Sweet dreams? Not if you eat this popular snack before bed, study says
By Diana Bruk
Published July 1, 2025, 12:00 a.m. ET
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Looking for a gouda night of sleep? You might want to steer clear of this little nibble before bed.
A new study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology suggests dairy might be the grate-est villain to sweet dreams.
Researchers polled 1,000 students at MacEwan University in Canada on their sleep quality and eating habits and found an un-brie-lievable link between nightmares and lactose intolerance.
cheese nightmares study
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A new study says you might want to steer clear of dairy if you’re looking for a gouda night of sleep.
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“Nightmare severity is robustly associated with lactose intolerance and other food allergies,” said lead study author Tore Nielsen of Université de Montréal.
“These new findings imply that changing eating habits for people with some food sensitivities could alleviate nightmares. They could also explain why people so often blame dairy for bad dreams!”
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Looks like that delectable cube of cheese could have you waking up in a cold, curdled sweat!
Unsurprisingly, this is especially true if you’re sensitive to dairy, which many people unknowingly are.
Scared woman hiding under blankets in bed.
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Researchers polled 1,000 students at MacEwan University in Alberta, Canada, on their sleep quality and eating habits and found an un-brie-lievable link between nightmares and lactose intolerance.
LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS – stock.adobe.com
“Nightmares are worse for lactose-intolerant people who suffer severe gastrointestinal symptoms and whose sleep is disrupted,” said Nielsen.
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“This makes sense, because we know that other bodily sensations can affect dreaming.”
Nightmares can rob people of restful sleep, Nielsen noted, because they tend to cause the dreamer to awaken in a state of distress, and they may lead to sleep avoidance.
About one-third of the study participants admitted that they regularly experience nightmares, with women significantly more likely to remember their dreams and report food allergies than men.
Around 40% believed late-night snacking or eating certain foods could lead to tossing and turning all night.
Most blamed sweets, spicy food and dairy for their nighttime woes.
Only 5.5% of participants suspected what they snacked on seeped into their dreams, but of those, dairy reigned supreme as the dream-warping devil.
Assortment of dairy products including milk, yogurt, and various cheeses.
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Dairy reigned supreme as the dream-warping devil.
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Still, more research is needed before we give up on cheese Roquefort ever.
“We need to study more people of different ages, from different walks of life, and with different dietary habits to determine if our results are truly generalizable to the larger population,” said Nielsen.
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How eating more cheese may be the secret to getting better sleep
“Experimental studies are also needed to determine if people can truly detect the effects of specific foods on dreams. We would like to run a study in which we ask people to ingest cheese products versus some control food before sleep to see if this alters their sleep or dreams.”
The findings shed insight into folk wisdom that goes back as far as “A Christmas Carol,” in which Ebenezer Scrooge famously blamed “a crumb of cheese” for his ghostly visions.
In 2005, the British Cheese Board — a cultured organization, to be sure — conducted a study with 200 people and found no link between cheese and nightmares.
In fact, a hunk of cheddar appeared to lead to more pleasant dreams, possibly because a happy belly equals a placid midnight mind.
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And a recent study found cheese might even prevent sleep apnea, thanks to its nutritional density.
So, why does cheese keep getting grilled?
Close-up of Roquefort, Chabichou, and Camembert cheeses.
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More research needs to be done before we give up on cheese.
barmalini – stock.adobe.com
Some cheeses contain tyramine, a compound that can stimulate the brain by triggering the release of norepinephrine, a chemical that can make you feel more alert.
However, biomedical scientist Dr. Zac Turner recently pointed out that most people only eat a few cubes of cheese in one sitting, which would deliver negligible amounts of tyramine.
He noted that if you’re pairing your cheeseboard with a bottle of wine, that’s more likely to be the culprit, as alcohol is a known disruptor of sleep.
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