[UnhappyCoeliac]

It use to be alot worse before diagnosis but as the title suggests basically occassionaly I wake up facing the wall and I am greeted by a giant spider that looks oh so real... heart immediate starts to race "wtf is going on" etc... keep staring......and... its disappears.

The first time this happen I screamed the house down. Now I wake up I see the spider but simply wait 30 seconds or so and it disappears.

I have no idea what this is but I assume it is some sort of very weirdo hallucination. I never ever see nice stuff either... I wouldNT mind if i woke up and it was a hot naked chick or something... but not it has to be a massive spider or some sort of snake head.

I simply ignore it and it goes away but the spider is pretty much the same every time and I just wonder where on earth it could come from... haven't had it since being gluten free but only been gluten free 3 days or so.

I have never told anyone this or nor do I plan too... honestly its is the sounds silly and I am the one experiencing it. I just wonder if it related to gluten or any other celiac has encountered it?

It doesnt bother me a whole lot even when I am half asleep and I wake up these days I know its not real... but it doesnt stop it occurring when i wake up

Happens maybe once a month or so

[Jestgar]

Does it really look like a spider? Or maybe do you sleep with your eyelids a bit open and you have dried goo on your eyeballs?

[RiceGuy]

Well, if it's what I see now and then, there's probably nothing to worry about.

Upon awakening from a dream state, sometimes the dream imagery persists into the waking state, and I see it even if I open my eyes. An easy test is if you look at a different spot on the wall. If the thing you're seeing stays in the same location within your scope of vision, that is, it moves with your eyes, then it's probably a residual image from a dream. Keep in mind that most people don't recall their dreams.

When it happens, the image (if a moving thing like a spider) will initially be moving, but will eventually stop moving, then fade away.

It actually has occasionally been a spider, though not every time.

Though I can see my eyelashes and eyebrows if I focus on them, it hasn't anything to do with this phenomena. Nor is it fuzz from a blanket or anything.

[I hate gluten!]

Good luck with this, I know it has got to be hard even to post a thread like this. I hope you figure out what is going on. I would not be ashamed to ask your doctor though. Hang in there. You could named the spider, that might help lighten up a hard situation. Good luck.

[jitters]

ok, that is SO weird. I do the EXACT same thing! I do think it is worse when I get into gluten, but who knows. It's always when I'm waking up and its always a spider! If I'm on my back I see spider webs falling on me from the ceiling. I always flip the blankets up over my head to keep them from landing on me. It feels so real doesn't it? It used to happen all the time to me. And they do just fade away, not just disappear.
I haven't had one happen in awhile, but when it does happen its the weirdest thing. It's not like I'm dreaming about spiders or anything. I always thought it was just that I was opening my eyes while I was still asleep. Odd that its always spiders and/or webs though.
Anyway, I'm sorry I don't have an answer but I just thought I'd let you know it happens to me too.

[SGWhiskers]

Hypnogogic hallucinations.

I have something somewhat similar that only occurs once or twice a month now that I'm gluten free. It was daily in the worst parts of my prediagnosis. Fortunately, my images are not scary. Unfortunately, they are not hunky men either. Just altered images of my bedroom and weird sensations for hours on end. Pre Celiac diagnosis, I was on the hunt for my fatigue, and did some research on Narcolepsy. It seems there are lots of weird night time things that happen with narcolepsy. Later, I came across a post on Celiac.com that said narcolepsy and Celiac were somehow related. Made sense at the time, and I beleived it. I never saw research supporting it though.

I hope the spiders and snakes stay far far away and are replaced with hot women.

SGW

[UnhappyCoeliac]

thanks for the many posts here, looks like I finally know what is is, and it is realtaed to gluten as I suspected thank you!!!

[RiceGuy]

I suppose you could keep your eyes closed for a few extra minutes when you first wake up. Do you use an alarm clock to wake you?

[Jeremiah]

 UnhappyCoeliac, on Feb 5 2009, 11:13 AM, said:

It use to be alot worse before diagnosis but as the title suggests basically occassionaly I wake up facing the wall and I am greeted by a giant spider that looks oh so real... heart immediate starts to race "wtf is going on" etc... keep staring......and... its disappears.

The first time this happen I screamed the house down. Now I wake up I see the spider but simply wait 30 seconds or so and it disappears.

I have no idea what this is but I assume it is some sort of very weirdo hallucination. I never ever see nice stuff either... I wouldNT mind if i woke up and it was a hot naked chick or something... but not it has to be a massive spider or some sort of snake head.

I simply ignore it and it goes away but the spider is pretty much the same every time and I just wonder where on earth it could come from... haven't had it since being gluten free but only been gluten free 3 days or so.

I have never told anyone this or nor do I plan too... honestly its is the sounds silly and I am the one experiencing it. I just wonder if it related to gluten or any other celiac has encountered it?

It doesnt bother me a whole lot even when I am half asleep and I wake up these days I know its not real... but it doesnt stop it occurring when i wake up

Happens maybe once a month or so

[Jeremiah]

 UnhappyCoeliac, on Feb 5 2009, 11:13 AM, said:

It use to be alot worse before diagnosis but as the title suggests basically occassionaly I wake up facing the wall and I am greeted by a giant spider that looks oh so real... heart immediate starts to race "wtf is going on" etc... keep staring......and... its disappears.

The first time this happen I screamed the house down. Now I wake up I see the spider but simply wait 30 seconds or so and it disappears.

I have no idea what this is but I assume it is some sort of very weirdo hallucination. I never ever see nice stuff either... I wouldNT mind if i woke up and it was a hot naked chick or something... but not it has to be a massive spider or some sort of snake head.

I simply ignore it and it goes away but the spider is pretty much the same every time and I just wonder where on earth it could come from... haven't had it since being gluten free but only been gluten free 3 days or so.

I have never told anyone this or nor do I plan too... honestly its is the sounds silly and I am the one experiencing it. I just wonder if it related to gluten or any other celiac has encountered it?

It doesnt bother me a whole lot even when I am half asleep and I wake up these days I know its not real... but it doesnt stop it occurring when i wake up

Happens maybe once a month or so

If you are not 100% gluten-free you continue to have problems... There have been times where I believe everything I was eating was safe, but it wasn't. I've found you can't trust manufactures, they believe they are telling you the truth, even when they are not.

[DingoGirl]

I have had this since the age of 13, when I saw my very first huge insect......it was something like a three-foot long black beetle in the corner of my room. I let out a blood-curdling scream......this went on for years and the images would be insects or humans. Quite often a spider or swarm of locusts would be "descending upon me" in this half-sleep/half-awake state.

Later I was told they were night terrors - who knows. I was able to train myself to stop screaming.

I'm now 47, gluten-free for three years, and they still sometimes happen, so I'm not sure it's gluten-related, entirely. I still "see" things in my room - sometimes quite spooky, looking like spirits or ghosts. I PRAY them away and they vanish instantly.

It is interesting that you see the same spider thing every time. I have seen what I am quite sure were demons almost nightly on my bed, when I lived with some people for three months. I suppressed my screaming but felt the terror of those presences nearly every single night.....never saw those particular things again after leaving that house.

Um......you and many people may not like this answer but - prayer really helps.

[Jeremiah]

Please don't take this wrong, but I didn't feel better until I quit praying and started thinking rationally. Systemattically I searched for a reason that matched my symptoms it took time, but eventually I found the answer.

I often tell friends, I understand why people go crazy... had I never found out about celiac disease I was well on my way. Since I went 100% gluten-free I'm great! Hope this helps.

[DingoGirl]

 Jeremiah, on Feb 6 2009, 12:52 PM, said:

Please don't take this wrong, but I didn't feel better until I quit praying and started thinking rationally.

well.......there aren't always rational answers for things.

[Nancym]

I used to have something similar happen. What I think it was I wasn't truly awake but I felt like I was. I'd be lying in bed and a shimmering, huge, translucent spider would be spinning it's way down on a bit of silk about to land on me. It was SO extremely realistic that there was no way I thought I was dreaming. I'd hop out of bed and pull off all my covers looking for the dang thing.

I had another thing happen once, just after I bought my first house. I woke up one day and started talking to my parents about the big bubble I found in the dry wall. I went all over the house looking for it, I'm still looking for it 10 years later! I guess I dreamed it. It was just so realistic.

Then another time I dreamed I was asleep and dreaming of an earthquake, in my dream I woke up and the earthquake was still happening. Then I woke up for real and there was no earthquake. Weirdly recursive.

So, don't know if it was related to my diet but we do have some weird states of consciousness sometimes. I don't think we're necessarily fully asleep or fully awake sometimes.

[chatycady]

I used to wake up and see a bird hovering over me. My heart would race and I would be confused for a bit. It wasn't a bird, but our ceiling fan!! Doesn't happen anymore... Isn't that interesting???