Eating these common foods before bed could trigger sweet dreams or night terrors

Fox News

08-07-2025

Can your diet influence whether you experience sweet dreams or nightmares?
Researchers say yes – and their findings could give late-night snackers something to think about.
Tore Nielsen, director of the University of Montreal's Dreams and Nightmares Laboratory, recently published his new findings in the journal Frontiers in Psychology on June 30.
The study suggests that not only does eating certain foods before bed influence how well you sleep, it also influences the nature of your dreams and whether they're pleasant, bizarre or unsettling.
Nielsen told Fox News Digital there were clear patterns in how certain food groups correlated with the quality and emotional tone of participants' dreams.
The culprits that worsened sleep included desserts, spicy foods and dairy foods.
Nearly 23% of the participants experienced negative dreams after consuming sweet foods, while 19.5% had nightmares after eating spicy fare.
Dairy choices, meanwhile, accounted for 15.7% of the bad dreams.
In terms of improving sleep, analysts found that those who ate "clean" before bedtime experienced better sleep at night.
Nearly 18% reported improved sleep after consuming fruit, while 13.4% reported better sleep after drinking herbal tea.
Some 12% of study participants also saw positive effects after consuming vegetables.
Nielsen's research also differentiated between disturbing dreams and bizarre dreams.
"People who develop nightmares might also take a look at the effects of medications, recreational drugs or alcohol that they're consuming."
"Of the participants who stated that they thought food affected their dreams, the top culprits blamed for disturbing dreams were desserts/sweets (31%), dairy (22%) and meat (16%)," Neilsen said.
"The top culprits blamed for bizarre dreams were again desserts/sweets (38%) and dairy (27%) — meat was a distant third (8%)."
The research also found that three significant habits contribute to poor sleep: eating dairy products despite being lactose intolerant, eating close to bedtime, and not following internal cues about when to stop eating.
"These results and the results from our previous study both also suggest that eating a healthier diet in general might reduce nightmares and the overall negativity of dreams," Nielsen observed.
While there's more research to be done, the Canadian psychologist said that the findings suggest that people with both severe nightmares and food allergies should be tested and change their diet accordingly.
"[If people test] positive for lactose intolerance or other food allergies, [they could] carefully dose the ingestion of the culprit foods to minimize their symptoms – especially at night," he said.
Nielsen also cautioned that food sensitivities and diet are "only two possible sources of nightmares."
"People who develop nightmares might also take a look at the effects of medications, recreational drugs or alcohol that they're consuming," the expert advised.
"Or sometimes withdrawal from substances such as cannabis can induce nightmares for some weeks afterward," he said.