The Crazy Amount Of Money That One Job Will Pay You For Eating Cheese
A company called Sleep Junkie is recruiting for what they are calling "dairy dreamers" and will pay those hired $1,000 to eat cheese before bed and keep a diary of how their bodies respond.
From tacos to pasta, a generous helping of cheese makes everything better. Now, a company called Sleep Junkie is hypothesizing that eating cheese before bed could change the quality of your sleep. They are currently hiring a group of “dairy dreamers” who will receive $1,000 for eating a different type of cheese before bed for three months and keeping a diary of their experiences.
The Sleep Junkie website is all about slumber, offering sleep product reviews on everything from mattresses to pillows and sheets. They also have a section devoted to sleep research, your destination if you want more information about the eating cheese study. So far, the company has published articles about falling asleep at the wheel, sleep’s effect on teachers, and what really happens to us when we skip sleeping for a day.
If the idea that cheese influences sleep sounds foreign to you, you’re probably not from Europe. There, it’s a common theory that eating cheese before bedtime will give you nightmares. Sleep expert Dorothy Chambers hopes the three-month study will finally uncover the truth.
“We also want to look at, if this is true, do different cheeses have more of an effect than others?” Chambers asked on the website. “In order to test this theory we are hiring a team of five ‘dairy dreamers’ to experiment on the impact that eating cheese really has on our sleep quality, energy levels and whether it increases the likelihood of nightmares. The chosen candidates will be paid for their work and all cheese costs will be expensed.”
According to Sleep Junkie’s research, about 50 percent of adults have an occasional nightmare, a distressing and vivid dream. Seven to eight percent of adults have recurring nightmares, and women appear to have them two to four times more frequently than men. Around one in four children between the ages of five and 12 experience occasional nightmares.
Most people recall their nightmares in vivid detail and some have trouble falling back to sleep due to higher heart rates and elevated blood pressure. Sleep deprivation, mental health conditions, and sleep disorders have been linked to causing nightmares. Eating late at night could be a potential cause even if eating cheese proves not to be a factor.
Food&Wine shared that dairy dreamer applicants must own a smartwatch or other type of sleep tracker and record their sleep quality each night. Their written evaluations must also include details on any dreams or nightmares and their energy levels throughout the week. Participants will begin eating cheese in March and are expected to remain involved for the full three months of the study to receive the $1,000 compensation.
Additional applicant caveats include being at least 21 years old and having a consistent sleep schedule. Applicants should be free of any current sleep issues and be able to commit to sleeping alone for the length of the study. Obviously, applicants should enjoy eating cheese on a daily basis and commit to eating the requested cheese at the same time each evening.
During the study, Sleep Junkie’s sleep experts will provide a list of cheeses, with one type to be eaten each week of the test period. The list includes a variety of cheeses, such as hard, blue, processed, and soft-ripened. Participants will also be eating cheese in vegan and lactose-free varieties, and there will be a week-long break between each cheese swap to ensure accurate results.
If getting paid for eating cheese sounds like your dream gig, apply soon. Sleep Junkie will only be accepting five people into the study and the application window closes on February 10. It probably goes without saying, but they’re not interested in applicants who have any type of dairy or lactose intolerance.
