# Three reasons not to go to bed right after eating Chinese food **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 7, 2012, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374 "2012-06-07T13:01:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/1 "2012-06-07T13:01:58Z")
**Dream 1)** My sister and I are auditioning for a dinner-theater production of _Annie, Get Your Gun_ at Hymie’s Deli in Bala Cynwyd (which actually does exist, but does not have a dinner theater, and would be more likely to do Neil Simon, anyway). **Dream 2)** I ask Alfred Hitchcock to get me in touch with Arlene Dahl about ghosting her memoirs, except I accidentally say \*Roald \*Dahl, and even Alfred Hitchcock thinks it’s pretty funny to get those two mixed up. **Dream 3)** I am kidnapped and held hostage by a group of modern artists in their Midtown (East 20s) gallery, where they force people to create horrible modern art. They even block my cell phone so I can’t call for help! ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/2 "2012-06-07T14:04:48Z")
So you got one from column A and one from column B and one from column OMG?? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/3 "2012-06-07T14:11:23Z")
My Asleep Life is so much more interesting than my Awake Life. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/4 "2012-06-07T16:37:34Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > My Asleep Life is so much more interesting than my Awake Life. Eve, [please](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=653317) … 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/5 "2012-06-07T16:48:50Z")
Periodically I dream that we are moving to a new house or apartment. It’s usually someplace really cool with extra rooms and secret passages and so forth. Last night we were going to rent a new apartment with a huge master bedroom that had French windows opening onto the garden. The only snag was that the landlord, Max von Sydow, was going to make me write an essay about why I deserved the place, first. He’s so strict. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/6 "2012-06-07T16:59:27Z")
> [@cher3](#): > > The only snag was that the landlord, Max von Sydow, was going to make me write an essay about why I deserved the place, first. He’s so strict. I love it when dreams are so weirdly _specific_: you with Max von Sydow, me with Arlene/Roald Dahl. I mean, \*whuu? \* ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/7 "2012-06-07T17:22:21Z")
Could you be more specific please :). General Tso’s? Kung Pao? Beef with broccoli? Happy Family? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/8 "2012-06-07T17:41:05Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > Could you be more specific please :). General Tso’s. Recooked, with extra onion and soy sauce. Then bed at 7:30 with a book (Patrick Dennis’ _First Lady_) and asleep by 9:00. Result: see above! ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/9 "2012-06-07T18:17:09Z")
Last night I dreamed that Tony Stark hired me to create a controlled vocabulary (I wanted to follow the example of the MeSH headings and do something tree-based) for scientific and industrial research and it stressed me out so much I had a heart attack. I had Mexican food last night, though. And almost a decade of librarianship. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/10 "2012-06-08T01:22:16Z")
> [@cher3](#): > > Periodically I dream that we are moving to a new house or apartment. It’s usually someplace really cool with extra rooms and secret passages and so forth. Last night we were going to rent a new apartment with a huge master bedroom that had French windows opening onto the garden. > > The only snag was that the landlord, Max von Sydow, was going to make me write an essay about why I deserved the place, first. He’s so strict. I have neat real estate dreams, frequently it involves touring a new house or apartment trying to decide which room I want to make my bedroom or how I want to arrange my furniture-stuff like that:D I have sleep-toured some absolutely killer dwellings that I would _love_ to live in in real life. [Typically they are sprawling victorians, one of my favorite house styles.] ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/11 "2012-06-08T04:48:07Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > **Dream 1)** My sister and I are auditioning for a dinner-theater production of _Annie, Get Your Gun_ at Hymie’s Deli in Bala Cynwyd (which actually does exist, but does not have a dinner theater, and would be more likely to do Neil Simon, anyway). Well, I’ve seen a show there; always a drama, starring some patron’s issue du hour/minute. :smack: Never as good as the food, though. sounds like you had 1½ hrs to digest (recooked & doctored food) before sleep. Can this [del]one[/del] three dream really be blamed on MSG? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/12 "2012-06-10T04:23:34Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > **Dream 1)** My sister and I are auditioning for a dinner-theater production of _Annie, Get Your Gun_ at Hymie’s Deli in Bala Cynwyd (which actually does exist, but does not have a dinner theater, and would be more likely to do Neil Simon, anyway). Ooooh Mahgod. When I was hanging on The Main Line, it was Kip’s or Hymie’s. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/13 "2012-06-10T15:09:32Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Ooooh Mahgod. When I was hanging on The Main Line, it was Kip’s or Hymie’s. 🙂 What makes the dream even weirder is, I left the Main Line in 1975 and have not thought about Hymie’s since–obviously, it was lurking in the back of my tiny brain waiting for this dream. “_Chinese food_, eh? Well, remember our _corned beef?_” ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/14 "2012-06-10T16:41:08Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > General Tso’s. Recooked, with extra onion and soy sauce. Then bed at 7:30 with a book (Patrick Dennis’ _First Lady_) and asleep by 9:00. Result: see above! Yes, but did you order it extra hot & spicy? Sometimes if you say “I want it extra hot. You know, 消防舌 (fire tongue)” the chef will take it as a personal challenge. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2012, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-reasons-not-to-go-to-bed-right-after-eating-chinese-food/624374/15 "2012-06-10T17:47:36Z")
You’ll wake up refreshed. But an hour later you’ll want to sleep again.