Dairy contains tryptophan, which serves as a precursor for the sleep-inducing hormone serotonin, but study participants cheese before bed were more likely to report unsavory dreams.
According to the study, students who ate spicy foods before bed reported having stressful dreams. The reason: Spicy foods alter the body's temperature, which according to the study, alters dream formations during the REM (rapid eye motion) stage of sleep.
Not only can consuming alcohol before bed makes it more difficult to fall into a deep sleep, participants in the study reported nightmares and stressful dreams after knocking back a few.
Some study participants who had greasy foods before bed reported having nightmares. With that in mind, we suggest choosing baked foods over fried whenever possible.
Study participants who drank soda, even during the earlier part of the day, reported having nightmares, likely because of the caffeine and sugar content.
Participants in the study who had pasta or bread before bed reported having upsetting dreams, which is no surprise considering sugar consumption was shown to have the same effect.
While sweet treats may be tempting before bed, many people reported "bizarre dreams" occurred after participants ate sugary foods like cookies and cake.
In the study, sweet foods were shown to cause scary dreams and not all sugar comes from obvious sources so here is one "hidden source of sugar" like ketchup and salad dressings which could cause bizzare dreams.