Restless sleep turned out to be a sign of a dangerous disease

Night screams and movements during sleep may predict serious neurological diseases

This is evidenced by the results of a new study published in the authoritative scientific journal eBioMedicine.

A group of scientists conducted a large-scale analysis of more than 1200 MRI scans of patients with rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD). Researchers discovered characteristic changes in brain structure that may signal the development of Parkinson's disease or Lewy body dementia long before the main symptoms appear. Normally, during sleep, a person's muscles are in a state of temporary paralysis, which prevents physical reproduction of dreams. However, in people with RBD, this protective mechanism doesn't work – they scream, wave their arms, and even kick, literally "acting out" their dreams. The alarming fact is that this disorder is most often observed in people over 50 years old, and 90% of patients subsequently develop one of the mentioned neurodegenerative diseases.

Using artificial intelligence technologies, scientists were able to identify two different types of brain atrophy: in Parkinson's disease, changes are observed predominantly in the deep structures of the brain, while in Lewy body dementia, the cerebral cortex is affected. This discovery allows for a high probability of predicting which particular disease may develop in a specific patient, even before the appearance of classic symptoms.

Researchers express hope that early detection of RBD and a deeper understanding of brain atrophy processes will open the way to developing innovative treatment methods capable of significantly slowing the progression of these severe neurological diseases.