People who have trouble sleeping are being urged to cut one dairy product from their bedtime routines.
New studies have shown that consuming cheese could be causing disturbed sleep and frequent nightmares.
Experts say they have found a strong link between getting nighttime terrors and having a form of lactose intolerance.
Researchers questioned more than 1,000 students at Canada’s MacEwan University about their sleep, eating habits, and any perceived tie between the two.
Almost a third of those asked admitted to having regular nightmares with the majority of these respondents women.
Females were also more likely to remember their dreams and nearly twice as likely as men to know that they had a food allergy or intolerance.
40 per cent of the students said they thought that eating late at night or eating specific foods had affected their sleep, while a quarter believed that consuming certain foods could make their sleep worse.
The study found that people with less healthy diets were more likely to have bad dreams and less likely to remember their dreams.
From comparing the data collated, the experts compared reports of food intolerances to those of bad dreams and poor sleep, and found that “lactose intolerance was associated with gastrointestinal symptoms, nightmares, and low sleep quality”.
Lead researcher Dr Tore Nielsen, who helped collate the findings from the University of Montreal, said: “Nightmare severity is robustly associated with lactose intolerance and other food allergies.
“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.
“Nightmares are worse for lactose-intolerant people who suffer severe gastrointestinal symptoms and whose sleep is disrupted. This makes sense, because we know that other bodily sensations can affect dreaming.”
Some ‘grate’ advice has been issued by top scientists who think they may have found the remedy to enjoying a peaceful night of slumber.
Stomach pain from consuming dairy before laying down for the night plus gas during the night can affect sleep, researchers say, adding that the way to a getting a fully rested night could be as simple as cutting out cheese.
Not consuming the dairy product could help improve sleep quality, which may already be disrupted thanks to a number of outside factors such as noise and light pollution or other health issues.
Now, the authors are hoping to continue their studies to get a more in depth look at the impact certain foods have on our sleep quality.
Nielsen added: “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.”
The full findings have been published in journal Frontiers in Psychology.
