Experts have linked sleep disturbances, such as moving around in bed or acting out dreams, to early signs of dementia and Parkinson’s disease. This condition, known as REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), showcases increased brain inflammation and reduced dopamine levels, common in these diseases. Researchers have developed an AI algorithm to analyze video recordings from sleep studies, achieving 92% accuracy in diagnosing RBD, aiding early detection of these neurodegenerative conditions. With dementia cases projected to rise, effective screening methods are crucial. Currently, about 944,000 people in the UK and 7 million in the US suffer from dementia.
People who move around in bed or flop around in their sleep may “almost always” be showing early signs of dementia or Parkinson’s disease, experts said today.
Research has long suggested that patients with a condition known medically as REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), in which they “act out” their dreams, have increased inflammation in areas of the brain where chemicals act. .l Dopamine is produced.
It is known that patients with Parkinson’s disease and dementia have a reduced supply of dopamine because the nerve cells that produce dopamine die.
Now, US scientists have announced that they have developed an AI-powered algorithm to analyze video recordings of clinical sleep tests.
Researchers believe this could improve accurate diagnosis of the disease and also help pinpoint patients at high risk for dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
“We’re excited to announce that this is the first time we’ve seen this,” said Dr. Emmanuel Duehring, associate professor of neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. “This automated approach can be integrated into the clinic during interpretation of sleep studies to enhance and expedite diagnosis and avoid missed diagnoses.”
“This method can also be used to make treatment decisions based on the severity of movements demonstrated during sleep studies, ultimately helping physicians tailor care plans to individual patients. ”
RBD is very difficult to diagnose because its symptoms can go unnoticed or be confused with other illnesses.
People who move around in bed and appear to be ‘acting out’ their dreams may be showing early signs of dementia or Parkinson’s disease in ‘almost all cases’, experts said today.
Inability to learn new tasks and difficulty staying focused on a single task may be a sign of dementia. Dementia is a memory loss condition that affects around one million Britons and seven million Americans.
A definitive diagnosis requires a sleep study known as a video polysomnogram performed at a medical facility equipped with sleep monitoring technology.
In this study, researchers used a 2D camera to evaluate clinical sleep studies in 170 patients (80 with RBD).
The remaining 90 people had another sleep disorder or no sleep disorder.
They used an automated algorithm to track the movement of pixels in the video, or sleep movement during REM sleep.
Then they used it to Extract the rate, proportion, magnitude and velocity of movement, and proportion of immobility.
Writing in the journal Annals of Neurology, the researchers said the technique had an accuracy rate of 92 percent, the highest known to date.
RBD affects about 5% of sleepers and includes talking, laughing, screaming, and swearing during sleep.
Most people with these disorders move around in bed, have blurred vision the next day, and often fall asleep during the day.
It is known that patients with Parkinson’s disease and dementia have a reduced supply of dopamine because the nerve cells that produce dopamine die.
Around 900,000 Britons are now thought to suffer from memory loss disorder. But scientists at University College London estimate that this number will rise to 1.7 million within 20 years as people live longer. This represents a 40 percent increase from the previous forecast in 2017.
In some cases, your movements at night can become so violent that you can injure yourself or your partner.
Approximately 153,000 people in the UK have Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that causes pain, tremors in the limbs, and difficulty moving.
Every hour, two more people are diagnosed and the disease costs the NHS more than £725 million a year.
Meanwhile, a recent analysis by Alzheimer’s Society estimates that the total annual cost of dementia in the UK is £42 billion a year, with families bearing the brunt.
As the population ages, these costs (including lost earnings for unpaid carers) are expected to soar to £90bn over the next 15 years.
Around 944,000 people in the UK are thought to have dementia, and in the US the number is thought to be around 7 million.
Alzheimer’s disease affects approximately 6 in 10 people with dementia.
This is thought to be caused by a buildup of amyloid and tau in the brain, which clump together to form plaques and tangles that make it difficult for the brain to function properly.
Eventually, the brain struggles to cope with this damage and symptoms of dementia develop.
Memory problems, difficulty thinking and reasoning, and language impairment are common early symptoms of this condition, which worsens over time.
Dementia diagnoses are expected to increase rapidly in the coming years, making inexpensive screening tools essential to meeting this challenge.
