Does food classified as spicy or piquant affect the unconcious mental activity known as dreaming? Dreams occuring after the consumption of "spicy" food tend to result in unusual (or strange) dreams whereas dreams occuring after the consumption of "normal" food (control) were only minimally strange.
Subjects #1, #2, and #3 were used in this experiment to demonstrate how the spiciness of food can affect dreams.
Subject #1 was given no food for 72 hours. Only vitamin supplements and water.
Subject #2 was given a regular hamburger (with lettuce and tomato and ketchup, no onions, no cheese, no mustard), french fries, and a diet, caffeine free cola.
Subject #3 was given Chicken Pad Se-ew - hot spice level and in large servings, Thai Iced Tea, and white rice.
Subject #1 did not dream, well, if he did he could not communicate it. After the first 24 hour period he communicated that he did not have a dream, or at least could not recall a dream. After 48 hours, we could not hear his voice over the grumbling in his stomach. After 72 hours, his mouth was continually stuffed with food, making any de-briefing impossible.
Subject #2 dreamed. Nothing unusual.
The following is an excerpt from the imaginary dream journal of Subject #3:
I found myself walking along the street of my neighborhood. As I reached the end of the block I had discovered that I was suddenly in the middle of Time Square, except instead of streets, there were canals, and lakes replaced several city blocks.
I walked along the sidewalks next to the canals - for some reason, the sidewalks were still in tact and there were bridges over the canals for the sidewalks to continue. The sidewalks were stereotypical New York sidewalks, except for the fact that everyone was talking and smiling at each other.
I continued walking, and I noticed I was wearing my red and white pin-stripe pajamas - except that I don't own and red and white pin-stripe pajamas. My fuzzy white opened-toed slippers (which I also do not own) were getting wet from the water pooling on the sidewalk.
I seemed to be in a confused state, so I walked up to the first smiling, talking New Yorker and asked,
"Do you know what is going on?" A general question, at best. Then the man looked at me, suddenly stopped smiling and, in the scariest monotone, said,
"Yes, I do - but we aren't allowed to tell you." I looked at him, wide-eyed for a moment before turning to run in the opposite direction. Why was I being excluded? Had someone informed them ? What was it that someone would have informed to those that would keep me from knowing what about the current happenings in general? In a flash, the sky darkened (I had just realized it was blue until this moment - funny how you only notice things gone when they leave) and the water in the canals were getting choppy and a thin drizzle started to fall.
I looked around and saw familiar people in a nearby boat - I say familiar because I felt that I knew these people and that they were somehow connected to me, but I could not make out their identities because I could not see their faces (or I cannot remember them from the dream, as I am now awake and trying to remember the dream) - I quickly jumped in the boat and we were racing away towards a destination, unknown to me, but obviously known to my familiars.
Looking over the back of the boat, I saw buildings where the lakes had replaced the city blocks - but, to my surprise, the buildings were not actually buildings, but numerous water tornadoes. These water devils were everywhere, I counted maybe 50 or so of varying widths, and they all seemed to extend from the dark clouds to the water.
We (and when I say "we", I really mean "they" as in the familiars, because I was in the back of the boat, sitting quietly, which is strange because the boat was being thrown around quite a bit and I was able to maintain my perfect posture and balance in my seat) raced in and out of the waterways of the canals, through the building and between the water tornadoes, several of which actually hit the boat and sprayed its occupants with torrents of water.
And then I died.
(Well, er... no, I didn't actually die, I don't even think I was remotely hurt, but I thought it would be much more interesting if I did. So pretend I did...)
All of a sudden, I hear an orchestra playing... the scene slowly dissolves and I awaken to the alarm of my cell phone...
This subject experienced high detail and sensation during his dreams. This is obviously attributed to the amount of spicy food he consumed.
No psychological evaluation was conducted on any of the subjects. Subjects #1 and #2 do not actually exist outside of this write up, they were just manifested to give a false credence to methods used to conduct this experiment. Also, the fact that Subject #3 is also the author of this thesis should have no bearing on the validity of this proposition.
These test are not repeatable, in fact, I doubt that the subject will ever have the same dream again - if he does, I am quite sure he won't remember it. Also, the type of spicy food probably has no affect on the outcome of this conclusion - the amount of spiciness is most likely a driving factor. Evidence also suggests that this could be an isolated incident - but that evidence has been thoroughly destroyed.
Conlusion: People will have strange dreams after eating a lot of spicy food...
BTW: This conclusion is second only to the Theory of the Ritz Cracker:
"Ritz crackers will make numbness go away" ~ Anna
Disclaimer:This thesis is of the definition "hypothetical proposition, especially one put forth without proof"
12/21/04 at 05:26 PM:
this is a great site, and tonight i will test this experiment to see what happens
05/31/05 at 03:35 AM:
did you consider the effect of the thai iced tea? i have a much easier time remembering dreams when i am caffeinated. it might have something to do with not sleeping as deeply. since thai iced tea has a lot of caffeine, i would expect it is the culprit rather than the spices.