Waking from weird nightmares? You might need to cut this from your diet

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The theories about food's impact on our sleep are never-ending, but new research suggests this snack could be fueling your nightmares.
If you're constantly waking up surprised by how bizarre your nightmares are, shocking your friends with perfectly dramatised voicenotes of your night running through a hellscape, or have been told more than once that your subconscious' nighttime escapades could make for a great blockbuster movie, you may want to look at your diet.
Researchers in Canada have done a deep dive on the causes of weird dreams, and sadly, one of our favourite snacks is listed as a possible culprit.
You may need to leave the cheese in the fridge before bed if you want to sleep soundly.
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How does cheese impact your dreams?
1082 people participated in the study to try to assess how food affects people's dreams.
While you'd be hard pressed to find them as listed symptoms of food intolerances, the article tied worse perceived sleep to lactose intolerance.
Studies and wivestales have linked cheese to poor sleep before, with the researchers referencing a 20th-century cartoon series where characters blamed their bizarre dreams on 'having eaten Welsh rarebit — a spicy melted cheese toast — or other cheese dishes prior to sleep.''
In a previous study, the team had seen people 'blaming cheese all the time for their bad dreams'. Image: Pexels
In a previous study, the team had seen people 'blaming cheese all the time for their bad dreams', but co-author Tore Nielsen told NBC News, 'I think we got some better answers in the study for that.'
21 per cent of participants reported changes to their dreams after eating dairy, and 22 per cent said their dreams were more disturbing after consuming the milk-based products.
And after measuring the frequency, level of distress and impact on daily life of their nightmares, the team determined that those who had severe gastrointestinal symptoms from lactose intolerance had more intense nightmares.
According to the study, food allergies and gluten intolerance could also play a part in our bad dreams. Image: iStock
Nielsen suggested that the anxiety that comes with symptoms could contribute to the frequency of nightmares, while associate professor of neurology at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, Patrick McNamara said people with lactose intolerance who eat triggering foods could have their sleep disturbed by 'micro-arousals', which could contribute to worse nightmares.
Other foods that could bring on bad dreams
It's not just cheese, milk and ice cream triggering your most insane, hard-to-follow nightmares either. According to the study, food allergies and gluten intolerance could also play a part in our bad dreams.
Dairy, gluten and sweets were linked to nightmares. Image: iStock
More than a quarter of participants noted that eating desserts or sweets triggered dreams and a worse night's sleep too.
The research team concluded that ''the frequency of dream recall was associated with indicators of healthy eating, i.e., higher scores on a subscale of the Intuitive Eating Scale-2 and less frequent eating in the evening'.
'While both negative emotional tone of dreams and (measured) nightmare severity… were associated with unhealthy indicators, i.e., combinations of Lactose Intolerance, GI symptoms, less reliance on hunger and satiety cues, and a tendency to eat in the evening.'
Originally published as Waking from weird nightmares? You might need to cut this from your diet