Having strange dreams at night? Experts warn that eating this food before going to bed can cause nightmares
Getting a good night’s sleep is crucial to physical and mental well-being but you might be making a big pre-bed mistake.
If you’ve ever experienced strange or intense dreams, you’ll know how frustrating it can be when your peaceful night’s sleep is disrupted. There are a number of traditional explanations, and it turns out that one of them might be true.
Avoiding cheese before bed is a common piece of advise for those struggling with strange dreams and a recent study has supported the claim. Dream neuroscientist Tore Nielsen of the University of Montreal and Russ Powell of MacEwan University conducted their own research into the topic and made some fascinating conclusions.
“We were particularly interested in whether cheese might be indicated as one such food as it is often identified in various folklore traditions as resulting in bizarre dreams or nightmares,” Powell said in a conversation with HuffPost.
Their instincts were correct and cheese eating did increase the occurrence of intense dreams. But they wanted to go a bit further and see whether other types of dairy products had a similar effect. They recruited 1,082 psychology students from MacEwan University and asked them to complete an online survey on their sleep and eating habits.
Once again, they found that dairy was a key contributing factor, but not the biggest one. Their research suggested that sweets and desserts were actually the biggest predictor of unsettled nights.
“Dairy placed second,” Powell explained. “We don’t know why there is a difference from the first study, but it may be that the culture in general is becoming increasingly concerned about the unhealthy effects of ‘junk food,’ and students are therefore more inclined to attribute negative outcomes to such foods.”
The biggest finding of their research, and careers in this field of study, was that an all-round healthy lifestyle is most likely to produce a good night’s sleep.
Powell said: “We found that people who engage in healthy eating patterns, which includes not only eating healthy foods but also eating mostly in response to internal feelings of hunger and not eating late in the evening, are less likely to have disturbing dreams.”
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