SYDNEY, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Failing to recall dreams in later life could signal early biological changes linked to Alzheimer's disease, new Australian research reveals.
Non-dream recallers experienced cognitive decline at twice the rate of those who remembered their dreams, according to a statement of the Center for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) at Australia's University of New South Wales released Wednesday.
The findings point to dream recall as a simple but powerful early indicator, said Darren Lipnicki, CHeBA research fellow and lead author of the study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring.
"Older people who don't recall their dreams may already be showing early signs of Alzheimer's disease, even if their memory still appears normal," Lipnicki said.
"These changes seem to reflect disruption in the brain's default mode network, the same system involved in both dreaming and Alzheimer's," he said.
Researchers found that poor dream recall was strongly linked to the APOE ε4 gene, the main genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's, and to higher levels of the blood biomarker p-tau217, independent of memory performance.
"It may indicate that the brain is producing fewer or less vivid dreams in the first place due to early neurodegenerative changes," Lipnicki said.
Participants who reported no dream recall at the start of the study were also more likely to develop dementia over the following decade, the researchers said.
Because dream recall can be assessed with a single question, they said it could offer a low-cost, scalable way to help identify people at risk much earlier than current methods. ■
