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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.*
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.
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.
Hello.
I am a Vietnam Vet. I am a Marine. I had a previous history of night mares.
They stopped for about twenty -five years. I recently bought some delicious sharp cheese and decided to cut a few slices before bed. I had a dream about some guy with a knife threatening me. In the dream I three pieced him. My wife woke my up she said I was thrashing and kicking in my sleep.
The next few days I decided to cut a few slices before bed. That night I dreamed I was attacked by giant sized Rats. They were the size of a beagle dog. I grabbed the leader a punched it. My wife yelled!!
I had punched my wife in her eye while sleep. I have never done anything so horrible as to hit my wife and best friend. The next day Thank GOD, it was very minor and she asked if I am eating anything before bed different. We came to the conclusion
it was the cheese. Now I settle for a small glass of wine before bed, now I dream of lottery wins.
So, who knows? As for me I think cheese before bed is a No, No.
There was also a short ( 7 min. ) live-action film made, inspired by this comic strip. Made in 1906, using cutting-edge “trick photography” of the day, it is considered a valuable piece in the history of cinematography. Primitive though it is by modern movie special effects, it’s a fun little item to watch. There are several copies of it easily found on Youtube.
My personal opinion is that heavy meals at bedtime disturb your sleep meaning you remember your dreams more, probably a more common experience in the past when heavy meals were less common, so the effect was more obvious.
That’s the theory I heard in school, too – in fact, it may have been when we were reading “A Christmas Carol” and got to the part quoted by freckafree – that cheese is more difficult to digest than simple carbs like bread, and that the extra “work” involved in the digestive tract disturbs an otherwise deep sleep. Or that Victorians believed it to be so.
