Does Garlic Cause Strange Dreams and Nightmares?
Filed under Garlic | Comments (21)
The other day, a friend of mine told me that consuming garlic causes both he and his sister to have nightmares. I decided to do some Googling to see if "garlic nightmares" were a commonly experienced thing. I didn't find much, but there were a few people who claim garlic affects their dreams.
One person mentioned a possible connection between garlic and the strange dream she'd had the night before, saying "I think I had too much garlicky pesto for lunch yesterday. Perhaps I've inherited the garlic/nightmares connection from my mother."
On a forum about MSG, someone said: "I have been looking for a link between food and my having nightmares for a while now. However, I have not found MSG to be my problem but have found it to be garlic instead."
Someone else says, "Garlic causes me to have weird dreams and lousy sleep."
Spicy foods, chocolate, and fatty foods in general are believed to cause nightmares if consumed before bed, but garlic isn't usually named as a food to avoid if you want sweet dreams.
Post your comments here if you have noticed a connection between garlic and nightmares. I'd love to see how many people out there believe garlic is causing not just bad breath but bad dreams, too!
Posted by Tracy on September 14, 2007 11:23 AM | DIGG | del.icio.us | furl
I googled today to see if there is a connection to bad/wierd dreams and garlic and I found these comments. Every time I eat anything with garlic I have a hard time sleeping. It's nice to know other people have the same issue. I guess my caesar salad will have to be a special treat.
I love garlic. It seems like a coincedence, but I seem to have more dreams when I have had a garlic laden dinner. Not bad dreams, just more likely to dream.
I love garlic. It seems like a coincedence, but I seem to have more dreams when I have had a garlic laden dinner. Not bad dreams, just more likely to dream.
I definitely have garlic nightmares. I had them last night (as well as several other times) which is why I ended up at this posting. I don't eat a lot very often, but whenever I do, I have the nightmares. I wonder what causes it and why only some people have this? I love garlic, but it does not like my sleeping peacefully!
I found this by googling after last night's horrific time I had trying to sleep, I woke up every ten minutes or so feeling out of my mind, had a weird mucousy garlic layer in my mouth, and had insane dreams after my overloaded garlic meal at noneother than, Johnny Garlic's restaurant.
I found this by googling after last night's horrific time I had trying to sleep, I woke up every ten minutes or so feeling out of my mind, had a weird mucousy garlic layer in my mouth, and had insane dreams after my overloaded garlic meal at noneother than, Johnny Garlic's restaurant.
Last night my wife made a shrimp scampi in a garlic butter sauce. I rarely have dreams at all but last night, I had a bad one. All I could remember in the dream is that I was angry as hell. And everything seemed so real. It's true, garlic does cause bad dreams and nightmares. This wasn't the first time neither.
Recently I've been having trouble sleeping, usually waking up 2-3 times during the night and having the most strange dreams, and i've also recently discovered my love of garlic.. and have been having 3-4 cloves a day. Now I know what i've been doing wrong!
Found this blog when I type garlic + nightmares into my search bar. I did so because after having garlic I had a very lucid nightmare, but here's the wierd thing . . . The whole time I was having the nightmare, I enjoyed it. Weird isn't it.
I have only started to eat garlic but have started 2 eat lots of it for my lunch and dinner. The last few nights I have had restless sleeps and not nightmares but strange dreams. So I decided to google garlic and dreams. I think garlic is the core of my problem.
I have only started to eat garlic but have started 2 eat lots of it for my lunch and dinner. The last few nights I have had restless sleeps and not nightmares but strange dreams. So I decided to google garlic and dreams. I think garlic is the core of my problem.
garlic definitely causes more dreams for me. not always bad but always insightful. something I look forward to after a good garlic dish.
If you look into Five Element Theory(wiki it) which is the basis of Traditional Chinese Medicine you will find that garlic is: Pungent, Heating, Drying and can affect the Liver and Kidneys which are generally more related to dreaming than any of the other organs as defined by TCM. When the Kidney energy deficient, as example with too much garlic drying up its Yin fluids, the negative nature of that particular organ is typified by the emotion of 'fear'. With the Liver, when dried and heated as the Kidneys by too much garlic, the prevalent negative emotion is 'anger'. Put those two together and you get a lack of Yin and too much Yang which can make for a very discomforting status both asleep and awake.
I personally have "nightmare issues" with MSG. I can't help but correlate the grotesque and rapid-fire imagery I experience with that seen in "The Men Behind the Sun". (fyi: A quick perusal of you--tube may show more than you want to see, both in the movie clips and tonally "anti-Japanese" historical gore-umentaries). A new and possibly untestable pet theory of mine is that the development of MSG in 1909 by Ajinomoto Corp. had a part in developing a mindset willing to enact the gore-torture atrocities of the "Rape of Nanking" and at 'Unit 731' (which the mentioned movie is wholly about). A source I found states MSG was first synthesized some decades before this by a German(hint). But this is HIGHLY speculative and I doubt it could ever be tied distinctly together especially when there are "hundreds of scientific studies emphazising its safety in human consumption". Chalk it up to excitotoxicity and move on; make your own food.
A quick tip: if you want to enjoy garlic but have issues try to eat a large portion of cucumber. It is thoroughly Cooling and Moistening enough to diminish such adverse effects from the garlic.
Here's a favorite page of mine with info on the foods in each Element:
http://www.yinyanghouse.com/theory/chinese/five_element_nutrition_theory
Pair that with the **excellent** Five Element Cycle graphic on Wiki--pedia.
well its 3am, i just woke up after having the most horrible frightening nightmare, it seemed so real, i was shocked, and ofcourse relieved when i woke up in my bed, i really thought what was happening was real. I had remembered last time i dreamt like this i had eaten a fair bit of raw garlic, and tonight about an hour before bed i had a clove of raw garlic in a salad.
so i,. like the rest of you it seems typed in garlic nightmares into google, and found this sight...
so strange that garlic can cause nightmares...
i have been eating garlic for the past 3 nights in a row and so far the first two have yeilded in 2 weird remembered dreams a night. I will keep this post up to date as to what happens tonite. and so forth. I enjoy the weird dreams and im writing them down in a log.
i have been eating garlic for the past 3 nights in a row and so far the first two have yeilded in 2 weird remembered dreams a night. I will keep this post up to date as to what happens tonite. and so forth. I enjoy the weird dreams and im writing them down in a log.
I enjoyed reading everyone's feedback. It's almost four am and I can't get to sleep. I ate three cloves of raw garlic in my salad. I consume it on a regular basis due to its many anti-fungal properties, but it looks like I may have to find other alternatives. I don't suffer nightmares from eating it, but without fail I always have a restless night's sleep. I wonder if it releases some chemical into the brain. Maybe that's the main reason Brahmins are traditionally forbidden to eat it.
I know garlic is causing weird (vivid) dreams. One or two cloves is all it takes. The bad part is I love garlic and know it's healthy to eat.
I took garlic for the first time late yesterday evening. I woke up screaming.... it was really awful. I NEVER have nightmares, not even as a child. This was sheer hell I went through, in the form of a nightmare, thought dead people were in my room. I will never take it again.
My sister and I ALWAYS have weird dreams after I eat fresh garlic or if it has been used heavily in any cooked dish!