ArticleEClinicalMedicine2022
Distressing dreams, cognitive decline, and risk of dementia: A prospective study of three population-based cohorts.
Article in EClinicalMedicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Disturbing dreams and dementia incidence across diverse cohort studies: A COSMIC collaboration study.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2026Article
- Nightmare disorder shows reduced slow oscillation-dominant spindle coupling in NREM sleep.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2026Article
- Understanding the Complexity of Sleep Disturbances in ASD: From Mechanisms to Management.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Article
- Poor dream recall associates with Alzheimer's disease biomarkers and dementia risk.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Prodromal dreams.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Longitudinal associations of effort and reward at work with changes in cognitive function: evidence from a national study of U.S. workers.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2024Article
- Dreams, Oneirophrenia and Dementia: Can a Clouded Dream-Wake Recognition Herald Cognitive Impairment?Sleep science (Sao Paulo, Brazil) · 2024Article
- Distressing dreams in childhood and risk of cognitive impairment or Parkinson's disease in adulthood: a national birth cohort study.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
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Abstract
Background: Distressing dreams are associated with faster cognitive decline and increased dementia risk in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Whether distressing dreams might be associated with cognitive decline and dementia in people without PD is unknown. This study investigated the association between self-reported distressing dream frequency and the risk of cognitive decline and incident dementia in community-dwelling men and women without cognitive impairment or PD. Methods: Risk of cognitive decline was evaluated in 605 middle-aged adults (mean age = 50 years [IQR 44-57]; 55·7% female) from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, who were cognitively normal at baseline, and were followed-up for a maximum of 13 years (IQR 9-10). Cognitive decline was defined as having an annual rate of decline in global cognitive function (measured using five cognitive tests) ≥ 1 standard deviation faster than the mean decline rate from baseline to follow-up. Risk of incident all-cause dementia was evaluated in 2600 older adults (mean age = 83 years [IQR 81-84]; 56·7% female) pooled from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS) and the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF), who were dementia-free at baseline, and were followed-up for up a maximum of 7 years (IQR 4-5). Incident dementia was based on doctor-diagnosis. Frequency of distressing dreams was assessed in all cohorts at baseline (January 2002 - March 2012) using item 5h of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The association between self-reported distressing dream frequency ("never", "less than weekly", "weekly") and later cognitive outcomes, was evaluated using multivariable logistic regression in both the middle-aged and pooled older adult cohorts. Findings: After adjustment for all covariates, a higher frequency of distressing dreams was linearly and statistically significantly associated with higher risk of cognitive decline amongst middle-aged adults ( Interpretation: Distressing dreams predict cognitive decline and all-cause dementia in middle-aged and older adults without cognitive impairment or PD - especially amongst men. These findings may help to identify individuals at risk of dementia and could facilitate early prevention strategies. Funding: The study received no external funding.
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