Sugar aiding in the brains susceptibility to nightmares.
I was just commenting on an old post about someone who wanted to have nightmares. I used to be a thriller novelist and used to try some techniques to cause nightmares to get some ideas that I was keeping inside.
I have tried a number of techniques but there is only one that I have found to be reliable. Sugar.
It is true that eating food just before sleeping aids in the occurrence of nightmares. Spicy foods, hamburgers, pizza, etc (as I have seen mentioned here) are not particularly more effective than others.
Sugar is the cause of most nightmares. When you eat sugar before bed (ie. bread) your body has no proper way of dispersing the sugar into your system because your body is not in motion. Therefore the sugar is sent to your brain because it is the most active organ during sleep.
When your brain is full of sugar your thoughts tend to exaggerate and become scary or unusual. This is a very normal occurrence that has been proven in many psychological papers.
If you want to have nightmares, eat chocolate (as someone else mentioned) or lots of sugar then go directly to bed. Have a root beer float or some other combination of high-sugar foods. As long as you can fall asleep before the sugar keeps you awake, your brain should exaggerate your dreams and turn them into nightmares.
Happy nightmares!
-Ryan MacNeille (2:35AM in FL)
