Does cheese = Nightmares?

[Lobsang]

Give me the Straight Dope on this. I've heard that eating cheese before bedtime gives you nightmares or very odd dreams.

Up to now I've believed this, and so have had large quantities of cheese before bedtime, and I've remembered having odd dreams.

Is there some placebo effect going on or does cheese actually affect how one dreams?


ETA: I am of the opinion that 'nightmares' or difficult dreams are better than no dreams at all. Nightmares are what bring that nice feeling of relief in the morning (the relief that it wasn't real)

[Una Persson]

One quasi-study which says it does not: http://www.cheeseboard.co.uk/news.cfm?page_id=240

Note that they did not test the infamous Welsh Rarebit, which is said to be "the" cheese for making nightmares, sleepwalking, and for all I know sleep Australian Dick Wrestling. There was even a Gomer Pyle episode on it.

[freckafree]

It was implicated in one well-known instance of weird dreams:

"... said Scrooge, "... You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"

[susan]

Una, the title of the study, Cheese and Dreams, seems worthy of an Ig Noble Award.

[WotNot]

I have read that the reputation for cheese as a disturber of the sleep began among the Victorians, who generally rounded off a meal with cheese, or a cheese-based savoury.

The fact that the meal may have consisted of a first course of Mock Turtle soup and/or Cod's Head and Shoulders, followed by Entrées of Ragoût of Lobster and Sweetbreads with Sauce Piquante; a Second Course of Pigeon Pie, Saddle of Mutton and Garnished Tongue, and a Third Course of Pheasants, Plum Pudding and Charlotte à la Parisienne (Dessert and Ices to follow), all washed down with the wine appropriate to each course, Port served ad lib with the cheese, and then brandy and cigars, clearly had no bearing on the matter. T'was the cheese to blame.

[Random Design]

Anecdotally, I've often eaten cheese as the last thing before going to bed, and I don't have nightmares at all. Types eaten include mozzarella, gouda, cheddar and cottage.

You can test it for yourself I suppose?

[WOOKINPANUB]

What a coinkydink; I ate a pepperoni and cheese hot pocket before going to bed last night and I had some very disturbing dreams. That might have been due to all the preservatives though.

[DrDeth]

There was a comic strip for years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_of_a_Rarebit_Fiend

Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend It focuses on various people who have a passion for various foods - often, but not always, Welsh rarebit. Each strip features a different protagonist known as a Rarebit Fiend (who is rarely named in the comic strip, and who changes from strip to strip) in the course of strange dreams and nightmares. Upon awakening, the protagonist blames his dreams on eating the rarebit, or whatever other food he ate, thus exacting the price for their folly.

McCay's famous character Little Nemo — who later had his own strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland — first appeared in Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend within the first year of its existence. Unlike Rarebit Fiend, which was intentionally created for an adult reading audience, Little Nemo was intended for children. McCay went on to write and draw Little Nemo for the New York Herald.

[Sanity Challenged]

In a highly unscientific experiment conducted in my college dorm, the conclusion we came to was that if you believed eating cheese would affect your dreams, then it might, but if you didn't believe it, it wouldn't.

We also tested a related trick - writing "I am dreaming" on your hand with a marker before going to bed can result in you seeing it on your hand while dreaming, realizing you're dreaming, and taking control of your dream, having fun flying about and such. It worked pretty reliably for most of the guys that tried it.

This lead to an experiment. 2 victims were chosen and blindfolded. A 3rd party claimed to write "I am dreaming" on their palms, but with 1 victim it was faked - the pen cap was rubbed against his palm leaving no mark. Both victims were put to bed with a glove on. In the morning, both victims claimed to have dreamt of wearing a glove, and upon removing it, discovering "I am dreaming" written on their hand. When victim #1 removed his glove that morning, he was surprised to see that nothing was actually written on his hand. When victim #2 removed his glove, he was surprised to see "I lick ballz" written on his hand in permanent marker.

[Chez Guevara]

Originally Posted by Una Persson

One quasi-study which says it does not: http://www.cheeseboard.co.uk/news.cfm?page_id=240

.....a massive 85% of females who ate Stilton had some of the most bizarre dreams of the whole study – although none were described as bad experiences. Highlights included talking soft toys, lifts that move sideways, a vegetarian crocodile upset because it could not eat children, dinner party guests being traded for camels, soldiers fighting with each other with kittens instead of guns and a party in a lunatic asylum.

I can't help but conclude that men and women have different ideas regarding what is a nightmare and what is not.

For me, a talking soft toy is a dealbreaker, and I don't even wish to discuss that poor crocodile. The only pleasant dream I see here is trading dinner party guests for camels, which is an idea that has crossed my mind frequently over the years. This is because you can tell a camel to fuck off home without offending it too much, whereas experience tells me that some dinner guests don't even appear to have homes to go to.