Dr Michelle Dickinson: nanotechnologist on whether cheese gives you nightmares

You’ve probably heard the old saying: “Don’t eat cheese before bed, or you’ll have nightmares.” But is there actually any truth to it? 

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology suggests there might be. Researchers surveyed over 1,000 volunteers about their sleep, dreams, and eating habits. They found that people with worse symptoms of lactose intolerance (people who don't digest dairy well) were more likely to experience more frequent, distressing, and persistent nightmares. 

This research builds on earlier studies, including a 2015 Canadian investigation into 'food-dependent dreaming,' which found nearly half of respondents linked late-night eating to disturbing dreams. Dairy products and sweets were the most commonly cited culprits. 

Scientists think there are a few possible reasons why dairy and disturbing dreams could be linked: 

Sleep Disruption from GI Symptoms: Gastrointestinal discomfort, a common result of lactose intolerance, is known to cause fragmented sleep. These micro-arousals may enhance dream recall and increase the intensity or unpleasantness of dreams. 

Anxiety and Arousal: GI issues may elevate baseline anxiety levels, which are associated with an increased frequency of nightmares. Additionally, trigger foods may stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, leading to sleep disturbances during REM. 

Neurochemical Hypotheses: One theory involves tyramine, a naturally occurring compound in aged cheeses derived from tyrosine (and some other foods including cured meats and fermented foods). Tyramine is known to promote the release of noradrenaline, a neurotransmitter implicated in REM sleep and dream modulation. However, other high-tyramine foods like chocolate do not have a reported link to nightmares, suggesting this mechanism is inconclusive. 

Interestingly, the study also suggested that we might be just blaming cheese when it's not actually the cheese's fault! A previous study from 2015 found nearly half of participants thought eating late at night gave them weird dreams. Dairy and sugary foods were the top suspects. But it’s also possible that this idea has stuck with us because of an old wives’ tale that set up a nightmare mindset before bed. 

What we do know is that going to bed with a full stomach, especially after fatty or rich foods, can lead to poor sleep and more dream recall, whether you’re eating cheese, chocolate, or pizza.

So if you are having strange or unpleasant dreams, the research suggests:

• Avoid eating right before bed.
• Skip foods that make your stomach feel funny or that you find hard to digest.
• Keep a sleep and food diary to look for patterns.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News talks'b.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Doctor Michelle Dickinson joins us now with her science study
of the Week. This is fascinating because it's always been
I never knew whether it was a bit of an
urban myth, you know that if you eat cheese it's
gonna give you nightmares or not. So I'm pleased at
somebody's decided to look into us.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Well they've looked into it, but they still don't know.
So this is a great science paper. It's published this
week in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, and it's basically
looking into the myth that you shouldn't eat cheese before
bed because it gives you nightmares. You've heard that myth,
I've hit that myth. I don't know if it's true
or not. So they took a thousand volunteers and they
interviewed them about their sleep, their dreams, they're eating habits,

(00:46):
and they did find that people reported to be having
nightmares if they had eaten cheese before they went to bed.
But they also then found that the people that did
that suffered from lactose intolerance. Right, so there was definitely
a color. So basically, yes, if you have lactose intolerance,
which means that you can't digest dairy very well, usually

(01:07):
gives you an upset tummy or tummy ache or anything
like that, then you are more likely to suffer from
nightmares if you eat it before you go to bed.
But what was interesting is this was based on it.
They took some research from twenty fifteen where in twenty
fifteen one hundred percent like cheese and nightmares were correlated.
But what they said is that since twenty fifteen, more
people have become more aware about food intolerances, and so

(01:30):
the chances are now if you're around today, and these
were young people that are interviewed, so university age students,
you're more likely to avoid the thing that you're intolerant
for and therefore less likely, so that the whole bias
of the data has shifted. So that needs to be correlated.
But they said, yes, it's probably from if you have
lactose intolerance, you have gastro intestral discomfort. So a common

(01:51):
result of that is that if you are going to
sleep and then you have tummy ache, you're going to
have these micro arousals during your sleep, which is going
to enhance the fact that you remember your sleep, and
also it's going to increase the intensity and the unpleasantness
of your dreams. So yes, also these tummy issues might
elevate your baseline anxiety level, so you might go to
bed going, oh, I've had some cheese. Oh it's going

(02:13):
to be a problem tonight, and then you go in
to sleep anxious, which is also likely to give you nightmares.
But what they also said is there's another hypothesis, which
is maybe if you're not lactose intolerance, there is a
natural compound in age cheese called tyramine, and we know
that it's known to produce a release of neuur adrenaline,

(02:33):
which is a neurotransmitter which is implicated in ram sleep
and dream modification. So there might be a chemical reason
why all of us might have nightmares after having our cheese.
But then they were like, well, you're probably just blaming
cheese because there's this urban myth that cheese causes you nightmare,
So you're probably more likely to remember that you had
a nightmare after you ate cheese. And then tie the

(02:54):
two together because what they actually found is you're more
likely to have a nightmare or poor sleep if you
go to bed with a full stomach of fatty and
rich foods. Cheese is one of those, but they also
so are a bunch of other things. If you're eating
late night pizza, if you're having like lots of rich,
chocolatey moosy desserts, like basically, if it's fatty rich before
you go to bed, it's likely to cause your tummy problems,

(03:16):
which is more likely to make you remember dreams. And
maybe you're having bad dreams because you're waking up more often.
So does cheese give you nightmares? Possibly if you're lactose intolerant.
Possibly it's just you're going to bed on a full tummy.
If you're a regular person who isn't latist intolerant. There
is no definite answer here, but basically what it says is,
if you don't want nightmares, don't go to bed on
a full tummy, and if your lactose intolerance, stop eating

(03:37):
the cheese.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
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