Q. can nutrition help remember dreams?
A. You should be able to remember your dreams with a little nutritional intervention. Your nervous system is dependent on B vitamins [1]. They are present in many foods. They are removed by processing and refining (of grains, for example). And B vitamins are depleted in the body by stress and alcohol [2]. So many people today are not getting enough. At the institute for Optimum Nutrition, we found that the specific B vitamin related to dream recall is B6 [3], but B vitamins do work together so it’s best to take a complex plus extra B6. I’d recommend 50 mg B complex with breakfast and dinner. Either as a B complex or in a multi. Also 50 mg B6 at breakfast, lunch and dinner (totaling 250 mg of B6). And 15 mg zinc with breakfast. If this doesn’t work, take an additional 50 mg B6 before bed and make nutrition help remember dreams. Also reduce your alcohol intake and stress levels, and eat vitamin B-rich foods (whole grains, brewer’s yeast, lentils, most vegetables).
References: [1] Reynolds E. Vitamin B12, folic acid, and the nervous system. PMID: 17052662. [2] Gibson A, Woodside JV, Young IS, Sharpe PC, Mercer C, Patterson CC, McKinley MC, Kluijtmans LA, Whitehead AS, Evans A. Alcohol increases homocysteine and reduces B vitamin concentration in healthy male volunteers--a randomized, crossover intervention study. PMID: 18790817. [3] Ebben M, Lequerica A, Spielman A. Effects of pyridoxine on dreaming: a preliminary study. PMID: 11883552.
