Jump to content
  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.




  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):



    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):


  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Nightmares About Gluten


Googles

Recommended Posts

Googles Community Regular

I have recurring nightmares that I have accidentally eaten gluten. Then I try to puke it back up to get it out of me. It is so awful. Does anyone else experience this? Ugh I hate it. I hate this whole thing. Why can't it at least leave me alone in my sleep?


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



domesticactivist Collaborator

I have had lots of dreams about it. Last night I dreamed that I ate a huge piece of bread and broke out in a horrible rash!

rosetapper23 Explorer

I get those kinds of dreams quite frequently. Usually, I take a bite out of a sandwich or pizza...and then realize it isn't gluten free. I freak out and wake up immediately. I always have a terrified feeling, and it takes me a while to go back to sleep.

ktotheroll Contributor

I have definitely had dreams like that! I'm always part-way through eating something that very obviously contains gluten (like cereals or pasta) and then I realize it (in the dream) and get really mad at myself for being so dumb, lol

Googles Community Regular

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who has these nightmares. But I'm sorry other people are going through it too. The last one I woke up and couldn't figure out if I had actually eaten gluten at some point, or if it was a dream. I'm not sure if I woke up in the dream and then was confused, or if I really woke up and was confused. Originally the dreams were that I forgot that I needed to be gluten free and then ate something, but now the dreams are (usually) that I get served food that I think is gluten free (Ie ordered gluten free) then to realize they aren't gluten free. Last time it was a dream about ice cream. UGH.

zus888 Contributor

I have definitely had dreams like that! I'm always part-way through eating something that very obviously contains gluten (like cereals or pasta) and then I realize it (in the dream) and get really mad at myself for being so dumb, lol

This is me! It's always something obvious that contains gluten that I've half eaten. Last night, it was a HUGE corn muffin. Then, my next step is to panic. Last night, though, I realized that there was nothing I could do and then decided to order a regular pizza for dinner and make an angelfood cake. I figured I might as well go all out. It's something I think about a lot, though. I, too, wish the stress and anxiety would be gone in my dream state.

quincy Contributor

I have recurring nightmares that I have accidentally eaten gluten. Then I try to puke it back up to get it out of me. It is so awful. Does anyone else experience this? Ugh I hate it. I hate this whole thing. Why can't it at least leave me alone in my sleep?

I had those dreams once a week, at least, for my first year after dx. I am now early into my second year since dx, and I don't have that dream much any longer. I think my fear level has gone down alot since my symptoms have gotten down to almost nothing anymore. all the shock that my body was in I think is calming down. I accidentally consumed gluten from some Edy's ice cream yesterday and I was initially freaked out like in my dreams, but I waited for the pain and I was lucky I dodged that bullet of gut pain.... wow. so maybe I am getting alot better and can withstand a minor exposure? I just drank alot of water. So the fear factor has lessened alot.


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



rosetapper23 Explorer

I thought Edy's ice cream is gluten free. It isn't? Did you eat a flavor like cookies and cream?

kellynolan82 Explorer

I had a dream that I ate a cookie once that wasn't gluten free. I didn't get sick though. I prefer gluten free cookies personally, though :)

love2travel Mentor

I had one of those dreams - once just after my celiac disease diagnosis. My husband and I stopped by a diner off the highway (so goes my dream) when we were seated outside at a rustic table. Two others were seated there as well. We were brought complimentary doughnuts and mine was gluten-free. However, they all looked identical but I was assured mine indeed was gluten-free. Then for some reason we all had to get up from the table and move it (I think it started to storm). Of course when we sat down again I could not tell which was my doughnut! So, I could not have any of them. Sigh... :( No dreams of that nature ever since! :D

anabananakins Explorer

I used to have nightmares about gluten all the time. Generally I'd dream that I was at a party and absent mindedly took some crackers or chips from a bowl and then I'd panic and spit them out. One time I dreamed I was being chased by cupcakes. If it's any consolation, the nightmares got less frequent the longer I was gluten free (it's been 15 months now)

Last night I dreamed I was ranting at someone for their carelessness with cc. Ha, the poor person hasn't done anything wrong in real life but in my dream, I gave them a very stern telling off :-)

GottaSki Mentor

I too had nightmares for the first year or so. They became fewer as time went on...I haven't had a gluten nightmare nor anxiety that an item is gluten free for quite sometime. Thank goodness...although I am starting a very strict elimination diet so I hope bad dreams and anxiety aren't part of the deal this time around.

:)

Marilyn R Community Regular

Those dreams are normal. (My nightmare was about being at a party and eating fluffy hotdog buns with a bratwurst or hotdog.) And the dreams were very vivid, I saw color, shape, sounds.

I told my Internist about the nightmares and she said it's like when you graduate from college and dream that you can't find the location of your last exam and keep running, looking, or you dream you lacked two credits so you have to go back to college. She felt that the nightmares are a result of feeling unprepared.

It's a major life change and accomplishment you're working hard on. I haven't had a dream like that in months now. I guess your brain is telling you that gluten is bad as a survival mode? I don't know.

Anyway, hope everybody has sweet dreams tonight. :D

love2travel Mentor

OK - I'm pretty certain I had a gluten dream last night due to this thread! :D For some unknown reason I was shopping in a clothing store when suddenly it was a prison for women. We all had to wear denim jeans and bright red dress shirts (one size fit all)! Weird. Anyhow, suddenly we were in a very long buffet line in this prison. You should have seen all the choices! Probably in the hundreds. I kept passing deep fried dishes followed by breads followed by doughnuts... I kept telling the staff I had a disease (in my dream I could not remember the name of it! and that I could not eat anything. Tough luck, I was told.)

1. What was I doing in prison?

2. Prison food looked very good! :P

Marilyn R Community Regular

OK - I'm pretty certain I had a gluten dream last night due to this thread! :D For some unknown reason I was shopping in a clothing store when suddenly it was a prison for women. We all had to wear denim jeans and bright red dress shirts (one size fit all)! Weird. Anyhow, suddenly we were in a very long buffet line in this prison. You should have seen all the choices! Probably in the hundreds. I kept passing deep fried dishes followed by breads followed by doughnuts... I kept telling the staff I had a disease (in my dream I could not remember the name of it! and that I could not eat anything. Tough luck, I was told.)

1. What was I doing in prison?

2. Prison food looked very good! :P

That sounds like a pretty vivid dream. At least they didn't have wheels of brie in your prison dream. :lol: (I can picture you wheeling them right to your cell in your red top and denims!

RacerX35 Rookie

I guess I had a nightmare about gluten the other night :blink: . I never really thought about it as a nightmare though. My wife and I were at a chinese restaurant and we had ordered food. I had "made sure" that they gluten free food and I had a meal. I don't quite remember the whole transaction, but my wife and I were starting to question the food after I was eating either a won ton or just had used the soy sauce. I woke up with a start after I was following the waiter around the whole restaurant trying to talk with him. :lol: I guessit was a nightmare with the wayI woke up.

Later,

Ray

Googles Community Regular

I wasn't bothered by the nightmares when I was first diagnosed, as I saw them as part of me trying to process the whole change. But now I've been gluten free for over two years and am still having them. Has anyone else kept having them?

love2travel Mentor

That sounds like a pretty vivid dream. At least they didn't have wheels of brie in your prison dream. :lol: (I can picture you wheeling them right to your cell in your red top and denims!

:lol::lol::lol: Just picturing that wheel of brie in my colourful prison garb.

My dreams have always been vivid and imaginative. Our family is very creative and full of imagination so it stands to reason that my dreams are, too! Still stumped on the whole prison thing, though... :P

  • 2 weeks later...
Marilyn R Community Regular

I wasn't bothered by the nightmares when I was first diagnosed, as I saw them as part of me trying to process the whole change. But now I've been gluten free for over two years and am still having them. Has anyone else kept having them?

You've been gluten-free longer than me, but I don't have the nightmares anymore. If I recall, you have a shared household. Maybe that's part of the anxiety that causes the nightmares. IDK. Hope you sleep well tonight.

Marilyn R Community Regular

:lol::lol::lol: Just picturing that wheel of brie in my colourful prison garb.

My dreams have always been vivid and imaginative. Our family is very creative and full of imagination so it stands to reason that my dreams are, too! Still stumped on the whole prison thing, though... :P

You mentioned that you had to give up dairy right around the time you mentioned the nightmre. I'm not a professional, but I would guess your psyche is batting with the concept of giving up cheese. (I'm far from a pro, but worked as a secretary for the psych dept. at a college 30 something years ago lol.) The good news is you can reintroduce cheese in a few months. I was cautious at first but have gone full bang without repercussion.

love2travel Mentor

You mentioned that you had to give up dairy right around the time you mentioned the nightmre. I'm not a professional, but I would guess your psyche is batting with the concept of giving up cheese. (I'm far from a pro, but worked as a secretary for the psych dept. at a college 30 something years ago lol.) The good news is you can reintroduce cheese in a few months. I was cautious at first but have gone full bang without repercussion.

I just thought of giving up dairy last Monday and has this silly dream a week or so before that. But I was on some new potent painkillers at the time that I stopped using a few days later. The side effects were horrid!

I'm glad for the encouragement about cheese. You know how much I love it! My husband and I will be in Italy six weeks from right now so I will miss gluten AND cheese. Cheese is one of the things I had for snacks on our last trip in May. But I am going to try it again November - hopefully I will be able to at least tolerate the hard cheeses...we will see.

Googles Community Regular

Yeah,

I hadn't thought about the fact of being in a shared house. I was living alone and then needed to move in with a friend because of expenses. So now I am at more risk of CC. I hadn't thought of that being a cause of my nightmares. That makes since being that they seemed to come back when I moved in with my friend now that I think about it. Thanks for the help.

thleensd Enthusiast

Last night I dreamt I ate half of a burrito before I noticed. It's been 2.5 years since I went gluten-free. The good news is, I don't get those dreams nearly as often as I used to.

At times I've wondered if they're connected to stress (I've had a lot of stressful dreams this week), but I've had them even when I don't seem to be under a lot of stress. More when I'm stressed, though.

I did wake up with a stomach ache (which I still have), so the dream could've been a reaction to the physical sensation.

You're definitely not alone in this! =)

Marilyn R Community Regular

I'm glad for the encouragement about cheese. You know how much I love it! My husband and I will be in Italy six weeks from right now so I will miss gluten AND cheese. Cheese is one of the things I had for snacks on our last trip in May. But I am going to try it again November - hopefully I will be able to at least tolerate the hard cheeses...we will see.

Marilyn R Community Regular

Last night I dreamt I ate half of a burrito before I noticed. It's been 2.5 years since I went gluten-free. The good news is, I don't get those dreams nearly as often as I used to.

At times I've wondered if they're connected to stress (I've had a lot of stressful dreams this week), but I've had them even when I don't seem to be under a lot of stress. More when I'm stressed, though.

I did wake up with a stomach ache (which I still have), so the dream could've been a reaction to the physical sensation.

You're definitely not alone in this! =)

I think stress effects our autoimmune system not in the same way that gluten does, but in a fairly powerful way, not just in our sleep but in our normal activities of daily living.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):



  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      131,548
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748

    Lunaluv
    Newest Member
    Lunaluv
    Joined

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):


  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.4k
    • Total Posts
      1m

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):





  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):



  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Scott Adams
      Your post demonstrates the profound frustration and isolation that so many in the Celiac community feel, and I want to thank you for channeling that experience into advocacy. The medical gaslighting you endured for decades is an unacceptable and, sadly, a common story, and the fact that you now have to "school" your own GI specialist speaks volumes about the critical lack of consistent and updated education. Your idea to make Celiac Disease a reportable condition to public health authorities is a compelling and strategic one. This single action would force the system to formally acknowledge the prevalence and seriousness of the disease, creating a concrete dataset that could drive better research funding, shape medical school curricula, and validate the patient experience in a way that individual stories alone often cannot. It is an uphill battle, but contacting representatives, as you have done with Adam Gray, is exactly how change begins. By framing it as a public health necessity—a matter of patient safety and protection from misdiagnosis and neglect—you are building a powerful case. Your voice and your perseverance, forged through thirty years of struggle, are exactly what this community needs to ensure that no one else has to fight so hard just to be believed and properly cared for.
    • Scott Adams
      I had no idea there is a "Louisville" in Colorado!😉 I thought it was a typo because I always think of the Kentucky city--but good luck!
    • Scott Adams
      Navigating medication safety with Celiac disease can be incredibly stressful, especially when dealing with asthma and severe allergies on top of it. While I don't have personal experience with the HealthA2Z brand of cetirizine, your caution is absolutely warranted. The inactive ingredients in pills, known as excipients, are often where gluten can be hidden, and since the FDA does not require gluten-free labeling for prescription or over-the-counter drugs, the manufacturer's word is essential. The fact that you cannot get a clear answer from Allegiant Health is a significant red flag; a company that is confident its product is gluten-free will typically have a customer service protocol to answer that exact question. In situations like this, the safest course of action is to consider this product "guilty until proven innocent" and avoid it. A better alternative would be to ask your pharmacist or doctor to help you identify a major national brand of cetirizine (like Zyrtec) whose manufacturer has a verified, publicly stated gluten-free policy for that specific medication. It's not worth the risk to your health when reliable, verifiable options are almost certainly available to you. You can search this site for USA prescriptions medications, but will need to know the manufacturer/maker if there is more than one, especially if you use a generic version of the medication: To see the ingredients you will need to click on the correct version of the medication and maker in the results, then scroll down to "Ingredients and Appearance" and click it, and then look at "Inactive Ingredients," as any gluten ingredients would likely appear there, rather than in the Active Ingredients area. https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/   
    • Scott Adams
      What you're describing is indeed familiar to many in the Celiac community, especially in the early stages of healing. When the intestinal villi are damaged from Celiac disease, they struggle to properly digest and absorb fats, a condition known as bile acid malabsorption. This can cause exactly the kind of cramping and spasms you're seeing, as undigested fats can irritate the sensitive gut lining. It is highly plausible that her reactions to dairy and eggs are linked to their higher fat content rather than the proteins, especially since she tolerates lean chicken breast. The great news is that for many, this does improve with time. As her gut continues to heal on a strict gluten-free diet, her ability to produce the necessary enzymes and bile to break down fats should gradually return, allowing her to slowly tolerate a wider variety of foods. It's a slow process of healing, but your careful approach of focusing on low-fat, nutrient-dense foods like seeds and avocado is providing her system the best possible environment to recover. Many people with celiac disease, especially those who are in the 0-2 year range of their recovery, have additional food intolerance issues which could be temporary. To figure this out you may need to keep a food diary and do an elimination diet over a few months. Some common food intolerance issues are dairy/casein, eggs, corn, oats, and soy. The good news is that after your gut heals (for most people who are 100% gluten-free this will take several months to two years) you may be able to slowly add some these items back into your diet after the damaged villi heal. This article may be helpful: Thank you for sharing your story—it's a valuable insight for other parents navigating similar challenges.
    • Beverage
      I had a very rough month after diagnosis. No exaggeration, lost so much inflammatory weight, I looked like a bag of bones, underneath i had been literally starving to death. I did start feeling noticeably better after a month of very strict control of my kitchen and home. What are you eating for breakfast and lunch? I ignored my doc and ate oats, yes they were gluten free, but some brands are at the higher end of gluten free. Lots of celics can eat Bob's Red Mill gluten-free oats, but not me. I can now eat them, but they have to be grown and processed according to the "purity protocol" methods. I mail order them, Montana Gluten-Free brand. A food and symptoms and activities log can be helpful in tracking down issues. You might be totally aware, but I have to mention about the risk of airborne gluten. As the doc that diagnosed me warned . . Remember eyes, ears, nose, and mouth all lead to your stomach and intestines.  Are you getting any cross contamination? Airborne gluten? Any pets eating gluten (they eat it, lick themselves, you pet them...)? Any house remodeling? We live in an older home, always fixing something. I've gotten glutened from the dust from cutting into plaster walls, possibly also plywood (glues). The suggestions by many here on vitamin supplements also really helped me. I had some lingering allergies and asthma, which are now 99% gone. I was taking Albuterol inhaler every hour just to breathe, but thiamine in form of benfotiamine kicked that down to 1-2 times a day within a few days of starting it. Also, since cutting out inflammatory seed oils (canola, sunflower, grapeseed, etc) and cooking with real olive oil, avocado oil, ghee, and coconut oil, I have noticed even greater improvement overall and haven't used the inhaler in months! It takes time to weed out everything in your life that contains gluten, and it takes awhile to heal and rebuild your health. At first it's mentally exhausting, overwhelming, even obsessive, but it gets better and second nature.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

NOTICE: This site places This site places cookies on your device (Cookie settings). on your device. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.