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Comment by nyc111 | Hacker News Reader

But dreaming is related to the gut not the brain. What we eat before we go to sleep decides what we dream about. Dream is related to the microbiome. We are conscious of only the dreams just before we wake up. That is, before the conscious mind awakens.

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Can you elaborate? Does that mean that if you something that your "good bacteria" likes, then you'll have nice dreams, and if you eat something your "bad bacteria" likes you'll have nightmares? Or how exactly would that work? Or are you just referring to being able to dream at all being linked to having enough good bacteria?

I just think it has something to do with the bacteria but I don't know how it works. I think that by personal experience certain kind of food causes nightmares. I associate nightmares with food that cause bloating like starch. And also cheese and dairy and fermented food. But I did not try a scientific study by eating for instance dairy and note if I had nightmares. As you say it is most probably related to good and bad bacteria. Also, let's not forget that during sleep consciousness is asleep and if there is a danger the microbes may need to wake up the consciousness and one way of doing this is serve nightmares to the consciousness. I believe that there is a complex relationship with the gut microbes and the consciousness and we don't know how this works.

Source? I was always under the impression that what you eat affects your dreams is an old wives tale.

Not necessarily a food, but nicotine can create insane dreams. People who are in the process of quitting cigarettes can have really disturbing dreams if they fall asleep with the patch.

So true. I had some wild, wild rides at night while wearing the patch (which I wore 23hrs and removed before exercise)

Source is my personal experience. I'm positive that if I go to bed with full stomach the probability of nightmare increases. Also some food like dairy triggers nightmares I think. Of course, all circumstantial, I didn't try a scientific study.

If there's any relation between dreaming and the gut, it is certainly because something happening in the gut is affecting the brain.

We seem to be saying the same thing but instead of "brain" I say "consciousness." Appearances we call dreams originate in the guts and are serviced to the consciousness. How or why I don't know. It may be through the Vagus nerve.

This claim needs some strong studies, there may be a link but not a direct cause, like I don't eat well I have no dreams at all.

It's true that some nights we sleep deeply and we are not aware of any dreams. I think this happens when the digestive system is not doing any work, that is, if we go to sleep with empty stomach.

For me it depends of tired I am, if I do too much physical work then when I wake up it feels I just slept 5 minutes. If i don't sleep enough then I don't remember any dreams , if I sleep enough hours i will remember my morning dreams. For my case part of my dreams are related with my anxieties or things I want hard to do.

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