Does Chocolate Give You Nightmares? (Find Out!)

How precisely dreams work has not always been clear, but what is clear is that what we often think of as ‘having very bad dreams’ actually just comes down to the fact that something caused us to remember those dreams more clearly—for example, not sleeping well, waking up a lot in the night.

Let’s look further into this.

Does chocolate cause nightmares?

Directly, no, chocolate does not cause nightmares.

Our understanding of dreams is somewhat hazy, and we are learning more every day, but there a couple of things which are clearly understood.

For one thing, we dream every night.

How we relate those dreams to the waking world depends on how well we remember them.

How well we remember them can be determined by a number of factors, but one of the biggest is how often we wake up during the night.

If you wake up during REM sleep, or the deepest cycle of sleep, the dreams are going to be very fresh in your mind.

If you eat chocolate before bed, you are likely to be kept awake by more than one substance in it.

Caffeine will be the worst offender.

Chocolate, by its nature, contains caffeine, which will make it harder for you to sleep.

Sugar, too, will keep you awake.

Both of these things may cause you to have particularly vivid dreams in the sense that you aren’t fully asleep enough to forget them, so you remember them more clearly

Does chocolate cause night terrors?

Chocolate cannot cause night terrors in someone who is not already prone to them.

Night terrors are a much more unique phenomenon, and usually something that needs to be treated.

That said, for the reasons already discussed, it is likely to exacerbate the problems of night terrors if you eat chocolate before bed.

You will have a harder time sleeping, not to mention that your digestive system will be working overtime to break down the chocolate while you sleep.

So, while chocolate won’t directly give you night terrors, is likely to make them worse if you already get them.

Why does chocolate cause weird dreams?

There are a few reasons, and the simplest is the extra energy expended digesting such a food.

Processed chocolate, unless we are talking about some forms of dark chocolate, contains large quantities of dairy.

Even for those who are not lactose intolerant, digesting chocolate late at night is going to be harder.

Your digestion is at its strongest at midday.

So, if you eat chocolate before bed, the problem is you won’t really be properly asleep.

You’ll be either waking up constantly or not reaching the deep sleep you should be.

This will give you a very fresh and vivid image of your dream, which you would have otherwise forgotten.

Chocolate essentially makes your dreams clearer to see by keeping you awake.

What types of chocolate cause nightmares?

The simple answer is that none of them and all of them.

As I said, there is no reason chocolate will directly cause nightmares as such.

However, the problem is you’re being kept awake.

All chocolate has caffeine in it, so the worst culprits to avoid are coffee-flavored chocolate.

Other than that, there’s really no good chocolate to eat before bed.

Save the chocolate as a midday snack—you’ll thank yourself the next morning.

There is one very simple piece of advice, then, which is don’t eat chocolate before bed as I did.

At best it will make your sleep more restless and at worst it will make you feel like you’ve barely had any at all and remember all your vivid dreams in the process.

However, to nail down the question we are looking at, chocolate, in itself, does not cause nightmares.

You are just more likely to remember them after eating a sugary, caffeine-rich food.

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