Sweet Dreams!

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Story: It’s Halloween night, and Tom has eaten a lot of sweets right before he went to bed and now he is experiencing bad dreams. Help Tom get through his nightmares and make healthy choices so that he can run his marathon in the morning!

Objective: Go through Tom’s dreams and defeat all unhealthy sprites while making healthy choices.

Audience: This health related game is intended for an audience of ages +3

Team Members: Clara, Danielle, and Rachel

Health Lessons: The study theorized that going to bed on a full stomach triggered nightmare-causing brain waves- especially when the food is unhealthy food. After the study had finished and the subjects ceased eating before bed they not only lost weight, but four people saw a decrease in nightmares. Low blood sugar caused by not eating for a long period of time before sleeping can also trigger vivid nightmares. When the body is frantic with hunger it releases adrenalin, which is translated into your subconscious. With children, nightmares often occur after eating sugar, spicy, or exotic foods before bedtime. Eating sugar before bed often results in high blood sugar (hyperglycemic) for a short while, then, often after the person goes to sleep the body becomes low in blood sugar (hypoglycemic) and this is thought to contribute to nightmares. In adults, eating sugary, spicy or exotic foods, drinking alcohol or taking drugs before bedtime often precipitates nightmares. So eat an hour before you sleep and make sure it is healthy food like on the food triangle!

http://www.nisfornarcolepsy.com/2010/02/foods-that-supposedly-cause-nightmares.html

 Foods you should avoid before you go to sleep are spicy food or food that has a lot of sugar

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A test was done where physically fit men ate spicy food before bed and they none of them had deep sleep and they experienced nighmares.Several things may account for the effect. An obvious possibility is indigestion. But the scientists also noted that after eating the spicy meals the subjects had elevated body temperatures during their first sleep cycles, which has been linked in other studies to poorer sleep quality.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/health/17real.html

  

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/13/10-foods-to-avoid-before-bed/

Foods you shoiuld avoid are foods high in sugar like ice cream!

Ice cream has a lot of fat in it, so you’re not going to give your body a chance to burn any of it before bed, and then all of the sugar is going to pump your body full of energy right before you go to sleep, so you’ll be sending your body abnormal messages. On top of that, the sugar gets stored and turned to fat, too, so this means ice cream is only good for your tastebuds!

It’s also been discovered that eating high-sugar foods before bed causes nightmares, so while the taste might be calming, the results are unnerving.