There are many terrifying things in the world: Michael Myers slowly stalking you as you try your best to run, a good old-fashioned jump scare, climate change. You get the idea. But now get ready to add a culinary nightmare to the list: Burger King’s green-bunned Nightmare Burger will apparently give you nightmares. Literally.
The fast-food giant released a burger with chicken, bacon, cheese, and, because it’s apparently spooky, a dark green bun, in time for us to celebrate Halloween. And as if a bun that looks like it’s made entirely of masticated spinach molded together and dried isn’t scary enough, BK also did a study on the effects the Nightmare Burger might have on those who consume it. Yes the sandwich “was able to induce more nightmares than usual” according to Food & Wine.
For 10 nights, 100 participants ate the Nightmare King “before they went to bed” and Burger King’s research team tracked various metrics “including heart rate, brain activity, and breath” in order to determine participants’ sleep patterns and what kinds of dreams they were having.
The findings showed that, yes, the burger was able to induce more “vivid dreaming” and nightmares, but not because of any magical Halloween essence put into the burger. It’s because—surprise, surprise—eating a butt ton of meat and cheese before bed is not great for your sleep patterns.
I do have some questions about the efficacy of the study. How close to bedtime did they consume said sandwich? Did they do a control group? Do they plan on running the same experiment in the future? Is 100 people really a large enough sample size to definitively say that this burger will give you nightmares?
If you’d like to roll the dice and see if you can induce some meaty nightmares, the Nightmare King is available until October 22. Meanwhile, I’m going to stick to my night cheese.
(via Food & Wine.)
