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From the dangers of a late-night cheese binge to that recurring nightmare you have about taking the SATs in your underwear, we’re getting to the bottom of these eight misconceptions about dreams, adapted from an episode of Misconceptions on YouTube.
1. MISCONCEPTION: EATING CHEESE BEFORE BED CAN GIVE YOU NIGHTMARES.
At one point in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge dismisses a ghostly encounter as being just as likely from the crumb of cheesehe had before bed. It sounds a bit odd, but cheese has historically gotten a bad rap for its ability to conjure nightmares. It's unlikely that a little cheddar is the root of your nighttime terrors, though.
In 2005, the British Cheese Board funded a study to debunk the myths about cheese causing nightmares. As part of the experiment, 200 participants snacked on 20 grams of cheese a half-hour before bedtime. Sixty-seven percent of cheese eaters reported remembering their dreams, but none of them recorded nightmares. The dreams they did have, however, were pretty funky. One participant detailed dreaming about a vegetarian crocodile who was distressed about not being able to eat children, while another dreamed of soldiers who fought with kittens instead of guns.
The research did also imply that different cheeses had different effects, with Stilton cheese providing the weirdest dreams. It’s worth noting that there are quite a few holes in this study—it’s unpublished, there was no control group, and it was funded by the British Cheese Board, likely as a PR move. But still, it’s unlikely that scary “cheese dreams” are a real phenomenon to worry about.
2. MISCONCEPTION: WE ONLY DREAM DURING REM SLEEP.
Continued below.
8 Misconceptions About Dreams
1. MISCONCEPTION: EATING CHEESE BEFORE BED CAN GIVE YOU NIGHTMARES.
At one point in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge dismisses a ghostly encounter as being just as likely from the crumb of cheesehe had before bed. It sounds a bit odd, but cheese has historically gotten a bad rap for its ability to conjure nightmares. It's unlikely that a little cheddar is the root of your nighttime terrors, though.
In 2005, the British Cheese Board funded a study to debunk the myths about cheese causing nightmares. As part of the experiment, 200 participants snacked on 20 grams of cheese a half-hour before bedtime. Sixty-seven percent of cheese eaters reported remembering their dreams, but none of them recorded nightmares. The dreams they did have, however, were pretty funky. One participant detailed dreaming about a vegetarian crocodile who was distressed about not being able to eat children, while another dreamed of soldiers who fought with kittens instead of guns.
The research did also imply that different cheeses had different effects, with Stilton cheese providing the weirdest dreams. It’s worth noting that there are quite a few holes in this study—it’s unpublished, there was no control group, and it was funded by the British Cheese Board, likely as a PR move. But still, it’s unlikely that scary “cheese dreams” are a real phenomenon to worry about.
2. MISCONCEPTION: WE ONLY DREAM DURING REM SLEEP.
Continued below.
8 Misconceptions About Dreams
