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Does eating cheese actually make us dream more, or is this just an old wives’ tale? And are there other foods that might do the same thing? It’s actually very hard to tell. However, one of the tips for remembering dreams is to break up your sleep pattern; therefore it makes sense that if certain foods are hard to digest, then this might contribute to a restless night, which in turn could help you to remember your dreams more. In addition to cheese, other foods that are difficult to digest include eels, currants, shellfish, cranberries, bananas, and pretty much all types of red meat.

In 2005, the Cheese Board in the UK carried out a pretty extensive experiment on the effects that cheese has on dreams. Two hundred volunteers took part in the study, in which they each ate .7 oz (20 g) of cheese half an hour before bedtime. According to the statistics, there were no reports of actual nightmares, but there were plenty of dreams recorded. This probably wasn’t terribly surprising, but there were a couple of curveballs thrown into the cheesy equation. It seems that different varieties of cheese had different effects; eating Stilton Blue Cheese caused 85 per cent of the women to experience the freakiest dreams. Subject matter for these stiltonian dreams includes: talking toys; dinner party guests being traded for camels; and a vegetarian crocodile upset because it could not eat children.

Here at Freaky Dreams Central, we decided to conduct our own experiments into the effects of cheese on our dreams. Our experiment may not have been as far-reaching as that of the Cheese Board, but yielded interesting results nevertheless.

We asked six volunteers to eat as much cheese as they liked just before hopping into bed. We also asked six volunteers to deliberately avoid cheese on the same six days of the experiment.

THE RESULT?

Here’s the shocker.

Cheese or no cheese seemed to make absolutely no difference whatsoever. Some of the cheese-eaters had strange dreams; so, however, did the cheese-free volunteers. Here’s one of the most coherent dream diaries that we received back from the volunteers. It’s from Dan. He ate the cheese.

Night one: No dreams

Night two: Had a dream that I ate an enormous carton of fries, but the fries were in a big foil tray that was somehow floating in water inside a cardboard box, like a water bath, with Christmas gift wrap on. It looked a little bit like a Bain Marie or something.

Night three: I dreamt that I was in a London pub for New Year’s Eve. Noel Gallagher was in there, and although he would talk to me he wouldn’t let me have my picture taken with him. He kept moving around the table to prevent having his picture taken. His wife/girlfriend kept showing her stomach to people. I eventually had to leave in a hurry as I had spilt gravy all down my gray jumper.

Night four: No dreams

Night five: Had a dream I was at a vacation park on a lads’ holiday for the weekend and got locked in the swimming pool overnight. It was quite lucid and I was quite anxious that I couldn’t get out.

Night six: No dreams

Wow. Fries? Gravy? The Pub? Being locked in a swimming pool? Only Dan could analyze this dream with any certainty, but we’d say that it shows a level of fretfulness about his personal appearance while in the presence of a celebrity. This is quite understandable, but the slightly elusive nature of that celebrity might mean that Dan is frustrated about something. Anxiety about being locked in a swimming pool, and the fries floating in the water bath, might imply a certain reluctance to integrate his feminine side, especially in such a masculine environment. That Dan is scarfing down large amounts of food tells us that he has a strong spiritual side that needs nurturing. And the lady showing her stomach to everyone is just plain freaky.

Another dream diary from a volunteer non-cheese eater came from Laura. Her journal shows some intriguing examples of dreams that involve her childhood and days gone by.

Night One: I’m riding a bike through my family vacation home, but the seat is far too high and I can’t quite reach the peddles properly, wobbling all over the place. I think I’m leaving. I’ve got loads of bags that I’m struggling to carry, I keep dropping things and I can feel myself getting really frustrated and upset.

Night Two: My mum and I are searching around thrift stores looking for a skirt to wear for a fancy dress party, I’m going as a school girl. My surroundings change and I’m in another store, where I find hats which I begin to try on.

Night Three: No dreams

Night Four: I’m with family and my old dog, wandering around the garden where I grew up.

The river is in flood. We walk through some woods where there’s a bees nest in the trunk of a big old tree. Next, we walk out of the woods and it’s just me and my mum, we get in my car and start driving around a rotary, but I can’t turn off, I don’t know where I’m going.

Night Five: There are lots of people around, I’m in my underwear, but no-one seems to notice. I’m trying to find my apartment which is in a mall. I’m going up and down the escalators. There’s also a spiral staircase. When I finally find my front door it’s next to the amusements, I can see fruit machines and flashing lights. I realise that I’ve left my keys in the car, which is back down on the first floor parked among the stores. So I start going up and down the escalators again. Once again I can feel myself getting really frustrated and upset.

Night Six: No dreams.

Laura’s dreams also involve some anxiety. She has the classic “underwear in public” aspect to a part of her dream, too—(see the section on nudity in dreams THE AWARD FOR “MOST POPULAR DREAM” GOES TO…). There’s also a large degree of going back to her past; the old family home, the bicycle that’s too big, and the time she spends in the dream with her mother might suggest that Laura is longing for a return to simpler days with fewer responsibilities.

Here are segments from more of the dreams that were reported back. We defy you to decide whether they were cheese-fuelled or not…here are some of the more coherent extracts.

I can’t get into my house because the porch is covered with rabbits disguised as pineapples. They’re wriggling all over the place and I don’t want to step on them

I am standing inside a hamster wheel, having fun, then I realize it’s not a hamster wheel but a gigantic roll of adhesive tape. Or am I just really tiny?

Aliens are going to invade the planet. They get here by climbing though radios that are set to a certain frequency. I am trying to stop people fiddling with their dials.

I look into my friend’s pram to admire her new-born baby. There’s no baby there, only a plate of dressed crab. But my friend seems pleased enough and I just can’t tell her the truth.

I have a job interview and am hurrying to get ready. The only stuff in my wardrobe is full-sized animal skins, all evidently very recently skinned from the animals they belonged to because blood is dripping everywhere.

ANSWER; The first two dreams are cheese-fuelled. The last two are “normal.”

“I was having a very deep and meaningful conversation with my cat, Mr. Bootsypuss, and then suddenly we were on the bed making out. I knew it was wrong, but it was fabulous sex. When I woke up and went to feed him in the morning, it was really weird. We’ve exchanged some meaningful stares since that night, and I wonder if he had the same dream.”

COFFIN

The coffin is an example of a “container” dream (See Bottle or Box). The container, or in this case, coffin, represents you. The more obvious meaning of the coffin—death—can’t be ignored, though. In this case, the coffin in your dream represents an ending of something, death making way for something new.

COLOR

Some people say that they never dream in color—or at least, if they do, then they don’t notice what those colors are; it’s likely that the colors are simply not significant within the dream. Sometimes, however, the colors in your dream cannot be ignored. Here’s a guide to their (very) basic meanings:

Red = life, energy

Green = growth, harmony

Blue = spirituality, calmness

Pink = sexuality

Brown = earthiness

Yellow = childlike qualities

Black = mystery, decay

White = purity, cleanliness

Purple = magic and mystery

COMPASS

The main task of a compass is to indicate direction. In dreams, your subconscious mind communicates with you. Therefore, it’s logical to suppose that dreaming of a compass means that your subconscious mind is trying to tell you something about the direction your life is taking. Perhaps you need to change it.

CONDOM

Condoms are protection. They protect us from STDs and stop women from getting pregnant. What, in your waking life, requires protection?

Your dream of condoms is a reminder that something needs to be looked after.

CONFETTI

It seems odd when you think about it that we like to have tiny scraps of paper flying through the air when we have something to celebrate. Confetti or tickertape in your dream means that you have something joyful to look forward to in real life.

CORRIDOR

A house or a building in a dream, represents you. A corridor is an area of transition, a path that leads us from one place to another—somewhere we don’t generally linger. Perhaps there’s such a transition taking place in your life at the moment, and you’re in a metaphorical corridor between jobs, relationships, or homes.

CROWD

To find that you’re in a crowd can either be upsetting and confusing or joyous and unifying—depending, of course, on the mood of the crowd. If the dream is a confusing crowd scene, then the feeling of trapped frustration might reflect a certain situation in your waking life. If the crowd is unified and joyful, then you might as well enjoy whatever is going on, knowing that you’re one small but important component in a unified whole.

CUP

Any sort of a vessel, such as a cup, chalice, or goblet, represents the female aspect of your psyche. This applies whether you are male or female. If you are the former, this dream is telling you to follow your intuitions and your “feminine” side.