Cheese before bed does cause nightmares
Eating cheese before bed really can cause nightmares.
Research carried out by luxury sleep brand The Odd Company has revealed that eating 30g of the dairy product before bed raises the risk of nightmares by 93 per cent.
The study recruited 30 participants who snacked on the UK's four most popular cheeses - brie, stilton, cheddar and mozzarella - over a period of four nights and found that their dreams took darker and more stressful turns.
People described unsettling dreams that included being cheated on, being forgotten on a birthday and being told off by the teacher at salsa class.
The research also revealed that eating cheese before bed led to half of the participants losing an average of more than an hour of sleep per night.
Amie Alexander, a dietitian at Nutri Peak, said: "Cheese can affect the quality and quantity of sleep based on its nutritional composition.
"It contains saturated fats and protein, which take a long time to digest and can raise body temperature.
"If your digestive system is still working hours later after snacking on cheese at midnight, it will prevent your body from reaching deep, restorative levels of sleep."
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