A Sleep Company Wants to Pay You to Eat Cheese Late at Night. Dream Job or Nightmare? Does Swiss cheese poke holes in your chances for pleasant dreams?
By Dan Bova
Looking for a gouda night's sleep?
Sleep Junkie, a sleep research company affiliated with mattress company Amerisleep, has a new study in the works that will have late-night snackers drooling — they want to pay people to eat cheese before going to bed.
"[W]e wanted to test out one of the most popular European sleep theories, that eating cheese before bed gives you nightmares, and see if there is any truth behind this. We also want to look at, if this is true, do different cheeses have more of an effect than others?" the company explained on its job application page.
Related: 6 Sleep Hacks That Are Also Good for the Environment
Interested? Act fast. They are only accepting five 'dairy dreamers' for the experiment. Here's what you need to know and how to apply:
- The gig starts in March and lasts three months
- You will be paid $1,000
- You will need to log your sleep via a sleep tracker
- You will provide a written evaluation of your sleep quality, any feedback on dreams and nightmares, and energy levels throughout the week.
- You must be at least 21 years old, own a smartwatch or fitness tracker that tracks sleep, go to bed at consistent hours, and be able to sleep alone during the course of the trial.
- You will purchase and eat the list of cheeses provided each week. These will include blue, hard, soft-ripened and processed, as well as vegan and lactose-free selections. You will be able to expense your purchases.
Related: 12 Ways to Smoothly Start Waking Up Earlier
While it remains to be seen if late-night lactose does in fact cause crazy dreams, one thing participants should know is that their new eating habit might be pretty hard to break at the end of the three-month trial.
A study conducted at Mt. Sinai revealed that cheese may be addictive. It contains a chemical called casein that triggers the brain's opioid receptors. Assistant professor of pharmacology and systems therapeutics Nicole Avena, Ph.D., at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, explained the implications of the study, "This is a first step towards identifying specific foods, and properties of foods, which can trigger this addictive response," she said. "This could help change the way we approach obesity treatment. It may not be a simple matter of 'cutting back' on certain foods, but rather, adopting methods used to curtail smoking, drinking and drug use."
