Latest news with #sleepDisorders
RNZ News
01-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Does cheese give you weird dreams? Research say it does
Photo: News 2 Me - Dreams It is a question that may have grated on you for sometime, does too much cheese give you weird dreams? According to new research, yes it does, but not just any dreams, more often nightmares. An online survey of more than 1000 students at Canada's MacEwan University found a strong association between bad dreams and lactose intolerance, potentially because gas or stomach pain during the night affects people's dreams. Students were asked about about sleep patterns and any perceived association between different kinds of dreams and foods. About a third of respondents reported regular nightmares. Roughly 25 percent thought particular foods could make their sleep worse. Women were more likely to remember their dreams and to report poor sleep and nightmares and they were twice as likely as men to report a food intolerance or allergy. Researcher and Director at Montreal's Dream & Nightmare Lab at the Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine Dr Tore Nielsen told Checkpoint they found three key findings that all pointed to food being associated with bad dreams. "The first one was that people who had lactose intolerance were reporting more nightmares, and the severity of their symptoms was associated with the severity of the nightmares. So a linear relationship there." Nielsen said that food allergies were generally also associated with nightmares in the same way. The third finding showed that an unhealthy diet could also be a trigger for a restless nights sleep. "An unhealthy diet in general was associated with bad dreams and nightmares," Nielsen said. "By unhealthy I mean, eating very close to bedtime... but also not depending upon your internal signals or when you're hungry, and when you're full." While it was not a firm finding, Nielsen said it was very likely that the severity of lactose intolerance would have an impact on the severity of the dreams. "Many people don't know their status when it comes to lactose intolerance. I mean, it's a kind of spectrum, right? There's a there's very severe cases of lactose intolerance and then very, you know mild cases... the problem is that people will dose themselves with dairy according to their symptoms, you know, and doctors in fact tell people don't just quit entirely if you only have a mild case. "People don't always judge this accurately or adhere to a strict enough diet. So, they do end up getting these symptoms when they're sleeping and they do end up affecting their dreams." The research is yet to reach the point of discovering whether specific cheese's cause certain types of dreams, but Neilsen said it has been attempted before. "The British Cheese Board, they published a study many years ago, and of course they gave people different kinds of cheese... and they claimed that they saw different patterns in the dream content depending on the type of cheese that they'd eaten." "I forget which one, maybe the cheddar, but it triggered dreams about celebrities." However, Neilsen said he highly doubts the accuracy of those findings. "There's a conflict of interest in that it was the Cheese Board itself that ran the study, and it was never published in any kind of scientific journal. So, I think that was a little bit of disinformation that got out there on the internet." For those who struggle to recall their dreams, cheese induced or not, Neilsen said there are a few ways to spark your memory. "Have some a pad of paper or like something that you can record your dream on... it helps to have that by your bed so that if you wake up in the middle of the night, and you have a dream that you can quickly jot down some notes." "It helps if you don't move when you wake up, because movement for some reason seems to really dissipate your memory of the dream." Other ways to make your dreams stick included waking up slightly earlier than usual, people who forget their dreams often wake up in the wrong sleep stage. Neilsen said it's better to wake up from REM sleep because that's where most of the vivid dreaming occurs.
Gizmodo
01-07-2025
- Health
- Gizmodo
Eating Dairy Before Bed Can Give You Nightmares, Study Suggests
Has a late-night cheese session ever seemed to send you down your own personal Nightmare on Elm Street? You're probably not alone. Research out today has revealed a link between lactose intolerance and a higher risk of bad dreams. Scientists in Canada conducted the study by surveying college students. People who reported having regular nightmares and poorer sleep in general were also more likely to report having food allergies, including lactose intolerance, they found. The researchers speculate that the distress caused by people's stomach issues can seep into our non-waking hours. 'The results we obtained confirmed our hypothesis that lactose intolerance is indeed predictive of disturbed dreaming and nightmares,' study co-author Ross Powell, a psychologist and professor emeritus at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, told Gizmodo. Do You Always Remember Your Dreams? Researchers May Know Why The idea that the foods we eat, particularly cheese or other dairy products, can worsen our sleep is hardly new. In the early 1900s, for example, American cartoonist Winsor McCay created a popular newspaper comic strip—Dream of the Rarebit Fiend—that routinely featured people getting nightmares or strange dreams after eating something less than agreeable. Often, this trigger food was a Welsh rarebit, a popular British dish of cheese on toast. But according to Powell, this phenomenon hasn't really been studied much scientifically. A decade ago, this same team published a survey finding that roughly 20% of participants reported having bizarre dreams they felt were connected to eating certain foods or eating late at night, with many blaming dairy products specifically. In their latest study, Powell and his colleagues were hoping to replicate their earlier findings, in addition to digging a bit deeper into the reasons behind people's cheese-flavored nightmares. The researchers surveyed over 1,000 college students (more than twice the sample size of the 2015 study) about their dietary and sleeping habits. About 40% of respondents felt that some foods or late-night chowing affected their sleep, with 25% feeling their diets worsened their sleep. This time, only 5.5% specifically blamed foods for affecting the content of their dreams, but dairy, spicy foods, and sweets were commonly blamed culprits among those who did. The researchers also found that self-reported lactose intolerance was associated with more severe nightmares and poorer sleep, as were other food allergies. Unsurprisingly, lactose intolerance was associated with gastrointestinal symptoms, while people who reported less healthy diets in general tended to have more nightmares and to have more difficulty recalling their dreams. The team's findings were published Tuesday in Frontiers in Psychology (both the current and the 2015 study directly reference Dream of the Rarebit Fiend in their title). Frequent Nightmares Linked to Faster Aging and Premature Death As anyone with lactose intolerance knows, indulging a dairy craving can cause plenty of GI pain and bloating. And the researchers reason that these symptoms can stir people awake or more subtly ruin their dreams—an explanation that might extend to other similar kinds of pain. 'It may be that GI distress, in comparison to other types of physical distress, has a particularly strong impact upon sleeping and dreaming. Menstrual cramping, for example, has also been shown to increase the likelihood of disturbed dreaming,' Powell said. He further theorizes that since GI symptoms can be caused by ingesting poison, our dairy nightmares might be the body's way to keep itself alert in case of medical emergency. The researchers would like to confirm their research experimentally, such as a trial that directly compares how lactose-intolerant people sleep and dream after either eating or avoiding dairy. Powell believes it would also be interesting to study whether food sensitivities could be directly contributing to some people's nightmare disorders. Around one-third of Americans have trouble digesting lactose, though not everyone feels sick after having some. And given how annoying lactose intolerance already is, these findings may offer further incentive to stay away from the late-night dairy. I personally know that I'll be more likely to reach for a scoop of evening sorbet over the ice cream next time around.
The Independent
23-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
The real-life danger of frequent nightmares revealed in new study
New research indicates that adults who experience weekly nightmares are over three times more likely to die before the age of 70. The study identified frequent nightmares as a stronger predictor of premature death compared to lifestyle factors such as smoking, obesity, and poor diet. Scientists suggest that nightmares contribute to accelerated cellular ageing by disrupting sleep quality and duration, and by elevating stress hormones like cortisol. Dr Abidemi Otaiku, who led the research, emphasised that nightmares should be considered a serious public health concern due to their link with faster biological ageing and earlier mortality. The good news is that nightmares can be prevented and treated through measures like stress management, good sleep hygiene, and addressing anxiety or depression. Why nightmares could make you age faster and die sooner
CNN
08-06-2025
- Health
- CNN
These 4 hacks could help you make the most of your circadian rhythm
Feeling tired all the time? CNN's Randi Kaye sits down with a neurologist at University of Michigan's Sleep Disorders Center to learn how modern habits are breaking our natural sleep-wake cycles and gets a few tips on how to reset and realign.
CNN
08-06-2025
- Health
- CNN
These 4 hacks could help you make the most of your circadian rhythm
Feeling tired all the time? CNN's Randi Kaye sits down with a neurologist at University of Michigan's Sleep Disorders Center to learn how modern habits are breaking our natural sleep-wake cycles and gets a few tips on how to reset and realign.
