency of nightmares.
Before drawing hasty conclusions, you have to keep some important aspects in mind. The study used people’s relationships on their dreams, which can make it difficult to distinguish between a typical bad dream and a real nightmare. In addition, most of the study participants were American whites, so the results may not be applied to everyone.
And the biological age has been measured only once, so we cannot yet say if the nightmare treatment delays the clock. Basically, the study was presented as a summary for the conference and has not yet undergone the process of reviewing peers.
Despite these limits, the study has important strengths that make it worthy of consideration. The researchers used several groups of participants, accompanied them for many years and were based on official registers of the deaths rather than on auto -caricated data. This means that we cannot simply discard the discoveries as a statistical possibility.
If other research teams can reproduce these results, doctors can start asking for nightmare patients during consultations Routine, in addition to measuring blood pressure and control of cholesterol levels.
The therapies that control frightening dreams are convenient, non -invasive and are already available. Expanding them could offer a rare opportunity to add years to life and at the same time improve the quality of the hours we sleep.
* Timothy Hearn is a professor of bioinformatics at the University of Anglia Ruskin in the United Kingdom.
This entry was originally published on the academic news website The conversation and republished here with a Creative Commons license. Read the original version here (in English).
Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
