Latest news with #MacEwanUniversity
The Independent
16 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
More parm than good? Cheese may be what's giving you nightmares, scientists say
Having nightmares? Scientists say a love of cheese may be linked to bad dreams. A strong association has been discovered between nightmares and lactose intolerance. In turn, stomach pain or gas during the night can affect sleep. Understanding that relationship — and potentially cutting out cheese — could help improve sleep quality, which may already be disrupted due to noise and light pollution or other health issues. Good sleep is crucial for the body to function well. 'Nightmare severity is robustly associated with lactose intolerance and other food allergies,' lead researcher Dr. Tore Nielsen, of the Université de Montréal, explained in a statement. 'These new findings imply that changing eating habits for people with some food sensitivities could alleviate nightmares. They could also explain why people so often blame dairy for bad dreams!' To reach these conclusions, the researchers questioned more than 1,000 students at Canada's MacEwan University about their sleep, eating habits, and any perceived tie between the two. About a third of participants reported having regular nightmares. The majority of those reporting poor sleep and nightmares were women, who were also more likely to remember their dreams and nearly twice as likely as men to report a food allergy or intolerance. Some 40 percent of the students said they thought that eating late at night or eating specific foods had affected their sleep, and about a quarter believed that consuming certain foods could make their sleep worse. Many blamed bad sleep on spicy foods, sweets, and dairy. However, just 5.5 percent felt that what they ate impacted the tone of their dreams. People with less healthy diets were more likely to have bad dreams and less likely to remember their dreams. The authors compared reports of food intolerances to those of bad dreams and poor sleep, finding that lactose intolerance was associated with gastrointestinal symptoms, nightmares, and low sleep quality. 'Nightmares are worse for lactose-intolerant people who suffer severe gastrointestinal symptoms and whose sleep is disrupted,' said Nielsen. 'This makes sense, because we know that other bodily sensations can affect dreaming.' They noted that improved awareness of food intolerance could mean students in the study ate fewer foods likely to lead to negative outcomes. A previous study, conducted by Nielsen more than a decade ago, showed even more participants reported a link between their food and dreams. Prior research, separate from Nielsen's, has also pointed to this relationship, and blue cheese specifically has been reported to cause vivid dreams. But, there have also been studies showing that dairy helps sleep quality. It remains unclear how sleep and diet impact each other. The authors said additional research is needed to confirm these links and identify the underlying mechanisms. 'We need to study more people of different ages, from different walks of life, and with different dietary habits to determine if our results are truly generalizable to the larger population,' said Nielsen.
Daily Mail
16 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
The cheese in your fridge is quietly taking years off your life
A charcuterie board favorite; a fondue staple; and the perfect pasta topping: cheese may just be the most versatile - and delicious - food. But while it's tempting to give into every craving, scientists say you could be setting yourself up for a horrible nights sleep, and even worse, cognitive decline as you age. Scientists from Canada found eating dairy before bed could cause vivid and disturbing nightmares, which can disrupt sleep - and a lack of sufficient quality sleep has been linked to obesity, mood disorders and impaired cognitive function, including memory issues and even an increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. The team found a 'strong association' between nightmares, food allergies and lactose intolerance, potentially because gas and stomach pain during the night affects people's dreams. The researchers surveyed about 1,000 people asking them about their sleep time and quality, and their dreams and nightmares. They also asked them if they believed there was any association between dreams and certain foods. About 40 percent of people believed that eating late at night or eating specific foods affected their sleep, while 25 percent thought certain foods negatively impacted their sleep. Results revealed that people who ate less healthy diets were more likely to have bad dreams and less likely to remember them. Dr Tore Nielsen of Université de Montréal and lead author of the article, said: 'Nightmare severity is robustly associated with lactose intolerance and other food allergies. These new findings imply that changing eating habits for people with some food sensitivities could alleviate nightmares. They could also explain why people so often blame dairy for bad dreams.' Researchers looked at the survey answers from 1,082 students at MacEwan University. Nearly 25 percent said certain foods worsened their sleep and 20 percent said certain foods improved sleep. Approximately 5.5 percent of respondents reported food affected their dreams. About 31 percent of people blamed disturbing dream changes on desserts and sweets and 22 percent blamed foods that contain dairy, according to the paper published in the journal Frontiers. While people with food allergies and gluten intolerance reported poor sleep, worse sleep perceptions were tied to lactose intolerance. It's known that late-night snacking disrupts shut eye. By eating foods close to bedtime, it causes your digestive system to continue to be active while the rest of your body is trying to sleep, which leads to a night of tossing and turning. Dairy is one of the biggest culprits of stealing sleep as it contains lactase and other nutrients that trigger metabolic activity telling the body to stay alert and active. In doing so, this disrupts REM sleep - rapid eye movement sleep, which is when deep sleep and dreams occur - making brain function and memory worsen if the cycle continues. The idea that cheese - or dairy in general - causes nightmares has been investigated before, as those who are lactose-intolerant and eat dairy products at night have reported being awakened by gastrointestinal issues that cause discomfort and cramps while sleeping. Dairy also contains large amounts of tryptophan, which actually makes people more tired, but this drowsiness increases the likelihood for vivid and nightmare-like dreams. And frightening nightmares then lead to disrupted sleep, anxiety, fear and even PTSD. 'Nightmares are worse for lactose intolerant people who suffer severe gastrointestinal symptoms and whose sleep is disrupted,' said Dr Neilson. 'This makes sense because we know that other bodily sensations can affect dreaming. Nightmares can be very disruptive, especially if they occur often, because they tend to awaken people from sleep in a dysphoric state. They might also produce sleep avoidance behaviors. Both symptoms can rob you of restful sleep.' Experimental psychology expert Dr Dana Smith said there is limited data on how cheese specifically affects dreams and nightmares but, writing for Nature's blog Mind Read, posited that bacteria found in blue cheeses is similar to those found in magic mushrooms and may have similar psychoactive effects. These include tyramine and tryptamine. Tyramine aids in releasing neurotransmitters like adrenaline, noradrenaline, and dopamine, all of which can cause unconscious excitement and disturbance while sleeping. And tryptamine is a common precursor to serotonin, which may be associated with hallucinogenic effects of magic mushrooms. However, it is still up for debate how much of these are actually in cheese to cause symptoms. The general guideline is seven to nine hours of quality sleep and a lack of or interrupted sleep can have serious side effects down the line. In 2024 research, scientists at Yale School of Medicine examined the brains of 40,000 adults to understand how sleep affects brain health. They found that poor sleep is 'significantly correlated with' brain injuries that doctors know foreshadow stroke and dementia years before their onset. Poor sleep can also increase the risk of heart disease, obesity, dementia and depression. To avoid dairy-induced nightmares and sleep chaos, experts advise cutting down on late night snacking, and indulging in dairy or food consumption two hours prior to climbing into bed.
CTV News
18 hours ago
- Health
- CTV News
Sweet dreams soured by dairy, researchers say
A new Canadian study suggests that consuming dairy may increase the likelihood of nightmares and poor-quality sleep. The research, published in Frontiers in Psychology Tuesday, examined self-reported links between eating habits, gastrointestinal discomfort, and dreaming in more than 1,000 students at MacEwan University in Edmonton. About a third of respondents said they experienced regular nightmares. Among them, those with food sensitivities, and particularly lactose intolerance, were significantly more likely to report both disturbed sleep and emotionally intense or negative dreams. 'The severity of lactose intolerance symptoms was associated with the severity of nightmare disorders,' said Dr. Tore Nielsen, lead author and director of the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory at Université de Montréal, in a video interview with 'So, the more severe the symptoms, the more severe the nightmare problem.' Participants filled out extensive questionnaires that asked about food sensitivities, sleep habits, dream recall, emotional tone of dreams, and general health. Researchers also gathered data on eating patterns and diet quality, categorizing participants as having healthier or less healthy eating habits. Unhealthy eaters, defined as those who frequently consumed fast food, skipped meals or ate late in the evening, were more likely to experience negative dreams, even if they weren't classified as full nightmares. 'Unhealthy eating was in fact associated with more nightmares and with more negative dreams in general,' Nielsen said. While only a small proportion of respondents said they believed food directly influenced their dreams, many of those who did blamed dairy, spicy foods or sweets. Nielsen noted that desserts were the most frequently cited culprits, followed by dairy, though the two categories may overlap. 'Desserts are often made with dairy,' he said. 'So, it's very likely that dairy is even part of that dessert group (blamed by the respondents).' Self-reported lactose intolerance stood out as the strongest dietary factor associated with nightmares, followed by food allergies more broadly. While the study found 'a significant association between food allergies and nightmares,' Nielsen said the sample size for that group was too small to draw robust conclusions. The study also included questions about late-night and evening eating. 'We were quite interested in a phenomenon known as night eating,' Nielsen said. 'So, people get out of bed and go and get a snack out of the fridge and eat it and then go back to bed without any awareness of having done it.' Though only a small number of participants reported night eating behaviours, evening eating was common and contributed to the 'unhealthy eating' classification used in the study. 'There is evidence that eating certain foods before bed can affect your sleep,' Nielsen said. 'But the evidence for dreaming is not as strong.' He cautioned that self-reported data, particularly around what foods participants consumed and when, is inherently limited. While many people may suspect that what they eat affects their dreams, establishing a clear cause-and-effect relationship requires controlled experiments. 'The only way we can really do that is with experimental studies where we have different groups eating different kinds of food before bed or not before bed, and then comparing the groups to see how their dreams change.'
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Sweet dreams? Not if you eat this popular snack before bed, study says
Looking for a gouda night of sleep? You might want to steer clear of this little nibble before bed. A new study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology suggests dairy might be the grate-est villain to sweet dreams. Researchers polled 1,000 students at MacEwan University in Canada on their sleep quality and eating habits and found an un-brie-lievable link between nightmares and lactose intolerance. 'Nightmare severity is robustly associated with lactose intolerance and other food allergies,' said lead study author Tore Nielsen of Université de Montréal. 'These new findings imply that changing eating habits for people with some food sensitivities could alleviate nightmares. They could also explain why people so often blame dairy for bad dreams!' Looks like that delectable cube of cheese could have you waking up in a cold, curdled sweat! Unsurprisingly, this is especially true if you're sensitive to dairy — which many people unknowingly are. 'Nightmares are worse for lactose-intolerant people who suffer severe gastrointestinal symptoms and whose sleep is disrupted,' said Nielsen. 'This makes sense, because we know that other bodily sensations can affect dreaming.' Nightmares can rob people of restful sleep, Nielsen noted, because they tend to cause the dreamer to awaken in a state of distress — and they may lead to sleep avoidance. About one-third of the study participants admitted that they regularly experience nightmares, with women significantly more likely to remember their dreams and report food allergies than men. Around 40% believed late-night snacking or eating certain foods could lead to tossing and turning all night. Most blamed sweets, spicy food and dairy for their nighttime woes. Only 5.5% of participants suspected what they snacked on seeped into their dreams, but of those, dairy reigned supreme as the dream-warping devil. Still, more research is needed before we give up on cheese Roquefort-ever. 'We need to study more people of different ages, from different walks of life, and with different dietary habits to determine if our results are truly generalizable to the larger population,' said Nielsen. 'Experimental studies are also needed to determine if people can truly detect the effects of specific foods on dreams. We would like to run a study in which we ask people to ingest cheese products versus some control food before sleep to see if this alters their sleep or dreams.' That's nacho average study! The findings shed insight into folklore wisdom that goes back as far as 'A Christmas Carol,' in which Ebenezer Scrooge famously blamed 'a crumb of cheese' for his ghostly visions. In 2005, the British Cheese Board — a cultured organization, to be sure — conducted a study with 200 people and found no link between cheese and nightmares. In fact, a hunk of cheddar appeared to lead to more pleasant dreams, possibly because a happy belly equals a placid midnight mind. And a recent study found cheese might even prevent sleep apnea, thanks to its nutritional density. So — why does cheese keep getting grilled? Some cheeses contain tyramine, a compound that can stimulate the brain by triggering the release of norepinephrine, a chemical that can make you feel more alert. However, biomedical scientist Dr. Zac Turner recently pointed out that most people only eat a few cubes of cheese in one sitting, which would deliver negligible amounts of tyramine. He noted that if you're pairing your cheeseboard with a bottle of wine, that's more likely to be the culprit, as alcohol is a known disruptor of sleep.
CTV News
a day ago
- Health
- CTV News
Bad dreams? Study links nightmares to dairy and sweets
A new Canadian study suggests that consuming dairy may increase the likelihood of nightmares and poor-quality sleep. The research, published in Frontiers in Psychology Tuesday, examined self-reported links between eating habits, gastrointestinal discomfort, and dreaming in more than 1,000 students at MacEwan University in Edmonton. About a third of respondents said they experienced regular nightmares. Among them, those with food sensitivities, and particularly lactose intolerance, were significantly more likely to report both disturbed sleep and emotionally intense or negative dreams. 'The severity of lactose intolerance symptoms was associated with the severity of nightmare disorders,' said Dr. Tore Nielsen, lead author and director of the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory at Université de Montréal, in a video interview with 'So, the more severe the symptoms, the more severe the nightmare problem.' Participants filled out extensive questionnaires that asked about food sensitivities, sleep habits, dream recall, emotional tone of dreams, and general health. Researchers also gathered data on eating patterns and diet quality, categorizing participants as having healthier or less healthy eating habits. Unhealthy eaters, defined as those who frequently consumed fast food, skipped meals or ate late in the evening, were more likely to experience negative dreams, even if they weren't classified as full nightmares. 'Unhealthy eating was in fact associated with more nightmares and with more negative dreams in general,' Nielsen said. While only a small proportion of respondents said they believed food directly influenced their dreams, many of those who did blamed dairy, spicy foods or sweets. Nielsen noted that desserts were the most frequently cited culprits, followed by dairy, though the two categories may overlap. 'Desserts are often made with dairy,' he said. 'So, it's very likely that dairy is even part of that dessert group (blamed by the respondents).' Self-reported lactose intolerance stood out as the strongest dietary factor associated with nightmares, followed by food allergies more broadly. While the study found 'a significant association between food allergies and nightmares,' Nielsen said the sample size for that group was too small to draw robust conclusions. The study also included questions about late-night and evening eating. 'We were quite interested in a phenomenon known as night eating,' Nielsen said. 'So, people get out of bed and go and get a snack out of the fridge and eat it and then go back to bed without any awareness of having done it.' Though only a small number of participants reported night eating behaviours, evening eating was common and contributed to the 'unhealthy eating' classification used in the study. 'There is evidence that eating certain foods before bed can affect your sleep,' Nielsen said. 'But the evidence for dreaming is not as strong.' He cautioned that self-reported data, particularly around what foods participants consumed and when, is inherently limited. While many people may suspect that what they eat affects their dreams, establishing a clear cause-and-effect relationship requires controlled experiments. 'The only way we can really do that is with experimental studies where we have different groups eating different kinds of food before bed or not before bed, and then comparing the groups to see how their dreams change.'
