Morbid Nightmares

[Sick Boy]

I'm new to this I just got scoped and found out I had celiacs about 3 weeks ago and I'm a type 1 diabetic. I have steadily been feeling better while trying to figure out the whole diet thing (coming from a person who was on a world class see food diet). In the last week or 2 insomnia has got really bad, I regularly experience the pounding heart beats and headaches, but in the last week Some very morbid dreams have been happening whenever I can get to sleep. The dreams generally wake me and then I can't get back to sleep leaving me even more tired than before. Every dream seems worse than the last and usually involve someone in my family. The thing that worries me the most is that every dream ends with me killing myself in some way or another. Some one please help this new celiac I'm tired and exhausted.

[Wolicki]

Two things; You're probably suffering from gluten withdrawal. It will pass. Second, some people say that giving up gluten is almost as traumatic as losing a family member, and you go through the stages of grief. I think that you're probably under a lot of stress because you've changed a major part of your life, and that kind of stress tends to end up expressing itself in our subconscious. It would be a really good idea to see a counselor or therapist to talk it out, and hopefully gain some coping strategies. I am gonna be wishing you a good night sleep

[David in Seattle]

I'm new to this I just got scoped and found out I had celiacs about 3 weeks ago and I'm a type 1 diabetic. I have steadily been feeling better while trying to figure out the whole diet thing (coming from a person who was on a world class see food diet). In the last week or 2 insomnia has got really bad, I regularly experience the pounding heart beats and headaches, but in the last week Some very morbid dreams have been happening whenever I can get to sleep. The dreams generally wake me and then I can't get back to sleep leaving me even more tired than before. Every dream seems worse than the last and usually involve someone in my family. The thing that worries me the most is that every dream ends with me killing myself in some way or another. Some one please help this new celiac I'm tired and exhausted.

A number of medications can cause nightmares. One of the most common is Diphenhydramine (Benadryl), and it shares this effect with other antihistamine based, over the counter sleep aids. Here's a link to a list of other drugs with this propensity Open Original Shared Link You may want to look it over & see if you are taking any of the medications mentioned.

[Sick Boy]

Two things; You're probably suffering from gluten withdrawal. It will pass. Second, some people say that giving up gluten is almost as traumatic as losing a family member, and you go through the stages of grief. I think that you're probably under a lot of stress because you've changed a major part of your life, and that kind of stress tends to end up expressing itself in our subconscious. It would be a really good idea to see a counselor or therapist to talk it out, and hopefully gain some coping strategies. I am gonna be wishing you a good night sleep

Thanks! I think I'll call my doctor and see if I can start by sitting down with her first and going from there

[Black Sheep]

I've been plagued for many years now with bizarre dreams, much like you've described. When I'd tell my husband about them, he'd look at me as if I'd just grown a couple of antennas out the top of my head, and say, "You're really weird. I never have dreams like that!" In fact, just last night, I dreamed I was eating cockroaches in my parent's living room. Which is really odd because here in W. WA, I've only seen scrawny little roaches 3 times in my nearly 48 years--twice in the filthy bathrooms of restaurants and once on the stove of a filthy apt. I was going to be paid to clean. Which I refused to do at that point.

So I've been mostly g.f. for just over 2 weeks now ("mostly" because I'm realizing incidences where I may have accidentally ingested it--oh well, it's a learning curve), so I'm hoping the awful dreams go away soon.

[allisons]

I'm a strange dreamer myself - they range from hilarious to incredibly terrifying (I have a recurring dream that I have an other person's infant under my care and it dies, that one does tend to make it particularly difficult to get back to sleep.)

As far as I can tell, the difference between the kinds of people who dream vividly and those who don't have two specific traits - we sleep lightly (thus can be shaken out of sleep more easily) and we have pretty decent memories.

Sleep comes in stages

(here's a link to a chart about it - the labels are in french, but you'll get the idea: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Hypnogramme.svg/2000px-Hypnogramme.svg.png)

See the little peaks? Those are micro-waking periods. Those are the periods you're most likely to wake up and remember a dream. If you've got something disturbing your sleep (pain, the need to pee, being hungry, anxiety, etc) those microwaking isn't just waking up enough to roll over (most people don't even remember those), but gives you the chance to really wake up.

The basic point: you probably always had disturbing dreams, you just don't remember them.

I am not a medical doctor, but I would bet that your sleep disturbance has more to do with the diabetes and blood sugar issues than they do celiac/being gluten-free (not to say it couldn't, it's just the diabetes is more likely). How often do you check your insulin/blood sugar levels? Are you managing that well? If that gets on an even keel and you're not sleeping better, I'd talk to a physician. Sleep problems can be caused by nutrient deficiencies (way common with gluten intolerance) and you may need supplements.

[Katie B]

Hi there,

I suffered from hypoglycemic attacks during the night and would have terrifying dreams. I'm not sure about treatment with diabetes but blood sugar can definitely have an effect on this. Currently, I'm so underweight that I'm not producing enough estrogen so now I'm plagued by the night sweats!!!

So besides blood sugar there might be other hormonal things going on (not sure if thyroid would figure into this?). Definitely worth getting checked out. I thought it just happened to me for the longest time and didn't question it. Now I try to eat protein before going to bed to level out my blood sugar.

Good luck!

[mommida]

I agree with the advice on the blood sugar being a cause of your dreams.

Vitamin B12 deficiency can also have a link too.

If you need to do simple dream interpretion, give this a try.

List 3 adjectives to describe the items/symbols of your dream.

i.e. I dream of a dog. I describe the dog as faithfull, adoring, and oh so cute. (My husband)

Your dreaming of your death. It could be the end of your old life eating wheat.

Just a thought.