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Nightmares About Gluten

Googles

By Googles
in Coping with Celiac Disease

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Googles Community Regular
Googles
Posted

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?

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domesticactivist Collaborator
domesticactivist
Posted

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
rosetapper23
Posted

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
ktotheroll
Posted

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
Googles
Posted
  • Author

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
zus888
Posted

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
quincy
Posted

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.

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rosetapper23 Explorer
rosetapper23
Posted

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

kellynolan82 Explorer
kellynolan82
Posted

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
love2travel
Posted

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
anabananakins
Posted

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
GottaSki
Posted

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
Marilyn R
Posted

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
love2travel
Posted

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
Marilyn R
Posted

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
RacerX35
Posted

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
Googles
Posted
  • Author

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
love2travel
Posted

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
Marilyn R
Posted

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
Marilyn R
Posted

: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
love2travel
Posted

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
Googles
Posted
  • Author

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
thleensd
Posted

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
Marilyn R
Posted

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
Marilyn R
Posted

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.

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