A new long-term study has raised some very serious concerns about how nightmares might be having a harmful effect on people’s health, especially those who experience them regularly. Researchers found that people who suffer from nightmares every week have a much greater risk of early death. This implies that persistent sleep problems can be an important warning sign for overall health.
Findings from 18-Year Research
The study combined data from four large scale, long-term research projects conducted in the United States. In total more than 4000 adults between the ages of 26 to 74 were monitored. In the beginning of the study, the participants were asked how often nightmares disturbed their sleep, which gave researchers baseline data.
Over the following 18 years, scientists monitored the health outcomes of participants, in terms of deaths occurring before the age of 75. During this period 227 participants died prematurely. The analysis found that people who had nightmares weekly had almost three times the risk for early death as people who rarely had nightmares.
Risk Persists After Adjustments
Importantly, this was even after the researchers took into account significant risk factors that include age, gender, mental health conditions, smoking and body weight. Findings The increased risks associated with frequent nightmares proved to be on par with the health risks of smoking a lot.
Biological Ageing and Stress Reaction
The research team also looked at the epigenetic clocks – chemical signs on DNA that are used to predict biological age. Results showed that people with frequent nightmares had an age that was biologically older than their actual age, meaning there could be a link between recurring nightmares and accelerated ageing prevalent in the population.
Researchers think that the repeated arousals of nightmares may lead to sharp spikes in heart rate, as well as stress hormones, which may then cause long-term stress on the body.
However, the findings have not yet been peer reviewed and confirmed by independent experts, and they stress that more research is needed onto the findings reached in this study.
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