Study Reveals Potential Early Indicator
A comprehensive study conducted by UNSW’s Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) involving more than 1,000 older adults suggests that poor dream recall could be an early indicator of Alzheimer’s disease. The findings were published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring.
Dr Darren Lipnicki, the lead author and a research fellow at CHeBA, emphasised the importance of dream recall as a simple yet powerful early indicator. “Older people who don’t recall their dreams may already be showing early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, even if their memory still appears normal,” Dr Lipnicki stated.
The study identified that individuals who could not remember their dreams experienced cognitive decline at twice the rate compared to those who did. This suggests that poor dream recall might be linked with early biological changes associated with Alzheimer’s.
Researchers discovered strong associations between non-dream recall and both the APOE ε4 gene, which is the largest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s, and elevated levels of the blood biomarker p-tau217. These links were independent of memory test performance.
Importantly, the absence of dream recall might reflect disruptions in the brain’s default mode network, involved in both dreaming and Alzheimer’s disease. Participants who did not recall their dreams at the study’s inception were more likely to develop dementia over the following decade.
Dream recall can be assessed with a single question, offering a low-cost, scalable method to identify individuals at risk much earlier than current methods allow. If someone notices they’ve stopped remembering their dreams later in life, it may be worth paying attention, as it could be an early signal that something is changing in the brain.
Senior author and Co-Director of CHeBA, Professor Perminder Sachdev, highlighted that this research could open up unexpected avenues for early detection of Alzheimer’s. “Dreaming is a window into how the brain generates internal thought,” Professor Sachdev said. “Our findings suggest that changes in this process may be one of the earliest detectable signs of Alzheimer’s disease and a promising target for future research and prevention.”
The team intends to further investigate the potential of dream recall assessments as a predictive tool for Alzheimer’s risk in future studies. For more information about CHeBA and its research, visit their website or contact Heidi Douglass at [email protected] or call (02) 9385 0410.
Last updated: 8 April 2026, 11:06 am
