11 replies to this topic

[siguie]

I didn't want to thread drift HotSpot's "Weird Dream" topic so I'm starting this  one here. It's not really "dream analysis" but kinda sorta in that realm  :dunno:

Anywho I remembered the cheese thang was from years ago and I thought if people are interested they might want to have a go with it. I listen to NPR on my way to work so knew that's where I heard it and just now dug it back up ... the audio is very short BUT there is also the written transcript ... so here's the link ...


Study: Eating Cheese Can Alter Your Dreams


Mr. NIGEL WHITE is the Secretary of the British Cheese Board

Quote

...


Mr. WHITE: Well, we asked for a number of volunteers to eat a small piece of cheese about half an hour before they went to bed.

BLOCK: How small?

Mr. WHITE: Well, the amount of cheese was two-thirds of an ounce.

BLOCK: Not a lot of cheese.

Mr. WHITE: Not a lot of cheese. And the idea was that they would keep a diary of the type of sleep that they had, and also, if they did dream, could they remember what they dreamt about.

BLOCK: And what did you find?

Mr. WHITE: And they did this for a week, and we found that about three-quarters of everybody said that they slept well every night, and most of those people could remember the dreams that they had. So that was pretty encouraging. And the science of that, we think, is that there is an essential amino acid in milk called tryptophan. Now tryptophan is known to be something which is helpful in normalizing sleep and reducing stress levels. That seemed to make sense to us. What was really wacky was that the type of cheese that people were eating seemed to give them different types of dreams.

...

They go over what cheeses provide what types of dreams as well which I thought very interesting though scientifically a little squishy ... but still cool


That said there are many foods that effect sleep/dreams, the cheese thing is just cool, fun and specific so easy and tasty to try out.

Serotonin is produced from the amino acid tryptophan and that's just an easy explanation but probably only the tip of the iceberg. Spicy foods increase metabolism and body temperature which should drop when you sleep and may be what causes fitfulness or restless sleep. Caffeine in addition to making it more difficult along with other stimulants literally change how our s think. Then there is theobromine {chocolate} which stimulates the acts as a vasodilator lowering blood pressure and again changing sleep patterns. Now throw in that many foods are also diuretics {coffee/chocolate/etc} that may make you want to pee and dreams of boats, waterfalls rain start popping up.

Anywho I don't mean to keep going on BUT there are lots of interesting angles to look at especially when you add in known issues like diabetes and blood sugar at night.


For those who want a tl:dr version of all this ... try eating cheese to tweak your dreams, and those just wanting good sleep try protein + carbs. Your needs a lot of energy for active dreaming and the protein helps stabilize blood sugar e.g. not just spike and drop.

Incidentally cheese has a good amount of protein and energy

[KlaineyGStudy]

That is interesting . siguie have you tried this and if so what were your results? If not, are you thinking about giving it a go?

I am not keen on cheese unless it is melted

[siguie]

I like so of course I gave it a go Unfortunately unless it's a lucid dream {maybe once a month} I never can remember anything about my dreams :sigh: So if it worked I have no clue

Melted is fine

FYI: to keep things a little lighter I left out the biome angle the human biome is the flora and fauna that are part of every person and those little buggers are different for everyone {like fingerprints} but tend to run in families. What this means is the same food can have different effects on different people AND ... wait for it ... there is bidirectional communication between the buggers and the . In other words the bacteria/flora can talk to AND control the brain and vice versa. Here's a simple though a bit technical and dry overview of the subject NCBI and here's roughly the same thing in a fluffy easy reading made for the public webpage MedicalNewsToday.

In case it's not clear ... there is a very good chance that some dreams are altered/induced by the gut flora talking to the brain

Oh and now to put everyone to sleep ... years ago I was working on the siguie Somnolynator ... a webpage made to put you to sleep ... it redshifted your screen, used binaural audio files that I made and  had a number of sleep inducing animated pings AND I threw in some subliminal text. It's another one of my many projects that never got finished BUT I learned a lot about sleep

Edited by siguie, 03 March 2018 - 04:11 AM.

[KlaineyGStudy]

We are what we eat! Thanks for the articles

I might give the cheese thing a go and let you know how it goes  

[Kellus Konstantin]

Oh, that's very interesting. We always did wonder why I tended to dream more intensely and frequently than my boyfriend. Guess it's because I always eat toast with cheese before going to bed in the evening

[earthlydelitesGStudy]

Well I'm happy to be a tester, how much cheese should I be eating! hahaha

[siguie]

Kellus Konstantin, on 03 March 2018 - 04:57 AM, said:

Oh, that's very interesting. We always did wonder why I tended to dream more intensely and frequently than my boyfriend. Guess it's because I always eat toast with cheese before going to bed in the evening

Oh interesting that's actually a very good combination ... protein and calories to keep the   powered up while you sleep So what kind of cheese? AND what dream subject matter?


As for the quantity they said "two-thirds of an ounce" which is about 40g which I think is a tiny amount so that amount or more

If anyone else is gonna try it be sure and keep track of the type of cheese and general subject matter of the dream. For example crazy wacky dreams are associated with Stilton/Blue Cheese and dreams of celebrities {admired peoplez} are associated with Cheddar.

[MrsFrootloops]

[Kellus Konstantin]

siguie, on 03 March 2018 - 03:06 PM, said:

So what kind of cheese? AND what dream subject matter?

Usually Emmentaler, sometimes Gouda. Dream subject matters vary greatly, but the type of dream I have most often is in some form about walking, running or jogging somewhere outside. I do however dream about lots of different subjects. Last night, I dreamt that my father had been holding two people hostage in his basement and I saw that on an old black and white tube television in someone else's dining room, and then I had to climb out of the window and run for my life, because police showed up. Apparently dream police still believe in kin liability, so they were going to punish me for what my father did   Later the same night, I was in an enormous circular alien spaceship, but it was completely empty and I just wandered around the place.

I've always found dreams fascinating. They can feel so real at times, and are completely outside my control. I did try keeping a dream journal ones, but I gave up on it, because I didn't always have time to write something down before leaving the house and it was kinda stressing me out. I do however still make primitive sketches of interesting pieces of architecture I see in my dreams.

Edited by Kellus Konstantin, 05 March 2018 - 12:27 PM.

[siguie]

Oooooh ok that's still cool! and may I say Excellent cheese choices

I don't know what either swiss type or gouda cheese is supposed to induce BUT you have an awesome dream life so I'd stick with your nighttime snacking choices and thanxz for posting them  

Edited by siguie, 05 March 2018 - 01:26 PM.

[MrsFrootloops]

I wish I had known about the cheese thing, cause I use to eat string cheese for a bedtime snack. If I start doing it again, I will keep a dream journal.

[siguie]

Yes pleas do

I picked up some swiss cheese {Emmentaler like} and some Stilton just in case ya noes in case I actually ever remember a dream :sigh: