Have you ever wondered if a bizarre dream was caused by something you ate the night before? If so, you’re not alone. We all have strange or unsettling dreams now and then, and when we do, we want to know what might cause them.

For centuries, people have believed that what and when they eat can influence their dreams. A prominent example of this can be found in the early 20th-century comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, in which characters often blamed their strange dreams on having eaten a cheese dish — like Welsh rarebit — the night before.

But even though folklore has long suggested that food and dreams are connected, scientific research into this notion has been limited.

A few exploratory surveys have provided preliminary, suggestive results. One study from 2007 found that people who ate more organic food reported having more vivid and bizarre dreams than those who consumed more fast food.

Similarly, a 2022 survey linked fruit consumption to more frequent dream recall, high fruit and fish intake to more lucid dreams, and sugary food consumption to more nightmares. And in our 2015 study, we found that nearly 18 per cent of participants endorsed the idea that what they ate influenced their dreams, with........

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