One of the recommended guidelines for adequate sleep hygiene is to take a frugal dinner and do it at least three hours before going to bed to give time to digestion. And, taking it to the extreme, there is even a saying that says that “of great dinners are the full graves”, which highlights the influence of the diet in the night rest. Now, a study has found that excessive dairy consumption could also ruin the dream.
A team of researchers from the University of Montreal interviewed more than 1,000 students about the quality of their dream, their eating habits and any bond perceived between them, and found a strong association between nightmares and lactose intolerance, possibly because gases or night stomach pain influence the type of dreams they have. His findings have been published in Frontiers in Psychology.
“The Nightmare severity is closely related to the lactose intolerance and other food allergies“said Dr. Tore Nielsen, from the University of Montreal, principal author of the article published in Frontiers in Psychology. “These new findings imply that modifying the eating habits of people with certain food sensibilities could relieve nightmares. They could also explain why people often blame the dairy of nightmares.”
While it was already known that food affects sleep, little evidence is available to demonstrate or refute this hypothesis. To analyze it, the researchers surveyed 1,082 students from the Macewan University who asked about the time and quality of sleep, dreams and nightmares, and any perceived association between different types of dreams and different foods. They also asked about the mental and physical health of the participants and their relationship with food.
Gastrointestinal disorders associated with dairy consumption
Approximately one third of respondents reported that they had frequent nightmares. Women were more likely to remember their dreams and to refer bad dream and nightmares, and almost double prone than men to report intolerance or food allergy. About 40% of the participants claimed to believe that eating late or consuming certain foods affected their dream; Approximately 25% thought that certain foods could get worse.
The people who ate less healthy were more likely to have negative dreams and less likely to remember them. “They ask us frequently if food affects dreams, especially journalists traveling to gastronomic vacations,” said Nielsen. “Now we have some answers.”
The majority of the participants who attributed their bad dream to the foods they had consumed considered that sweets, spicy foods or dairy products were responsible. Only a comparatively small proportion (5.5%) of respondents felt that what he ate affected the intensity of their dreams, but many said that sweets or dairy made their most disturbing or strange dreams.
When comparing the reports of food intolerances with those of nightmares and lack of sleep, the authors discovered that lactose intolerance was associated with gastrointestinal symptoms, nightmares and poor sleep quality. It is possible that dairy consumption causes gastrointestinal disorders and that the resulting discomforts affect dreams and rest of rest.
The majority of the participants who attributed their bad dream to the food they had consumed considered that sweets, spicy foods or dairy products were responsible
“Nightmares are worse for lactose intolerant people suffering from severe gastrointestinal symptoms and whose dream is interrupted,” said Nielsen. This makes sense, since we know that other bodily sensations can influence sleep. Nightmares can be very disturbing, especially if they are frequent, since they usually make people wake up in a dysphoric state and also cause sleep avoidance behaviors, which in both cases can prevent a restful rest.
This could also explain why less participants reported a link between their food and their dreams that in a previous study by Nielsen and his colleague, Dr. Russell Powell, from the Macewan University, made 11 years before in a similar population. Greater awareness about food intolerances could mean that the students of the present study consumed less foods that could activate their intolerances and affect their dream. If so, Simple dietary interventions could help people improve their dream and his general health.
However, in addition to the solid link between lactose intolerance and nightmares, it is not clear how the relationship between sleep and diet works. It is possible that people sleep worse because they eat worse, but it is also possible that they eat badly because they do not sleep well, or that another factor influences both sleep and diet. More research will be needed to confirm these links and identify the underlying mechanisms.
“” We need to study more people of different ages, from different social fields and with different eating habits to determine if our results are really generalizable to the general population, “Nielsen said.” Experimental studies are also needed to determine if people can really detect the effects of specific foods on dreams. We would like to carry out a study in which we ask people to consume cheese products compared to a control food before sleeping to see if this alters their dream or dreams, ”he concludes.
Source: www.webconsultas.com