Old Wives' Tales OWT 001

Don't eat cheese at bedtime, you'll have nightmares!

Is this just an Old Wives Tale or is there any medical reasoning behind it?   I have tried Snopes and Google but had no luck other than finding Simon of Cleveland who believes it, but as this is hardly reliable evidence.

It seemed to me that if I eat strong cheese at bedtime I do get heightened dreams the next morning; no nightmares, but active, vivid dreams that are quite enjoyable.   I therefore wondered if the Old Wives' Tale might have some medical or scientific evidence to support it.   From the answers I got, it seems that I am not alone, others have the same perceived experience as me of heightened or lurid dreaming.   One respondent actually had nightmares so now avoids it, another also had nightmares and so wanted to know the answer too.   There was only one respondent that reported no effect.   One respondent did make the point that he thought he dreamed more, at least he was more aware of dreaming.   This was not a properly conducted poll, so perhaps not too much should be read into it, but it certainly indicates there may be something in it.   However, CIX being a place where people of many diverse experiences collect, one or two of the respondents were very helpful.

One respondent made several pertinent points.

• The nature of dreams is such that you usually don't remember them unless you wake up in one. The way that dreams are interpreted depends a great deal on your immediate circumstances (e.g. the dream ending in an explosion when woken by heavy banging).
• Eating anything particularly heavy before going to bed is more likely to wake you up through the night. And you may wake up with some abdominal discomfort and even abdominal noises.
• Cheese (particularly cooked cheese) can be quite heavy on the stomach.

Putting these together you may well wake up in the middle of a dream.   Your conscious interpretation of the dream will then depend on circumstances ... and since you may be experiencing abdominal discomfort or odd noises for no apparent reason, these could cause a dream to be interpreted in a particularly frightening way.   Eating cheese before going to bed won't inevitably give you nightmares.   It'll depend on many other factors, including how susceptible you are.   Similarly, eating other difficult-to-digest foods (onions for instance) may also have the same effect.

Another respondent reported:

"I find that if I eat cheese after about 21:00hrs, then I have a very poor night's sleep.   Not particularly nightmares, but excessive dreaming and largely about workaday problems.   Stronger the cheese the more marked the effect, but blue cheese doesn't make it any worse unless it's more mature.

I also seem to recollect that there are known psychotropic agents in cheese (also Marmite and some canned fish) that must not be taken alongside some prescribed drugs."

Based on this I returned to Google and turned up Tyramine as one such agent.

There can be a potentially fatal increase in blood pressure if food containing tyramine is eaten when taking monoamine oxidase inhibitors, drugs that treat mood disorders. Examples of food with tyramine are cheese and soy sauce." c. f. Preventing Serious Drug Interactions.

If you are taking medication, as I am, then it is very important that you read the slips of paper inside the tablet box.   If you threw this away (preferably put it in paper recycling) then you can find information on most drugs here at Medline Plus, although this is an American web site.   The linked page is for one of the drugs I am on for hypertension, but you can find others by using the index menu.

The most amusing reply came from my wife.   She had gone to work before I posted my question in Noticeboard, but had seen it and replied when she returned home and done her evening blink.   I was surprised to find this turn up in my mailbox:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/articles/advicetips.shtml, section beginning "Watch what you eat".   I don't know why you posted this in Noticeboard, you should have asked me!

Foods containing tyramine (bacon, cheese, ham, aubergines, pepperoni, raspberries avocado, nuts, soy sauce, red wine) might keep you awake at night. Tyramine causes the release of norepinephrine, a brain stimulant.

A final point, if you clicked on the Gromit image above looking for cheese, then try this Wensleydale link instead.