Does Cheese give you wacky dreams, or even nightmares?
Others say that a glass of warm milk before bed will help you sleep. That seemed to work for the Bananas in Pyjamas anyway, I don’t remember them complaining about weird dreams.
Lets take look and see if there’s any substance to this… I’m not a medical expert but I do know cheese.
One subject recalled dreaming of a vegetarian crocodile...
Milk and cheese, especially Cheddar, contain a small amount of an amino acid called Tryptophan, when consumed, this gets converted into Serotonin and can cause vivid dreams. But it seems you would need to eat copious amounts of cheese for this to have any significant effect.
But if you go to bed with a full stomach, of any food, you may spend more of the night in REM sleep, which is when your most vivid dreams occur. Whether those dreams are good or bad will depend on whether you get tangled up in the blankets.
Back to Cheese Dreams, There isn’t a lot of scientific research on this, and the nature of the topic is probably quite subjective and difficult to prove. But...
In 2005 the British cheese Board did a study, where they asked 200 people to eat a portion of cheese, half an hour before bed.
Those who ate blue cheese, seemed to experience strange, hallucinogenic dreams. One subject recalled dreaming of a vegetarian crocodile, while another dreamt of soldiers fighting with kittens rather than guns. Get into the Blue Cheese, I say.
Red Leicester, on the other hand seemed to correlate with very nostalgic dreams involving the subject’s past.
While this is all very fascinating, the science behind it is still - like Swiss cheese - Filled with holes.
Like many of these things, if you really believe that cheese will give you wacky dreams, that will become a self fulfilling prophecy, and it will become true for You. but it might not stand up to independent research
At the end of the day it all comes down to The Eurythmics, misquote
“Sweet Dreams are made of Cheeses, Who am I to Dis a Brie”
