Question: Do you know why it is rumored that cheese causes nightmares (if you where to eat lots before you went to bed?

Rachel Dakin answered on 13 Nov 2013:

I love cheese and this is an interesting question, it was submitted to a science magazine I used to help out with and I roughly remember the info.
Cheese is rumoured to give you nightmares but it doesn’t. There was a study done to try and prove this. The British Cheese association (or someone like that) fed people different cheeses and recorded if they remembered their dreams and what was in them. They found people who ate cheese before could remember their dreams. They said their results also showed eating cheddar meant people were more likely to dream about celebrities and eating red leicester made people dream about their childhood. It can’t imagine it’s that clear between cheeses but that’s what the Cheese people said!
So why does cheese change our sleep. A couple of theories, both to do with things that are contained in cheese.
One theory is that an amino acid (the building blocks of proteins) called trypthophan contained in cheese helps relax people and can produce chemicals which act in the brain. This makes people sleep better and dream more.
Another is about a different substance in cheese called tyramine. Tyramine causes the release of chemicals in the brain which can act on nerves in the brain stem. This might activate the brain making dreams more vivid.
Whilst scientists have proved these pathways exist in the brain whether cheese is actually switching them on isn’t clear.

Maybe it’s time to test it for ourselves and eat some cheese before bed!