Terrifying Dreams And Gluten

[Guest keegans_mommy]

Oh my gosh, I was accidentally glutened last evening and I actually didn't have an issue falling asleep but I had an issue STAYING asleep! I kept having terrifying dreams paired with panic attacks that I would wake up gasping for air and heart pounding!

I kept dreaming about an evil spirit in my house, grabbing me and I just recall having a super heavy feeling on my chest where I had a tough time breathing.

Please tell me this happens to others! I feel so neurotic!

[Jestgar]

I have had horrible dreams when glutened. I think it's because my heart is pounding and my brain makes up a story to justify it. very unpleasant. I also have totally crazy dreams when glutened.

[jerseyangel]

I fall asleep quickly--I'm so exhausted when glutened, but I also have trouble staying asleep. I wake up several times during the night--my anxiety kicks up and I end up laying there worrying about everything and thinking things to death.

[alamaz]

before going gluten-free i used to have night terrors that would leave my husband in a panic because he thought i was going to kill myself one night. he even made me sleep on the side of the bed against the wall because i would try to get up and run (downstairs and outside) while half asleep and screaming. once i was awake my heart would be practically pounding out of my chest. very scary stuff! now when i'm glutened i'll get a nightmare or two the first night but nowhere near as horrible as before.

[num1habsfan]

I sure have gotten a lot more nightmares since having Celiac. And i can afree with everyone here that if I get glutened they get worse. But unfortunately I tend to get them in a regular basis even when NOT glutened...some of them are so "real" i wake up by sitting up and nearly having a panic attack.

~ Lisa ~

[Ann1231]

add me to the count! I get horrible nightmares, wake up with heart pounding so hard and it hurts! I also get anxiety something terribly, I worry about everything and I'm so tensed up it's ridiculous. I get horrific muscle pain just cuz I'm so tight!

[Guest keegans_mommy]

I'm sorry to see I am not the only one I use to get night terrors a lot as a child and when I am PG I get them too but now? It's so strange and horrible! I cannot shake what I saw in my dreams last night! So freaky.

I have to be more careful!

[~alex~]

I'm sorry to see I am not the only one I use to get night terrors a lot as a child and when I am PG I get them too but now? It's so strange and horrible! I cannot shake what I saw in my dreams last night! So freaky.

Do you take any meds after being glutened that you don't usually take? I only ask because I know anti-nausea meds give me nightmares and restless sleep and even some wakeful delirium.

If not, I would certainly blame the nightmares on gluten. I get insomnia despite being exhausted after a gluten incident. And it looks like many others have gluten-induced sleep issues.

[Guest keegans_mommy]

Do you take any meds after being glutened that you don't usually take? I only ask because I know anti-nausea meds give me nightmares and restless sleep and even some wakeful delirium.

If not, I would certainly blame the nightmares on gluten. I get insomnia despite being exhausted after a gluten incident. And it looks like many others have gluten-induced sleep issues.

No meds. I sometimes will take a homeopathic remedy to calm my panic attacks and helps with insomnia but they have never given me terrifying dreams. I didn't even take any that night and I don't take any prescriptions at all anyway. but that is interesting

I am blaming the gluten for those dreams. I also get terrible insomnia after a glutening regardless of how tired I am as well.

[monkeypuss]

OMG! this totally explains my awful dreams that woke me up all the time when i was on gluten last week for my biopsy....i was dreaming of vivisection and a horses head tied up in a curtain with a hole cut out and one eye in the middle of its head with 2 freaky eyeballs in looking at me and it was bleeding for where the head had been cut off, but alive...and one about being sexually abused with pieces of paper...lol sounds funny when i say it but i woke up in such a sweat, heart beating and unable to move....used to get terrible nightmares every night until i was off gluten too, i cant believe i didnt realise gluten was what made them come back!

[Ursa Major]

I used to get horrible, terrifying nightmares as well. I remember a time a few years back when I'd get ten nightmares a night and was afraid to go to sleep. In a lot of them I got attacked by demons, or somebody killing me and waking just as I was going to die. It was awful.

Now I only get nightmares when I have been glutened.

My youngest daughter (who is also gluten intolerant) used to get awful night terrors and nightmares as well.

[MELINE]

definately happens to me ONLY when I get glutened. And it is that kind of deams, with evil things in my house and dead people looking at me.

[monkeypuss]

i know this sounds abit nuts, but what about thinking you see/hear/feel dead people when you're glutened? i've had some weird as hell experiences in my mums house since i was like 3 that cant be explained, and i did the other day when i was on my gluten diet..heard like all these noises like someone was in the kitchen that went on for hours and the room went SO cold!! dunno if thats related but its a thought int it

[MELINE]

i know this sounds abit nuts, but what about thinking you see/hear/feel dead people when you're glutened? i've had some weird as hell experiences in my mums house since i was like 3 that cant be explained, and i did the other day when i was on my gluten diet..heard like all these noises like someone was in the kitchen that went on for hours and the room went SO cold!! dunno if thats related but its a thought int it

it's called panic attack and it is a symptom of celiac.

[fedora]

Me too.

When I was terribly sick from 10 to 13 I had horrible nightmares. I got afraid to sleep at one point, BUT that was not all. I would Leave my body while awake if I was terribly upset and float through black space. I also thought the world was going to end. I was convinced that doom was coming. I dreamed that armagedeon was coming. This past winter when I got really sick again I was having nightmares every night. That was one way I knew something was really wrong.

Having said that I am a very vivid dreamer and have had dreams that have come true my whole life. So I was real scared about the armagedeon dreams., but luckily 20 years later we are all still here.

[MDRB]

Oh my gosh, I was accidentally glutened last evening and I actually didn't have an issue falling asleep but I had an issue STAYING asleep! I kept having terrifying dreams paired with panic attacks that I would wake up gasping for air and heart pounding!

I kept dreaming about an evil spirit in my house, grabbing me and I just recall having a super heavy feeling on my chest where I had a tough time breathing.

Please tell me this happens to others! I feel so neurotic!

Hi,

How long have you been gluten free for? I have heard that the neurological symptoms take a lot longer to go away that the physical symptoms.

I also have scary dreams when I get glutened but they are more along the lines of giant donut and bread stick shaped monsters chasing me and trying to 'get' me (hence the display picture).

*sigh*

[Kat25]

I too have had horrible nightmares, the ones where you actually wake up and are half asleep and start sleep walking, or I would start seeing bugs on my bed coming at me...one time I thought my cat was a giant bug and I freaked out. The worst ones are when someone is chasing you in your dream to kill you, I've lost count on those. The dream that really freaked me out was a few months before I investigated having a gluten problem, I was getting married in a month and had a horrible nightmare that I was wearing my wedding gown, I was at my reception, and I had big white sneakers on. Then people started to come into the reception and were bringing big loafs of bread. I've never had such a horrible feeling, they just kept bringing them and bringing them instead of wedding gifts, and I kept saying how wrong it is and how I can't take them (and this was before I even knew anything about gluten prob.) and come to find out my feet always hurt, especially if I ingest gluten, and that's why I had the sneakers on with my wedding gown...talk about your body trying to tell you something! I could write a horror book on all the dreams I've had!

[petitedoc]

Oh my gosh, I was accidentally glutened last evening and I actually didn't have an issue falling asleep but I had an issue STAYING asleep! I kept having terrifying dreams paired with panic attacks that I would wake up gasping for air and heart pounding!

I kept dreaming about an evil spirit in my house, grabbing me and I just recall having a super heavy feeling on my chest where I had a tough time breathing.

Please tell me this happens to others! I feel so neurotic!

Yes- I get horrible dreams, racing heartbeat, restless sleep and anxiety all from eating even a small amount of gluten! Gluten is a neurotoxin and some people (about 30% of the population) have reactions to gluten. That is why so many people are on medication. You don't have to be celiac to get nervous system distruption from gluten.

[lsmall05]

Luckily I've never experienced this, at least I don't think I have?

You're not all getting glutened on a few Beers are you?

[gfp]

i know this sounds abit nuts, but what about thinking you see/hear/feel dead people when you're glutened? i've had some weird as hell experiences in my mums house since i was like 3 that cant be explained, and i did the other day when i was on my gluten diet..heard like all these noises like someone was in the kitchen that went on for hours and the room went SO cold!! dunno if thats related but its a thought int it

It doesn't sound nuts but it does sound concerning....

I'm guessing from your piccy your still much younger than I am....

As a child I was scared of the dark, witches and even Dr. Who... (as my old next-door-but-one neighbours love reminding me whenever I visit my mum)....

Pipes cool, old houses creak.... the drop in temperature causes the noises...

Regardless of what any religion (outside of bhuddism) may tell you ... evil exists only inside of ourselves and others.

No-one has ever proven a ghost or spirit... they no more exist than santa ....however physcologically they are far more damaging to us because we fear something worse than death.

The worst thing that can happen to you in your sleep is dying.... the chances of this happening naturally at your age are astronomically against this! The chances of it happening supernaturally are zero.... which leaves some nasty villain breaking in or a fire etc.

Once you truly believe this a dream is just a dream. With few exceptions dreams and near dream states are controllable.

I have not had a nightmare in over 20 yrs.... probably closer to 25 and I'm 40 now.

I have had weird dreams, disturbing dreams and I have recurring dreams of being trapped in a huge sky scraper... but I always take control of the dream.

Even when you are dreaming it is possible to exert control and to tell yourself "this is a dream, I am in control"

If you wake up and write down the dream (keep a pad by the bed) you will usually find it is nothing more than fragments.

It's like paying with tarot cards.... it means nothing unless you let it.

The worst ones are when someone is chasing you in your dream to kill you, I've lost count on those

Well i think the ones where they are trying to kill a loved one are worse but ....

Stop running and kill whomever is chasing you.

I remember once having a dream where some 'zombie like' things on horses were carrying away my girlfriend.

Lucky I dreamed up a knife....

Unfortunately stabbing them did nothing....

So in my dream I reasoned severing the spinal cord would stop them ... so I jumped on the horse and inserted the knife into the spinal cord... and it sure as heck stopped them.

I now love having these dreams, they really don't come often enough....but when they do I relish in the escapism. Its like being ina film or video game where you can control the fun. Lots of films rely on a baddie.... and so do good fun dreams.

To me the difference between a nightmare and a dream is simply control....

[miss chriStaR]

I've had terrifying, violent nightmares almost every night since I was about 12. In these nightmares, i was always being attacked, there was always blood, and I never realized I was in a dream. After so many of these nightmares, I actually began to think I must have been traumatized as a young child. Doctors didn't understand and I was told to go on prozac. I didn't. After being misdiagnosed by doctors as having a stomach ulcer, I started experimenting with diet. I finally figured out I actually had a gluten/rice intolerance. After going gluten/rice free, I no longer have terrifying dreams. I messed up a couple of times and the nightmares came right back. I also get sleep paralysis/hallucinations from gluten.

Hope this helps. I actually half-realized the link of dreams to gluten through this forum. Some people think these dreams are the body's way of trying to communicate its pain to the brain.

[AliB]

If anyone is still having sleep/nightmare issues even after dropping gluten, please check out the Specific Carbohydrate diet (SCD). There is a thread on the 'Other Food Intolerances' section.

Many of us who have still been suffering with health issues even after removing gluten actually have a problem digesting carbs. The SCD works because it removes those foods and anything processed or 'mucked about with', giving the gut a much better chance to heal properly.

All of us on the thread are finding great benefit - good restful sleep is just one of them.

I wish I could put a link to the SCD on the top of every section of the forum - so many are still sick and struggling and the SCD is such a lifeline..........

[Ruthie73]

I'm still awaiting my biopsy results, but can relate to this topic -

I had been going downhill healthwise, but it was when I was regulary (every other night) getting the most vivid horror film type nightmares (and I don't really watch horror films - I hate them!) that I decided that I really needed to sort all my symptoms out(I wasn't connecting them all) and decided to see my GP. The dreams were so real, I'd wake thinking it had happened - really bizaar, bloody and gruesome - sometimes supernatural, but still seeming real - and wouldn't be able to get back to sleep afterwards for fear of them coming back... I was interested to read about others having night terrors when they were litlte, as I did too - I'm still peicing it all together, and now that makes sense, and I think it must be related... I haven't had them since I was advised to go gluten-free, even before my biopsy, so it must be when I'm really glutened up... If its just a one off gluten accident, I just wake up lots with a racing head and stomach pain and nausea, then I'm zonked out for the next two days...

[Gfresh404]

Oh my gosh, I was accidentally glutened last evening and I actually didn't have an issue falling asleep but I had an issue STAYING asleep! I kept having terrifying dreams paired with panic attacks that I would wake up gasping for air and heart pounding!

I kept dreaming about an evil spirit in my house, grabbing me and I just recall having a super heavy feeling on my chest where I had a tough time breathing.

Please tell me this happens to others! I feel so neurotic!

This is kind of embarrassing and yet, really funny. Numerous times I have had (I guess you could call them nightmares) dreams where I accidentally eat gluten and then immediately wake up.

[Ruthie73]

lol - I've had that too - like you dream your eating a biscuit or something, and you've forgoten you can't and then you're in a panic in your dream. It must be because we're anxious for it not to happen...