BrainStuff Classics: Does Eating Before Bed Give You Nightmares?

Popular wisdom holds that eating before bed -- and especially eating spicy or 'strange' food, however you define strange -- will doom you to nightmares. But is there any science behind that? Learn more in this classic episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff.
Lauren Vogebam here with another classic episode from our former host,
Christian Sagar. Today's topic gets to the bottom of an
old wives tale. Well, eating before bed really give you nightmares?

(00:22):
What's up, brain stuff? I'm Christian Sagar and it is
time for some brain stuff. Have you ever been up
alone at night scarfing down some buffalo wings dipped in
kim chee and vindaloo, but you fall asleep on the
couch and you start having these terrible nightmares? What is
up with that? Why does some foods make us have
such weird dreams? Well, so far science is yet to

(00:44):
find a direct correlation between certain types of foods and
how we dream. But an excessive amount of rich nocturnal
eating can interrupt your sleep in a variety of ways. Really,
any type of physical discomfort while you're sleeping can lead
to bad dreams. But when your tummies are rumbling, that's
when the monsters really come scurrying out of that trapdoor

(01:05):
in the back of your head. For instance, late night
snacks increase both your body's metabolism and temperature, which makes
you hot and sweaty, especially when you have a high
carbohydrate meal. Ditto if you have a bunch of doughnuts
or candy bars before you pass out. A recent study
shows that seven out of ten people who eat junk
food before bed are more likely to have nightmares. These

(01:28):
researchers hypothesized that the high levels of sugar lead to
physical sleep discomfort, which brought the monsters out from under
their beds. Another type of upset stomach that leads to
a bad night's sleep is acid reflux, also known as
GIRD or just plain old heartburn. More than a third
of Americans have this condition. I'm one of them, where
burning acidic bile comes creeping up your esophagus. If you've

(01:52):
had this happened, doctors recommend that you don't eat within
three hours of bedtime, and that you try lifting your
head forty five degrees to keep the acid down. Also,
you probably shouldn't have citrus onions, carbonated drinks, mint alcohol,
or cigarettes before you go to sleep. I know, I know, boring, right,
but cutting down on this stuff will keep the sleep

(02:13):
goblins away. So it's either be careful what you eat
or back to a pit of despair filled with evil
clowns for you. Actually there's an interesting food connection between
general anxieties and why we sleep poorly. When our bodies
are stressed, they flush out the mineral magnesium, which increases
our mental burden, so we sleep poorly. You can head

(02:33):
this off if you eat healthy prior to enduring stressful periods.
You retain some magnesium, helping you maintain a normal sleeping pattern.
And there's our old friend, insomnia, which can be caused
by a variety of food and drinks. How about meat
or other high protein foods. Well, it turns out protein
supplies your brain with the amino acid tyrosine, which makes

(02:56):
you more alert, and food high in protein is usually
also high in fat, which digests slowly, causing a rumble
in the bronx. If you know, the bronx is what
you call your belly. Plus, remember how carbohydrates bring on
the night sweats while they also speed up tripped to
fan and amino acid in your brain that helps you sleep.
So if you don't eat enough carbs before bed, it's

(03:19):
harder to get to sleep. My recommendation a small carbohydrate
snack in the evening will promote calmness and help you
catch some zs. Finally, alcohol and caffeine before bed can
make insomnia even worse. So no double fisting coffee and beer,
and you probably shouldn't drink energy booze drinks like juice
for loco or fusion either. In fact, i'd recommend staying

(03:42):
away from drinks with purposely misspelled names. It's just, you know,
a general rule. Even the United States Food and Drug
Administration called these drinks a public health concern back in
two thousand and ten. In the Center for Disease Control
has an entire fact sheet about the dangers of mixing
alcohol and energy drinks, and it doesn't even get into
the whole not being able to get to sleep thing.

(04:04):
So there you have it. Food doesn't necessarily give us nightmares,
but the uncomfortable feelings that come with eating certain meals can.
Today's episode was written by Christian and produced by Tyler Clang.
If you missed Christian, check out his pop culture podcast
super Context, available wherever you listen to podcasts, and of course,

(04:27):
for more on this and lots of other topics that
will have you sleep in better, visit our home planet,
how Stuff Works dot com.