Eating chicken causes nightmares, panic attacks, hallucinations and psychological harm in children and adults; panic attacks became widespread in the last 20 years because of mass chicken production.

Original statement

الولاد بيجي لهم هلوسه هواجس ضلالات الكلام ده كله مرتبط ارتباط لصيق باكل الفراخ ما فيش حد بياكل كل فراخ وماش ما بيجيلوش بانك اتاكس نوبات الهلع كلها ومنتشره في اخر 20 سنه لان حصل ايه ماس برودكشن الفراخ

verbatim according to source. Translation by the project; the Arabic wording is authoritative.

Translation

Eating chicken causes nightmares, panic attacks, hallucinations and psychological harm in children and adults; panic attacks became widespread in the last 20 years because of mass chicken production.

Origin

Source status

Video transcript (own words)

Attribution

Elawady (machine transcript)

Video

أولي حلقات برنامج الحقيقه والسراب (Open source)

Published

30 October 2025

Timestamp

0:21:47 (location in the original video’s automatic YouTube caption track; confirms where the words occur, not who speaks)

Attribution uncertainty

Archive transcript (YouTube CC or AI-generated); wording may contain transcription errors; no timestamps available.

Claimed mechanism

Not specified.

Claimed health effect

Nightmares, panic attacks, hallucinations, delusions, obsessive thoughts, enuresis, stuttering.

Population concerned

Children and adults

Geographic restriction by Elawady

none found

Diverging source versions

Scientific assessment

Mostly false – Essential parts of the statement are not supported by the evidence or are strongly exaggerated.

Certainty of evidence: low – Further research is likely to change the assessment considerably.

1. What was claimed?

Chicken causes nightmares, panic attacks, hallucinations and other psychiatric symptoms; mass chicken production explains a rise of panic attacks.

2. What is demonstrably correct?

Gastrointestinal discomfort and late eating are associated with worse sleep and more nightmares in self-report surveys.

3. What is wrong or exaggerated?

No evidence links chicken specifically to nightmares, panic attacks or psychosis. In two surveys, people most often blamed dairy and sweets for disturbing dreams. Attributing a 20-year trend in panic attacks to chicken ignores many other factors (diagnosis, awareness, stress).

4. What remains unclear?

Not applicable beyond the general lack of studies.

5. Which studies support it?

None found.

6. Which studies contradict it?

Very indirect only: I-EGG-12, I-EGG-13 (student surveys; foods blamed for dreams are mainly dairy and sweets; chicken not reported separately; no data on panic attacks or hallucinations).

7. What applies to Germany and Europe?

Not region-specific.

8. What is known about Egypt?

Not region-specific.

9. What practical conclusion is appropriate?

Panic attacks, hallucinations and persistent nightmares need medical or psychological assessment; stopping chicken is not an evidence-based treatment.

Assessment details

Rationale for certainty of evidence

No study was found linking chicken consumption to nightmares, panic disorder or psychosis. Food-and-dream surveys point to dairy and sweets as the foods most often blamed (I-EGG-12, I-EGG-13), but neither survey reports chicken separately (only 'meat', 13-16% of the few food mentions for disturbing dreams) and neither measured panic attacks or hallucinations, so this evidence is very indirect. The universal wording is contradicted by everyday experience, and attributing a population trend to chicken production is an unsupported ecological inference. Rated like the comparable egg claim C-EGG-01; certainty low because the topic is little studied.

Source quality

Own words in several machine transcripts, plus archive paraphrase; evidence consists of caller anecdotes.

Regional transferability

Universal claim.

Individual exceptions

Some people associate specific foods with poor sleep; food intolerance with gastrointestinal symptoms was associated with nightmares in a survey (I-EGG-13).

Regional scope of the claim

general (biological/medical)

Last reviewed

25 October 2026 provisional

In plain language

Dr. Elawady said that chicken causes nightmares, panic attacks and even hallucinations in children and adults. No research supports this. In surveys about food and dreams, people mostly blamed dairy products and sweets, not chicken. Panic attacks and hallucinations are real medical conditions that can be treated, so they should be checked by a doctor.

Studies on this claim

Regional context

Germany / EU

Not region-specific.

Egypt

Not region-specific.

• Antibiotic (veterinary drug) residues in poultry meat and eggs
• Antimicrobial use in food animals and antibiotic growth promoters
• Hormones in poultry, meat, milk and farmed fish
• Salmonella in laying hens, eggs and broiler chicken
• Drinking water quality
• Import controls and the meaning of RASFF notifications for Egyptian products

What applies in my country?

General scientific assessment

Mostly false There is no evidence that chicken causes nightmares, panic attacks or hallucinations.

The following areas of food safety are relevant to this statement:

• Veterinary medicines and antibiotics
• Hormonal growth promoters
• Contaminants (heavy metals, PFAS, PCBs, dioxins, nitrate)
• Pathogens (Salmonella, Campylobacter, etc.)
• Animal husbandry and feed
• Controls, imports, recalls, labelling

Poultry

Limits: legal rules describe what is allowed, not what every single food contains. Measurement data come from samples and are meaningful only together with their method details.

Country of residence or purchase Compare with another country

References

1. Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: food and diet as instigators of bizarre and disturbing dreams.. Nielsen T, Powell RA. Front Psychol 2015 · PMID 25741294 · DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00047
2. More dreams of the rarebit fiend: food sensitivity and dietary correlates of sleep and dreaming.. Nielsen T et al.. Front Psychol 2025 · PMID 40667395 · DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1544475