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We’ve all heard by now that dreaming helps us to consolidate ideas and skills learned during the day. We do this by entering the REM phase during sleep. We’ve also heard for quite some time that foods high in Omega 3 (salmon, walnuts etc.) promote learning.

Something I’ve discovered on my own is that consuming foods high in Omega 3 fatty acids give me very vivid and detailed dreams. This leads me to another theory I’ve had for a while (but can’t find any scientific support): the way Omega 3 helps the brain to learn is by stimulating vivid dreaming during sleep.

All of us here want to learn to play the piano to one degree or another. Does anyone here concentrate on foods high in Omega 3 or use supplements to help with this?

Wow, I have never considered how my diet could affect my playing. Following this with interest.

I would caution people against anecdotal evidence and pseudo-scientific explanations. A better idea is to follow the generally accepted health advice of sleeping enough hours for your age (very important for learning and memory), eating a healthy diet, and exercising regularly.

Fish oil (which is high in Omega-3) is well known to increase dream vividness. It appears also to promote rather dark dreams. The internet is littered with anecdotes about this.

Omega-3 is absolutely essential to healthy living, and anyone who doesn't eat a good amount of fish (particularly those high in fat), should probably supplement Omega-3.

If you don't regularly eat fish, you definitely should consider an omega-3 supplement. There's fish oil and flax seed oil for it.

It's a general mood and smarts/memory improver, and can even help people with depression.

There's a reason Asians can remember the thousands of hieroglyphics their writings systems are composed of and do better at rote memorization.

The connection between fish oil consumption and dreaming is not apparent to me, neither do I consider my dreams, which I frequently remember and enjoy, have any particular effect on either my memory or facility at the instrument.



Sounds sensible to me. I have tried various supplements at times over the years but stopped them because I couldn't see any benefit. Might as well have just tipped them down the lavatory and eliminated the middle man. I concede that other people might benefit from them, just not me.

I eat a lot of fish with high content of omega-3. My main motivation is that this is my favourite food. But I'm also convinced that there are health benefits connected with eating fish. Not only the fatty acids, but also vitamin D. I can't guarantee that it had any effect on my piano playing, though.

Mmm, going to start the omegas again.. I have taken them in the past but as I never remember my dreams, cannot comment on that. Omega 3 is essential for brain function, I do try to have some fish now and then, but probably not enough.

I noticed no effect of omega-3 supplements on me. I tried 3 different supplements for 3-4 months each.

Just don't expect miracles.

I have taken omega-3 supplements for at least ten years now, and I don't notice any effect. However, scientifically, its good effects are quite established.


Exactly!

I would also urge caution here. Too many supplements if taken in high doses can be fatal. Vitamin A for example. It is almost always better to get your vitamins/minerals etc... through natural means. Be careful and only take supplements in moderation. Just my thoughts...

Agree. Eat* and sleep and exercise in a healthy manner and good things will follow. Beware of correlation being mistaken for causation. Few supplements contain what they claim and in the amount they claim. FDA takes action.....


*The Mediterranean Diet has shown benefits in clinical trials. It's far better to eat the food rather than a supplement. There are complexities and interactions among the substances in the food that don't exist in a supplement.

Ah, but what about heavy metals in fish oil?

I take fish oil. It seems to improve my lipid profile quite a bit.

I am a below average piano student, and that may be too generous. I use pianomarvel and they have sight reading tests where you just don't know what they will put before you. You get a few seconds to prepare and then it's sink or swim. My high scores are always on a day when I've taken phosphatidylserine. YMMV. My physician was fine with it but I don't take it every day. My experience has always been that anything that makes you feel too good will ultimately put you in the ground.

I'd really like to hear more about this experience of yours of being put into the ground! Is this called an "near-ground experience?"

Omega 3 from oily fish is essential for good health. BTW, the omega 3 from plants isn't quite the same, so don't equate the two (despite what vegans would have you believe). The ALA from plants (avocado, walnuts, flaxseed etc) don't have the benefits of EPA and DHA from oily fish.

Eat the small oily fish (sardines, mackerel, anchovies, herring) rather than the big ones, which contain much more mercury (because they gobble up lots of small fish and concentrate their heavy metals......). I'd keep away from swordfish, tuna etc. Canned tuna has lost most of its omega 3, unlike canned sardines and mackerel and salmon, so if you're one of those stocking up your nuclear-proof bunker in preparation for the end of the world, you know which cans to buy.

My lead-lined larder is well-stocked with cans of mackerel and sardines, plus a few of salmon and anchovies (the last especially for their umami flavor which adds yum to anything, including veg and meat: try it). If I need a quick meal of sandwiches, it's always filled with one of these fish, not tuna.

For those who don't believe in imminent end of world scenarios, just ditch the cans and buy some real fish at the fish stand. Processed foods aren't exactly the healthiest choice.

Actually, many canned products are just as nutritious (and often more nutritious) than the so-called 'fresh' variety, which - for fish, is rarely 'fresh' as in fresh. That's because the product is canned almost immediately from fresh, and with most of its nutrients intact (except for a few exceptions like tuna).

That 'fresh' tuna used to make your sushi could have been caught a year before, and frozen until ready to be used. I know that the 'fresh' salmon, trout etc laid out on the ice in my supermarket's fish counter is likely to have been caught over a week before they get there - or more likely, frozen, then thawed and sold as 'fresh'. I don't live near the sea.

Don't mean to derail this thread even more than it is, but a good friend of mine who I used to work with was a die-hard healthy food eater, and progressed beyond organic to something truly terrifying - buying her foods directly from certain select organic farmers in bulk "under the table" without any of the legally required processing (including no pasteurization of milk, etc.) After a few years of this, she almost died of a kidney infection and ended up being saved by an organ transplant. She blames this entirely on her theory she was "poisoned" by her ex-husband. I personally (and non-professionally) think it is far more likely to be traced back to her completely unprocessed foods. But who knows? I'm not a doctor nor a nutritionist and the real doctors in her case were not able to identify a cause. It was enough for me though to think twice about the wisdom of unprocessed foods in general.