Seattle Health Blog

The way you sleep could you advertise the opportunities in the future develop a neurological condition such as dementia, according to a new study by the Mayo Clinic.

Researchers found that sleep disturbance resulting from eye movement known as REM (“rapid eye movement ‘) might be the precursor of Parkinson’s disease, dementia or multiple system atrophy, because these conditions are found in more than two dozens of patients studied.

The study, published online in the journal Neurology, reviewed medical records of 27 people who experienced this REM sleep disorder, and 50 years later, each had developed one of the three neurological conditions mentioned above.

The average time between sleep disorders and symptoms of any neurological problem was 25 years, with 13 patients who developed dementia, 13 Parkinson’s disease and one diagnosed with multiple system atrophy.

Disorder related to REM sleep causes sufferers to have a violent behavior outside of their dreams, which can hurt them or their peers during recess.

Dr. Charles Cantor, medical director of Penn Sleep Center at the University of Pennsylvania, told AOL Health’s usually when a person enters REM sleep, his arms and legs are almost immobile.

“They can move by way of reflection, but made no movement,” he explains. “It seems that nature had designed a way for our body is paralyzed during sleep that we are not too active.”

But when neurons function abnormally, muscle activity is not stopped, and that’s the root cause of this sleep disorder, says Cantor.

For his part, Dr. Badley Boee, Mayo Clinic and the National Academy of Neurology, said that more research on the connection between sleep disorders and neurological conditions could lead to development of therapies that reduce evolution or stop these evils, before the visible symptoms appear.

But before panic-if you’re one of those people who move violently at night, “Dr. Cantor has something more to add. “Not all people who have REM sleep disorder will develop conditions such as Parkinson’s,” he told AOL Health. “It’s a possibility, not a certainty. It is estimated that there is a 50% chance to be.”