If you often have nightmares, you may need to worry a bit more about your health.
New research presented today at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress 2025 links frequent nightmares to faster biological aging and an over three times higher risk of premature death, even when taking into account other medical conditions. The researchers claim to be the first to demonstrate this association, which could have significant implications for how seriously one should consider persistent nightmares.
“Our sleeping brains cannot distinguish dreams from reality,” Abidemi Otaiku, a neuroscientist at Imperial College London and presumably an author of a forthcoming study, explained in an EAN press release. “That’s why nightmares often wake us up sweating, gasping for breath, and with our hearts pounding – because our fight-or-flight response has been triggered. This stress reaction can be even more intense than anything we experience while awake.”
Simply put, researchers tracked the nightmare frequency of adults and children (whose nightmares were reported by their parents) for time periods of up to 19 years. Their results demonstrate that both children and adults who often have nightmares experience accelerated biological aging. Adults who suffered from weekly nightmares were also more than three times as likely to die before the age of 70 as those who rarely or never had nightmares, with the faster biological aging accounting for around 40% of that increased early mortality risk.
“Nightmares lead to prolonged elevations of cortisol, a stress hormone closely linked to faster cellular ageing,” Otaiku added. “For those who frequently experience nightmares, this cumulative stress may significantly impact the ageing process. Additionally, nightmares disrupt both sleep quality and duration, impairing the body’s essential overnight cellular restoration and repair. The combined effects of chronic stress and disrupted sleep likely contribute to the accelerated ageing of our cells and bodies.”
Specifically, the link between chronic nightmares and faster aging was consistent in participants of all sexes, ages, mental health statuses, and ethnicities. Biological aging was measured by looking at people’s telomeres, the protective end caps of chromosomes. Shorter telomeres are widely considered to be a sign of greater biological age.
Furthermore, the research revealed weekly nightmares to more strongly predict early death than other widely known causes, including obesity, smoking, a bad diet, and low physical activity. Even less frequent nightmares, however, had their toll. Participants who reported having them monthly also experienced faster aging and increased premature mortality compared to those who reported rare or no nightmares.
As if living through terrifying experiences at night wasn’t bad enough, the associated health consequences highlighted in the new research carry important implications for how seriously we should take nightmares.
And if we’re being honest, the state of plastic pollution and human-driven accelerated geological processes are probably not helping in that category, either.
