A new study has found that nightmares may actually be an early warning sign of autoimmune disease.
The study, which was led by University of Cambridge public health researcher Melanie Sloan, has discovered that bad dreams are one of the most common and early signs of a lupus flare-up.
In an online survey of 676 patients with lupus, roughly a third of patients reported disrupted dreams in the year before other disease symptoms emerged, according to Science Alert.
The discovery adds to the idea that dreams and the brain's immune system are somehow intertwined.
"We have long been aware that alterations in dreaming may signify changes in physical, neurological, and mental health and can sometimes be early indicators of disease," says neurologist and study author Guy Leschziner from Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospitals in London.
"However, this is the first evidence that nightmares may also help us monitor such a serious autoimmune condition as lupus and is an important prompt to patients and clinicians alike that sleep symptoms may tell us about an impending relapse," he added.
People with autoimmune diseases often experience vivid dreams that are emotionally charged, but these cognitive symptoms usually go unnoticed.
Seeing as these experiences can be this charging, researchers introduced hallucinations to the equation by asking about "daymares."
Some patients knew exactly what they were referring to.
"As soon as you said [daymare], it just made sense," one participant said.
"It's like, not necessarily scary; it's just like you've had a dream and yet you're sitting awake in the garden. It's like feeling really disoriented." The nearest thing I can think of is that I feel like I'm Alice in Wonderland."
Our dreams could potentially be telling us something, and now scientists are working to prove it.
