Nightmares?

[MySuicidalTurtle]

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

[SadiesMomma]

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]

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]

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

[jknnej]

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]

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]

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. 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.

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

[phakephur]

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]

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]

Sorry to hear about your nightmares.

[jknnej]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[KaitiUSA]

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

[num1habsfan]

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~

[Niteyx13]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[gabrielle]

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.

[sally-chippendale]

Since finding this site i have visted nearly everyday... it s becoming an obsession i think 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. 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.