So-called autoimmune diseases or pathologies are conditions in which the human immune system fights against its own body, mistaking native cells for enemy ones.
Currently, there are about 80 known autoimmune diseases, among the most “popular” are multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus.
Doctors still do not fully understand the reasons for the occurrence of such conditions and how to detect them at early stages, but recent research has shown that nightmares can be one of their early signs.
The study was conducted under the leadership of scientist Melanie Sloan from the University of Cambridge. Her team surveyed nearly seven hundred lupus patients, and about a third of them reported that approximately a year before the diagnosis was made, they experienced an increase in nightmares.
This suggests that dreams and autoimmune brain disorders are somehow linked.
“We have long known that changes in dreams can indicate changes in a person’s physical, neurological, and mental health, and sometimes can be early signs of a specific disease.
Nevertheless, this is the first evidence that nightmares are associated with such a serious autoimmune disease as lupus. This is an important reminder to both patients and clinic doctors that sleep symptoms can indicate an impending relapse,” says neurologist and study author Guy Leschner from the Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals in London.
One of the respondents said that his bad dreams during a lupus flare-up were so horrifying that he saw people’s skin peeling off.
“I think the more stress my body is under, the more vivid and bad my dreams become,” he told researchers.
Another patient had a similar theory:
“I’ve come to the conclusion that these [nightmares] probably mean that I’m fighting my own system.”
The study was published in the journal EClinicalMedicine.
Systemic lupus erythematosus arises for unknown reasons mainly in people aged 15 to 45 years. Its symptoms include fatigue, chest pain, hair loss, joint pain, and can disappear suddenly, only to reappear again after several years.
It has previously been found that frequent nightmares can also be harbingers of impending dementia, and some multiple sclerosis patients claimed that before a flare-up of symptoms, their dreams became particularly unpleasant.
