Acting Out Dreams During Sleep May Signal Dementia, Mayo Clinic Study

The strongest predictor of whether a man is developing dementia with Lewy bodies -- the second most common form of dementia in the elderly -- is whether he acts out his dreams while sleeping, Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered. Patients are five times more likely to have dementia with Lewy bodies if they experience a condition known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder than if they have one of the risk factors now used to make a diagnosis, such as fluctuating cognition or hallucinations, the study found.