Eating a hefty amount before bed not only increases the chances of weight gain, but also nightmares. Apparently, a late-night snack signals the brain to be more active, which could lead to more vivid nightmares.
Another study published in the Journal of The Mind and Body, found that ice cream and candy bars can trigger increased brain waves. This caused 7 of their 10 participants to experience nightmares. The study also revealed just going to bed on a full stomach, whatever you ate, can cause nightmare-inducing brain waves.
Foods including cheese, spicy foods, sugar and sweets (particularly chocolate), pizza, fast food, noodles or pasta, milk, and even meat have all been linked to nightmares. Drinks containing caffeine are also a major trigger for nightmares, including sports drinks, fizzy drinks, iced tea, and certain types of juice.
Causal relationships between fasting and dreams are not easy to discern from these historical and anthropological sources, but it was generally believed that the absence of food, leading to acute or chronic hunger, can trigger vivid, sometimes transformative dreams.
Night eating syndrome (NES) is an eating disorder that occurs along with frequent sleep interruptions. People with NES feel like they won't be able to get back to sleep without eating. They may wake up several times in one night, and may feel ashamed or depressed.
Tryptophan: Tryptophan is an amino acid taken by Vitamin B6 and converted into Serotonin. Serotonin can cause extremely vivid dreams at higher levels. Tryptophan is found in such foods as cheddar cheese, chicken, salmon, lamb, egg, flour, white rice, and milk. Cheddar cheese has the most amount of tryptophan.
Vitamin B6 Deficiency
Vitamin B6 actually affects our subconscious as much as our conscious self by having an impact on how we dream.
Nightmares are associated with disturbed sleep, low well-being and affect daytime mood and behavior. Nightmare disorder is a very common comorbidity in nearly all psychiatric conditions.
Nightmares can arise for a number of reasons—stress, anxiety, irregular sleep, medications, mental health disorders—but perhaps the most studied cause is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Yes, it's true! In fact, magnesium is commonly referred to as 'Nature's Tranquilizer'. Research has shown that Magnesium encourages a deeper and more restorative sleep which potentially means fewer night wakings and night terrors due to its calming effect on the brain 3.
Since adult night terrors are so closely associated with life trauma and psychological disorders, many of those who endure this bedtime battle will often also exhibit signs of aggression, anxiety, memory loss, and inward pain that are often expressed in the form of self-mutilation.
While people talk about “night terrors,” this is not, in fact, a diagnosable condition, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual fifth edition (DSM-V). It contains elements of conditions known as nightmare disorder, REM sleep behavior disorder, and Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) Sleep Arousal Disorder.
Overeating can affect sleep as well. Eating too much, especially when it involves heavy or spicy foods, can worsen sleep by interfering with digestion and raising the risk of heartburn. For this reason, most experts advise against eating too much and too close to bedtime.
Trouble sleeping
Fatty or heavy foods may cause bloating and stomach pain that can keep you tossing and turning. Also, spicy foods that cause heartburn or indigestion can keep you from getting a good night's rest.
It's normal for both children and adults to have bad dreams and nightmares every now and again.
Sleep terrors differ from nightmares. The dreamer of a nightmare wakes up from the dream and may remember details, but a person who has a sleep terror episode remains asleep. Children usually don't remember anything about their sleep terrors in the morning.
There are a few theories about why vivid nightmares are common for those with apnea. The first is that those with apnea are experiencing a lack of oxygen. This can affect the quality of dreams and it can also make its way into dreams in symbolic and disturbing ways.
According to current diagnostic classifications, nightmares are defined as frightening or disturbing dreams that awaken the sleeper while bad dreams are defined as frightening or disturbing dreams that do not awaken the sleeper (Hasler & Germain, 2009; Nadorff et al., 2014).
Because nightmares may have a significant impact on your quality of life, it's important to consult a medical professional if you experience them regularly. Sleep deprivation, which can be caused by nightmares, can cause a host of medical conditions, including heart disease, depression, and obesity.
As for late-night eating directly causing nightmares, small studies of individuals who ate immediately before sleep have not shown a consistent relationship. However, nocturnal eating can interrupt your sleep in various ways, prompting recall of disturbing dreams by the mechanism described above.
Food can interrupt our sleep in a number of ways. It may not directly increase the chance of you having a nightmare on any particular night, but it could make it more likely that you remember the dreams you were having, therefore, seeming like you're having more frequent nightmares.