Adults who frequently experience distressing dreams face a significantly higher risk of premature death, according to new research presented at the American Academy of Neurology 2025 Annual Meeting.
The population-based multicohort study revealed that participants who reported frequent distressing dreams had nearly three times the risk of dying before age 75 compared with those who did not have such dreams.
Evidence showed that accelerated biological aging may partially explain this association. "Adults with frequent distressing dreams experience faster biological aging and die at younger ages," reported Abidemi Otaiku of the U.K. Dementia Research Institute at Imperial College London in his American Academy of Neurology presentation.
In the longitudinal investigation, Dr. Otaiku analyzed pooled data from three U.S. cohort studies: Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), The Wisconsin Sleep Cohort (WSC), and The Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS). The combined data set included 4,105 participants who were a mean age of 60.3 years (age range: 26 to 74 years).
Among the study population, 335 participants (8.2%) reported experiencing frequent distressing dreams—defined as bad dreams and nightmares—at baseline. During the 18.3-year follow-up period, 227 cases of premature mortality were documented.
After adjusting for demographic characteristics, the analysis showed that frequent distressing dreams were associated with a hazard ratio (HR) of 2.57 for premature death in the pooled cohort. This finding was consistent across all three individual cohorts (MIDUS: HR = 2.74; WSC: HR = 2.77; MrOS: HR = 2.25).
In the MIDUS cohort specifically, Dr. Otaiku measured biological aging using the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock. Participants who had frequent distressing dreams showed a significantly faster pace of biological aging. Mediation analysis indicated that this accelerated biological aging accounted for 21% of the association between distressing dreams and mortality.
Notably, these associations remained robust even after the researchers controlled for a wide range of potential confounding factors.
The findings build upon previous research that linked distressing dreams with increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Otaiku noted that "future studies are needed to determine whether treating distressing dreams could slow biological aging and reduce mortality risk in the general population."
No competing interests were declared.
