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?

MySuicidalTurtle

Recommended Posts

MySuicidalTurtle Enthusiast
MySuicidalTurtle
Posted

Hello, is anyone else having problems with nightmares. This past year of me being gluten-free I have had nightmares almost everynight. Sometimes they are so bad I stay up and try not to sleep. I think it has to do with the anxiety I am dealing with about worrying that I will be sick again liek I used to be before going gluten-free. I just am curious if any of you all ar having the same problem with the nightmares as I am.

Kristina

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

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


SadiesMomma Apprentice
SadiesMomma
Posted

Hi,

Well, I have had some pretty vivid dreams this last year after going gluten-free... Some are so bad that they seem so real I wake up balling, I wake up and check on my daughter making sure shes still alive or make a phone call at 4am. I usually have troubles falling asleep eventhough I am so exhausted because my mind is racing. I think a lot of it is the anxiety associated with Celiac. Honestly, as of now I do not have any suggestions but I am going to a psychologist and theyre going to prescribe me meds for my mental issues. Hopefully that will help the anxiety and ease my nerves so I can fall asleep and actually sleep, not have these dang dreams. Ill let you know how it goes.

outthere39 Rookie
outthere39
Posted

I have some scary and extremely vivid nightmares. They seem to be real, real enough to the point that I become physically interactive. Sometimes I wake kicking, or punching, or feeling high anxiety. I have notice that these usually come during a bout with gluten. I noice that they will not stop until my system has recovered enough.

MySuicidalTurtle Enthusiast
MySuicidalTurtle
Posted
  • Author

I go to a therapist and take anti-anxiety medication. I did notice while I was on spring break that I had only one nightmare. Then, when classes started back up I had them again. I think it is all related to the anxiety I feel about going to classes and such. I am glad to know I am not the only one with the nightmares but that also saddens me that we are having them. Thank you for the replys!

Kristina

  • 9 months later...
jknnej Collaborator
jknnej
Posted

Since going gluten-free, I have had extremely vivid dreams that aren't always nightmares, but keep me feeling tired throughout the day due to lack of restful sleep.

I also read in "Digestive Health and Nutrition" magazine, or some similar titile that I can't remember, that dreams such as these are common in people who suffer from bowel disorders. Hmmmm....

Guest sriddle78
Guest sriddle78
Posted

I also read about people having more vivid dreams/nightmares when there are bowel disorders. What's really crazy is that since I've gotten really bad, my dreams are worse...and almost every night I have some type of nightmare. Usually they're about someone chasing me. I see a therapist and she is convinced it is because I am scared/anxious about my health and the consequences of eating gluten catching up to me. Thankfully I sent back my stool sample to EnteroLab this morning and I am having blood work after work today. All my symptoms point to gluten intolerance (and ironically, all the symptoms of my family...my father has always had these horrible red bumps all over his forearms and knees, but the doctor says it's just an infection and gives him cream, which doesn't work...I know, after seeing pictures of DH, that's what it is...but he refuses to get tested).

Anyway...good luck with the dreams. I guess quite a few of us have them too. :(

Shannon

Maggie1956 Rookie
Maggie1956
Posted

I've been having really vivid dreams for at least a couple of years. :(

They are often about me having terrible arguments with my parents (who are both now deceased), other members of my immediate family, or even worse, dreams involving the father of my two adult children. :angry: The ones involving the 'mongrel' are by far the worst. It was a very violent marriage.

After dreaming any of them, I wake up very upset. Often crying in my sleep and kicking or something similar.

I take sodium valproate which is supposed to help me fall into a deeper sleep pattern. It isn't making any difference after taking it for two years. B):rolleyes:

Hopefull, one day we will all be healed and we can sleep easy.

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

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


phakephur Apprentice
phakephur
Posted

I've had bad dreams on a regular basis all my life. Generally it's things like being shot at, natural disasters, my pets being horribly injured.

Since going gluten free, I have dreamed repeatedly about being far away from home and there's nothing to eat. Often I am in a crowded place and there are large buffets of food, but it's ALL bread, breaded/fried vegetables, processed meat, pasta, etc. Once I dreamed I was on a train and the porter started handing out bags of bread for lunch. I asked if there was any fresh fruits or vegetables I could have but there weren't. Another time I dreamed about being trapped in a nursing home, again with nothing to eat.

Sarah

Deby Apprentice
Deby
Posted

I can't ever remember not having nightmares. I started taking Paxil about a year ago and that was the relief I needed. The nightmares are way down, maybe one or two a month as opposed to four or five a night. Has anyone else tried Paxil? My doc said it was good at relieving anxiety, which was my biggest problem.

Thomas Apprentice
Thomas
Posted

Sorry to hear about your nightmares.

  • 3 weeks later...
jknnej Collaborator
jknnej
Posted

It's almost a month since I posted last, and I still have awful dreams every night.

For my IBS my doctor prescribed Elavel? sp? and I haven't started it yet but it's supposed to help you sleep as well as help your IBS..it's an antidepressant.

Anyone else take this?

Professor Rookie
Professor
Posted

I might as well throw in an answer. I have either no dreams, or extremely violent ones. HOrrid ones. Scary.

OK, there is one other. At least once a week, in my dream, I suddenly realize I'm eating bread. Always on the third piece (maybe it's a roll, or pastry, or a piece of pie, or whatever), I realize what I've done and am shocked and terrified. My daughter woke up the other day and said that SHE dreamed I was eating bread, too -- also three pieces. Odd.

Patty

Carriefaith Enthusiast
Carriefaith
Posted
I just am curious if any of you all ar having the same problem with the nightmares as I am.

I also have a lot of nightmares. I'm not quite sure why though... maybe it's stress?

KaitiUSA Enthusiast
KaitiUSA
Posted

I get nightmares occasionally. Some are worse than others. I will wake up sometimes with tears dripping down my face and my heart racing and im in a sweat. Other times I just wake up and turn my body and go back to sleep. Even with the really horrible dreams I can usually go back to sleep pretty fast. I don't know if it is a correlation with foods I eat? Since it only happens occasionally I am wondering if possibly when I have a certain thing to eat it may cause that. They have actually gotten alot better since I have been on a gluten-free diet so it might have had something to do with a reaction that the gluten was causing to my body.

cdford Contributor
cdford
Posted

Are nightmares just part of the mix? I have had them for years. Periodically they get really strange...last night I delivered five babies in one night and kept losing them in the bed. It was hilarious to remember the next morning trying to nurse all those babies. My poor aging mother was having a time helping me keep up with all those tiny babies. For a while there I kept dreaming that someone in the family was in the hospital and I could not move to get to them (I have the neurological problems and am wheelchair bound so I know where those come from.)

Sometimes the dreams are awful, sometimes just vivid, and sometimes just plain weird. Rarely, they are the usual run of the mill kind other people talk about.

I do not tend to have them as badly when the docs keep me on a really low dose of nortryiptilene. The dose is not high enough to be efficacious for depression but really helps with the sleeping and nightmares.

Maggie1956 Rookie
Maggie1956
Posted

I've been wondering if the weird/bad dreams are related to sugar and/or gluten intake??

maybe there is a connection somewhere, that we've 'poisoned' our systems, and our brains can't cope wit it.

Just a thought. :huh:

KaitiUSA Enthusiast
KaitiUSA
Posted

I think for me it is either a gluten intake or chocolate that causes them for me. I very rarely have them now. My mom always tells me I watch too much news and I have really cut back on alot of that so maybe there is a correlation with what you watch. Just a thought :D

num1habsfan Rising Star
num1habsfan
Posted

I know after watching a scary movie, I cant sleep at all anymore. I close my eyes, and i see the scary parts and faces of the movies in my head. even if i'm not scared during the movie. and i've been SO paranoid since i've been a celiac. anything seems to make my jump. its weird. but you arent the only one..

~lisa~

  • 2 weeks later...
Niteyx13 Explorer
Niteyx13
Posted

Since going gluten-free I have also had nightmares at least once a week, often 2-3 times a week. I also have that moment between being fully awake where I see things floating in the room, or things standing in the room. It is very scary!

ianm Apprentice
ianm
Posted

Prior to going gluten-free I would have extremely violent and vivid nightmares almost every night. I would wake up with my heart beating so hard I thought it would explode. Now that I am gluten-free I don't seem to dream much at all.

Ian

Guest BellyTimber
Guest BellyTimber
Posted

A year is a very short time to be gluten-free so far, for adults I think.

We always used to crack jokes about the dreams we got after eating cheese or pork anyway. A gut-brain connection is nothing to get excited about per se.

I'm going through a phase of very vivid dreams, not quite nightmares but very impression-making.

I decided to dialogue with my dream faculty and ask it to not scare me as that defeats the object of playing out the issues in a way I can learn from.

They are often symbolic in a corny, cheesy or witty way. I often sit up and write the interpretation and the concrete literal account of the dream (s) (usually four episodes one after the other) in the minute or two after I sit up.

Sometimes I don't bother or it slips too soon. Other times it remains realer than everything else, all day or several days.

I end up with a pile of interesting ones over a period. (Always date - including year - when writing down)

Slight fever can also give very intense dreams that may not have much meaning.

(Interpretations - apparently this is a largely individual thing)

Best of wishes

Michael

MySuicidalTurtle Enthusiast
MySuicidalTurtle
Posted
  • Author

I started this thread is over a year old.

Now I ususally only get the terrible nightmares when I am under more stress or so.

I used to write my dreams down all the tiem but then I culd remmeber more and more when I did this and when they would be nightmares it would be worse. Sometimes I could know I was dreaming and that it wasn't real butmost times I couldn't.

celiac3270 Collaborator
celiac3270
Posted

It's not that short. In comparison to how long someone will be gluten-free, (for the rest of his or her life) it is--but I think that one year is a big step--it's usually when symptoms are leaving or have already left, when you know the ropes of the diet very well, etc. I've only been gluten-free for a year, but I already feel like I know so much about celiac, even though it's been a short time in relation to how long I'll be on a gluten-free diet--66 years if I live till 80 :)

  • 3 weeks later...
gabrielle Contributor
gabrielle
Posted

i can say that since i've been following a gluten-free diet that i have had some awful nightmares, to the extreme you are. I always have them closer to the morning hours, but they keep me awake and make the rest of my day awful. I don't know why i have these, or why you do either... i never thought they were because of a gluten-free diet... maybe you're on to something...

i hope you have pleasant dreams.

  • 2 weeks later...
sally-chippendale Newbie
sally-chippendale
Posted

Since finding this site i have visted nearly everyday... it s becoming an obsession i think :lol: i keep learning though... and all the wierd things about me keep falling into place the more i read about others experiences.

Even my nightmares, my mum always said shes never known anyone dream as much as me.. and i can remember them all vividly. And many a time they are so scary. I mean like axe murderer chopping my friends up scary... and waking up thinking its happened. My family look at me like mmm she should be on medication. :lol: but maybe now i can blame it on being a celiac.

it could be possible that it affects our dreams though as i keep reading about celiac disease being connected to mental illnesses and also depression... its prolly just anxiety though. <_<:o

Archived

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

Go to topic listing
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):


  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      131,552
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748
    judytay080
    Newest Member
    judytay080
    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
      Taken Seriously

      By Scott Adams · Posted

      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
      Looking for a gluten-free roomie in Denver CO

      By Scott Adams · Posted

      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
      Allergy medication: cetirizine by the HealthA2Z is it gluten free?

      By Scott Adams · Posted

      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
      Protein or fat?

      By Scott Adams · Posted

      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
      Diagnosed celiac for 1-2 months ago and everything makes me bloated.

      By Beverage · Posted

      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.