Contents:
- Medical Video: Decreasing Dreams May Indicate Higher Risk for Dementia in Seniors
- What is the connection between frequent dreams with senile risk?
- REM phase makes you often dream in sleep
- Why do dreams often prevent dementia?
Medical Video: Decreasing Dreams May Indicate Higher Risk for Dementia in Seniors
Good news for those of you who often dream in sleep. Because the dream in sleep can predict whether you are at risk of dementia at the end of your age. Dementia is a senile disease that usually affects the elderly (elderly people). This disease is characterized by decreased memory, frequent confusion, and behavioral changes. If you rarely dream, experts suspect you are at risk of developing dementia later in life. How can this happen?
What is the connection between frequent dreams with senile risk?
Dementia is a disease caused by damage to cells in the brain, thus affecting the ability to remember (senility), communicate, to think. However, if you often dream while sleeping, then you will have a lower risk of developing this senile disease.
This fact was revealed from a study published in the journal Neurology. From this study, experts stated that dreams can protect a person from the risk of dementia when he enters old age.
This study involved as many as 312 participants aged over 60 years. In this study participants were followed and studied about sleep patterns and their mimic frequency for approximately 12 years. Then, at the end of the study it was found that there were 32 people who had dementia, who were known to rarely dream at bedtime.
Meanwhile, groups that do not experience dementia, often dream every night when he sleeps. Therefore, the researchers concluded that, whenever you do not dream, it will increase the risk of dementia in the old age by 9%.
REM phase makes you often dream in sleep
So, actually when you sleep, you will go through several stages of sleep. In this stage a non-REM phase occurs (Rapid Eye Movement) which is where you begin to enter your sleep slowly and deeper.
After that, the REM phase occurs, the phase in which you dream in sleep. At that time, the brain will be more active, the heart rate is fast, and the eyes will move quickly even though they are asleep. Usually, in one sleep, you will experience many REM phases that often make you dream. REM phase usually occurs for 1.5 to 2 hours in one sleep.
Why do dreams often prevent dementia?
Now, people who have Alzheimer's or dementia in this study are known to have fewer REM phases than those who don't have the disease. Less REM phases can be caused by various things. Experts reveal that stress and depression conditions can cause a person not to dream or not experience REM phase in his sleep.
In addition, people who have sleep disorders such as insomnia or breathing disorders during sleep, also can make this REM phase does not occur, making you rarely dream. All of these things can also automatically increase the risk of dementia. So, it's better from now on you have to improve your sleep patterns, to be able to dream often and ultimately reduce the risk of dementia in old age.
The experts also mentioned that people who often dream, make the brain more active at night - because of the REM phase at bedtime - which can then prevent damage to nerve cells in the future. So, dreams turn out to be very beneficial to protect the brain. Hopefully you have a beautiful dream tonight.
