Bad dreams may be an early sign of Parkinson's disease, according to new research. Older men experiencing frequent nightmares are over three times as likely to be later diagnosed with the disease.
The finding offers hope of a screening programme - enabling patients to be prescribed drugs sooner. People with the devastating disorder are prone to scary dreams. But using them as a warning has not been previously considered.
Lead author Dr Abidemi Otaiku, a brain specialist at the University of Birmingham, said: "Although it can be really beneficial to diagnose Parkinson's early, there are very few risk indicators and many of these require expensive hospital tests or are very common and non-specific, such as diabetes.
