The FastDay Forum

This is not you usual directly obvious side effect, but a comment that one of my friends has just made about the nature of memory has just struck a chord with me.

Essentially, has anyone else been getting getting repeating dreams of a particular period in their life?

For around a year, I've been having dreams almost nightly about my late childhood. It's been driving me mental trying to figure out is there is a deep seated emotional reason for this, or if anything in my life just now may have triggered childhood memories, but nothing is obvious. However, my friend just told me about a theory he's been reading regarding memories being partially chemical rather than purely electrical and therefore there is potential for them to be stored in other parts of the body than just the brain.

I'm now wondering if weight loss triggers these dreams. Anyone else?............. or just me!

I can see that weight loss may trigger more or better clarity dreaming, because yes your chemical composition does change. Much more Estrogen (or is it oestrogren) being released into the blood stream for starters, maybe better control of your thyroid as another reason. But, memory being stored elsewere would generally be reported whenever anyone had an amputation as a massive memory loss.

Hadn't really considered hormones. Maybe. I've only lost around a stone but I suppose it's the eating pattern that's driving hormonal changes rather than changes in fat percentage per se.

There have been studies with tapeworms showing that when trained tapeworms are fed to untrained tapeworms, they take on the trained tapeworms' behaviour. Obviously this eating included their brains, but the chemical part of the theory was what they were demonstrating.

Trained tapeworms??? That is going to give me a bad dream or two

How does one train a tapeworm???

I always dream of food when I'm fasting, but it is quite obvious where this dream comes from, LOL!

I am a tad confused what is the question, those tape worms are a real distraction as well.

What would you train a tapeworm to do? Fetch your slippers? Going to have to google that one.

The question is the second paragraph.
"Essentially, has anyone else been getting getting repeating dreams of a particular period in their life?"
I should correct myself, they were flatworms. Much more palatable.

No particular dreams but I am like a log which is fabulous after years of struggling to sleep.

I wonder if ketosis affects dreams. My question back is from the theory about memories being stored do you mean we loose memories when we loose fat? for me I am glad it has gone and am feeling happier for it

Hope you work out the repeated dreams.

Try this:

http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformat ... dreams.htm

Or this:

http://www.dreamdictionary.org/dreaming ... ng-dreams/

Our brains are mostly fat, or should I say cholesterol. Would losing weight also mean our brains are getting lighter and therefore we would lose memories? Or is a fat person more likely to be brainier (which I doubt as blood/oxygen supply would be affected).

Our brains are mostly fat, or should I say cholesterol....

Not cholesterol but:

"Protective Myelin is 70% Fat

Myelin, the protective sheath that covers communicating neurons, is composed of 30% protein and 70% fat. One of the most common fatty acids in myelin is oleic acid, which is also the most abundant fatty acid in human milk and in our diet.

Monosaturated oleic acid is the main component of olive oil as well as the oils from almonds, pecans, macadamias, peanuts, and avocados."

taken from:

http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/fats.html

Intermittent fasting and memory:

"Fasting Increases Levels of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)

BDNF is a protein that interacts with neurons in the hippocampus, cortex, and basal forebrain (the parts of the brain that regulate memory, learning, and higher cognitive function – uniquely human stuff). It helps existing neurons survive while spurring the growth of new neurons (neurogenesis) and the development of synapses (lines of communication between neurons). Low levels of BDNF are linked to Alzheimer’s, and supplementary BDNF prevents neuronal death, memory loss, and cognitive impairment in an animal model of Alzheimer’s disease."


Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fasting- ... z2cdcdmhpN"

There probably is a hormone connection. I remember having a lot of lucid strange dreams during all three of my pregnancies. I sometimes have them when fasting, too.

Thats it, I'm putting my 16 year old on the fast as well. He has dyspraxia (along with Autism, dyslexia and a half dozen other problems) all caused by brain developmental problems. If fasting can help his neurons grow better I don't mind him sacrificing a possible inch or two of growth if it will heal his brain.