h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just about the old wifes tale you posted by mistake. There may be some truth in this as cheese contains alot of thymine, which is used to help make chemical messengers in the body called monoamines.

People who are prescribed monoamine oxidase inhibitors for depression (monoamine oxidase is an enzyme that breaks down thymine) are told to avoid cheese (and other foods containing high thymine) as the excess thymine would cause a rise in blood pressure and possibly hallucinations. This is because of increased monoamine production from thymine, a similar effect is causes by amphetamines or "speed".

I'm getting there! So eating cheese before going to bed may raise the amount of monoamines being produced and may increase dreaming. However this has never been proven in a scientific manner!

Thanks for a full and technical answer - much appreciated.

I throught that it was the high salt content of cheese that was a possible cause of high blood pressure and was not aware of thymine.

I remember a lab experiment when studying chemistry in which the salt in cheese was measured by titration against silver nitrate with the precipitation of silver chloride marking the end point.

I never got to the point of measuring enzymes but thanks for reminding me of times gone by - the most common use of my chemistry knowlege these days are questions in TV quizzes such as:

What element has the chemical symbol W/Ag/Na/Au etc.

Prunesquallor