While it is said that eating cheese before bed will give you nightmares, sleeping on your stomach may lead to erotic dreams.

A new study revealed that people who sleep on their fronts are significantly more likely to have erotic dreams compared to those who went to sleep in other positions.

People who sleep in the prone position reported feeling sensations related to "sex" and "persecution" more frequently than others who slept in other positions.

Prone sleepers also reported other racy dream themes like "being tied up," "being locked up" and "being unable to move," according to the new study published in the journal Dreaming.

Lead author Calvin Kai-Ching Yu of Shue Yan University in Hong Kong suggests that the increase in sexy thoughts could be because that people don't get as much air when they sleep on their stomach, so it makes their unconscious brain think or imagine being constricted as a result of external stimuli.

Researchers interviewed 670 university students, two-thirds of whom were female and asked them to complete surveys about their dreams.

Participants were asked to fill out details of how often they dreamt and how intense their dreams were and to identify the themes that came up in their dreams.

Participants were also asked to write down how often they slept on their side, face down or face up.

The most frequent theme that came up when people slept on their stomach most was "erotomania," or when a person believes they have a secret admirer, who is often a famous person.

Researchers concluded that “this study provides the evidence that dream experiences, and in particular dream content, can be influenced by body posture during sleep.”

"I believe that the brain during sleep is not at all totally detached from the external world, and stimuli, including those stemming from the environment, are probably incorporated into dream content more often than people observe or are aware of," Kai-Ching Yu said, according to NBC News. "The unconscious brains of the dreamers try to make sense, and even make use of, the external stimuli."

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