Healthy eating, and excercise. do they affect your dreaming?

I have always been curious and hope others have the same question.

Q1: Does eating healthy affect dreaming? as in less refined sugars and greasy foods. instead you have salads, fruits, and overall healthier meals, what have you guys experienced with this sort of thing?

Q2: Does exercise help with lucid dreaming? on days you go to the gym, run, or whatever it is you do to stay active, does it affect how your dream recall or vividness is?

i normally do both but not much lately. been getting physical therapy and not always making the best choices in portions lately i think may have some affect.



p.s. im trying a bedtime tea for the heck of it if anyones interested in hearing about how thats going. just to wind down really, not using to directly affect my dreaming but maybe it does.

Dreaming is a mental activity so anything that's good for the mind is good for lucid dreaming. Because of this, these physical changes will only make an impact to your dreaming if they make a mental impact.

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Q1: Does eating healthy affect dreaming? as in less refined sugars and greasy foods. instead you have salads, fruits, and overall healthier meals, what have you guys experienced with this sort of thing?

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Eating (both the timing and the choice of food) can both directly and indirectly impact your dreaming. First you need to consider the nutrients we obtain from food and how they can alter our neurochemistry....after all, much of the medicine we take to treat various illnesses are simply specific combinations of concentrated doses of many chemicals found also in foods. I've only experimented with cheese, but found it simply too hard to determine it's efficiency or lack of. Maybe you can find some studies regarding the impact of certain foods on dreaming around :)?

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Q2: Does exercise help with lucid dreaming? on days you go to the gym, run, or whatever it is you do to stay active, does it affect how your dream recall or vividness is?

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Indirectly at least for sure: in the medium/long-term exercise is shown to improve sleep quality which can contribute to more lucid dreams, even if it's as simple as helping you fall asleep faster. In the end, proper physical exercise has many positive impacts on your health, and even if we lack studies to show it's impact on dreaming, we know for sure that it's an habit that can benefit you in all sorts of ways.

It seems to me that when I'm running consistently, I have more frequent DILDs. It'd be fun to do an experiment to see if exercise is really having a noticeable effect on LDing.

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Originally Posted by MoonageDaydream

It seems to me that when I'm running consistently, I have more frequent DILDs. It'd be fun to do an experiment to see if exercise is really having a noticeable effect on LDing.

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I too am a runner, but after a sports hernia i had to let it heal. its probably ok now and i need to start going again. I really wanna do these to live healthier over all but also if it helps my dreaming its just even more motivation to do so.

Yes and yes. Exercise oxygenates the brain allowing it to function to its fullest potential. I believe this is also why eating some energy-packed snack at WBTB time (e.g., apple juice, bread, small bowl of cereal [you don't want to overload your gut]) also promotes vivid dreaming, it gives the brain the fuel it needs to operate at the higher levels needed for lucidity.