New York: Does your partner complain that you kick or lash out while asleep? If yes, you are more likely to develop dementia or Parkinson's disease later in life, scientists claim.
Researchers said these are the symptoms of a certain type of sleep disorder which may be an early signal to developing other neurological disorders many years later.
This is called the rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep behaviour disorder (RBD), a condition in which patients violently act out their dreams during the rapid eye movement cycle of sleep.
The findings, published in the journal 'Neurology', added to evidence that certain sleep disorders could be a predictor of brain diseases. This raised the possibility that doctors could one day be able to provide earlier diagnoses, researchers said.
"Our findings suggest that in some patients, these conditions have a very long span of activity within the brain and they may also have a long period of time where other symptoms aren't apparent," said study author Bradley Boeve, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
For their study, Boeve and his team analysed Mayo Clinic records and identified 27 people suffering from REM sleep disorders for at least 15 years before developing either Parkinson's, dementia with Lewy bodies or multiple system atrophy -- a disorder similar to Parkinson’s.
Thirteen of the patients were diagnosed with dementia, another 13 with Parkinson's and one with multiple system atrophy. The time between the start of the sleep disorder and the symptoms of brain disease ranged up to 50 years, with an average span of 25 years, the researchers found.
It was also found that 89 per cent of the patients in the sample were men, although it's not clear why, as neurological disorders affect both genders, the authors said. Boeve cautioned that "not everybody that acts out dreams at night has RBD." They may have another sleep disorder producing similar symptoms, he said.
And it's unlikely that everyone with RBD will go on to develop Parkinson's or a kindred disorder, if they live long enough, he added. Experts, however, said the new findings aren't enough by themselves to make a difference in patients' lives.
Ruth Sutherland of the Alzheimer's Society said: "We don't yet understand why this correlation exists, and given the small sample size of this study, more research is needed."
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