People with a disorder that causes them to kick or cry out during deep sleep are more likely to develop dementia or Parkinson's disease, a new Canadian study suggests.
"It's basically a disorder where you act out your dreams at night," explained study author Dr. Ronald B. Postuma, of McGill University in Montreal. "When people who have RBD [REM Sleep Behavior Disorder] dream they are in a fight, which is very common, they will make punching movements."
While sleep disorders are common, researchers emphasized that the majority are due to the stress of modern life and will not necessarily lead to neurological diseases.
"Half the population has a sleep problem, but most of the time, they're benign," said Michael Jakowec, an assistant professor of neurology at George and Mary Lou Boone Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Research Center at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. "We live in a society with anxiety, stress, late night TV and cappucinos."
"It's important to point out that this is a relatively dramatic disorder that comes on in your 50s and 60s, so it's not something that happens once in awhile your entire life," Postuma explained. "A little bit of sleep talking or waking up a little confused and then falling back asleep again are normal things that happen in the population."
Researchers hope that identifying those at risk for these diseases will help them develop new treatments to either slow or possibly even halt their progression.
"Unfortunately, we live in a society that doesn't do very much in terms of preventive medicine, but this may be one of those things where we do know there are lots of factors that can modify disease progression, so let's intervene now," said Jakowec.
"Let's get you into things that we believe are protective against some of these diseases, such as changes in diet or lifestyle, which may add quite a few years of quality life to a patient."
"Everybody who has strong signs of REM sleep behavior disorder should probably be evaluated and probably be followed by a neurologist to make sure that everything's OK and to pick up early signs," Postuma said.