As we age, we think we’re supposed to outgrow nightmares, but, according to WebMD, between 2% and 8% of the adult population suffer from them.
Some might associate the dream world as fiction, while others believe what we dream is a vision or prophecy. No matter what you consider your dreams to be, a new study suggests your nightmares could be linked to chronic diseases.
“These symptoms are often invisible and currently untestable but that shouldn’t make them any less important to be considered for treatment and support,” study author Melanie Sloan, a researcher in the department of public health and primary care at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, told CNN in an email.
According to the study, published in the eClinicalMedicine journal, nightmares and daymares — daytime hallucinations — could be signs of onset lupus or rheumatology-related diseases.
“Cognitive problems and many of these other neuropsychiatric symptoms we studied can have a huge influence on people’s lives, ability to work, to socialize, and just to have as much of a normal life as possible,” Sloan said.
Study participants said they recalled being attacked, trapped, crushed or falling in their nightmares. Some recurring dreams involved the patients’ families or close friends being attacked. According to Sloan, those who had lupus and were experiencing a flare-up of other organs “reported a variety of neuropsychiatric symptoms.”
This discovery can “help with earlier flare detection in many patients, not just those who go on to develop major brain involvement,” Sloan said.
Although the study links nightmares, lupus and rheumatology-related diseases, other professionals say they don’t want the public to worry about the findings just yet. According to Dr. Carlos Schenck, a professor and senior staff psychiatrist at the Hennepin County Medical Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, some nightmares and hallucinations are no sign for concern.
“This study could alarm the general public into believing or worrying about whether they have lupus or a related autoimmune disorder if they have nightmares or hallucinations, which are what doctors call ‘nonspecific symptoms,’ meaning that a variety of conditions — medical and psychiatric — can manifest with these symptoms,” Schenck told CNN in an email.
If you’re experiencing frequent nightmares or daymares and are a little freaked out by them, talk to your doctor to explore next steps and treatment plans.
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