Myth Busters

• Counting Sheep Does Not Help You Fall Asleep. Picturing a Calm Scene Works Better

  Counting sheep is the classic advice for a mind that won’t switch off at bedtime. The idea is that a dull, repetitive task will bore you to sleep. The research tells a different story. Counting is too easy to hold your attention, so your worries...

• Cheese Does Not Cause Nightmares. Here Is What Actually Happens

  Cheese Does Not Cause Nightmares. Here Is What Actually Happens A nightmare is a vivid, upsetting dream that often wakes you up and stays with you the next morning. For more than a century, people have blamed cheese for them, especially a late-night slice of...

• Myth: Warm Milk Makes Me Sleepy. Here’s What the Science Says

  Warm milk is the classic bedtime drink, said to help you sleep because it contains tryptophan, an amino acid your body uses to make sleep chemicals. The research tells a different story. A normal glass of milk does not contain enough tryptophan to make you...