Some people may claim their dreams can predict future events—that they have premonitions. Believe it or not, the University of Copenhagen recently published a study that show early indications of Parkinson’s may be revealed in dream or REM sleep. This however, isn’t what you’d call a premonition. Instead, very early symptoms of Parkinson’s may include the sleep disorder RBD, or REM behavior disorder.
Making news in Sleep Review, this large-scale study showed that Parkinson’s sufferers exhibited work and health indications that something was wrong eight years before diagnosis. Parkinson’s is a brain disease best known for the trembling it causes.
“Our hypothesis is that the very earliest stages of Parkinson’s disease show up as various other diseases such as RBD,” said Poul Jennum, Professor of Clinical Neurophysiology at the Center for Healthy Aging at the University of Copenhagen and the Sleep Centre at Glostrup Hospital.
The body usually shuts down muscle movement during REM sleep to prevent you from actually acting out your dreams. In RBD it is still active and REM sleepers with RBD display behaviors that range from simple arm or leg spasms to kicking, shouting, or jumping out of bed.
Finding clear indications of Parkinson’s in advance will allow doctors to intervene earlier. Jennum and his team are now investigating the connection between RBD and Parkinson’s.
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