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

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.

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.

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

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....

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

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.

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

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.

Sorry to hear about your nightmares.

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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~

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!

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Gabrielle and Sally,

Dialogue with your "dream faculty" (not in front of people!) and ask it to not be so scary, but more witty and entertaining.

I did and mine are now full of plays and words and concepts, which I enjoy ...

A vivid dream still stays with me rather strongly but I feel more in control.

Best wishes

I've been having horrible nightmares since I went gluten-free. The other night I woke up choking and was wondering if other celiac patients were having the same problems. So I did a google search and found this website. Now I know that I'm not going crazy! I had horrible dreams. Dreams of drowning, ax murders chopping up my family and then my friends then coming after me....and the nighmares keep coming! I'm going to the doctor today to see if he can do anything about these nightmares. I'll keep everyone posted on what happened at the doctors.

I have always had very vivid dreams and nightmares and night walking ever since I was little. I figured out that BHT and chocolate are the main items that cause my nightmares. My nightmares are absolutely horrible!!! I have only been gluten-free for 2 weeks, along with my 3 children. We have not been diagnosed, but I have basically self-diagnosed myself and my children. We do so much better gluten-free, CF, nut free, corn free. By the way, even if I do gluten-free items that still contain BHT or chocolate I still get nightmares and/or sleep walking.

Hope this helps!

I've suffered from not only bad dreams, but also an extreme startle respoonse and severe anxiety all my life.

To a large extent my anxiety levels have calmed down-which I always attributed to the fact I cut out the excitotoxin additives only a few months before the gluten. But now my dreams have turned from horrible nightmares to simply bizarre.

I've had terrible nightmares all my life, there have been times when being under extreme stress that I'd have ten nightmares a night, and would be afraid of going to bed.

When I came off gluten, lectins and salicylates (everything I'm intolerant to), those nightmares stopped completely. When I tested for those intolerances this past week, I started having disturbing dreams again.

So, I definitely believe that food intolerances and nightmares are connected. Any of you who are taking antidepressants for nightmares may want to look into this, and test yourself for intolerances other than the ones you already know about.

On the subject of Nightmares & bad dreams here... gee, I'm glad I'm not the only one who goes thru these "horrors!" But, I've always been one to dream vividly, but in the past 6-months or so, my dreams & Nightdmares are tremendous!!

I've only been gluten-free for a short time now, but the other night, I had a dream that my Horse was talking to me, and it was just as "common & real" as it could get!! He told me all of his inner thoughts! Laugh! {Hmmmmm--- wonder if anybody can beat that type of a Nightmare?!!.... "Balam & the Donkey" in the BIBLE maybe?!!!!!!}

I'm still trying to get my diet "leveled-out," and still doing the Science with it, to determine what I really CAN & CAN'T eat....... so I'm sure this is a major factor. I'm glad I'm not alone with this subject here!

"Sweet dreams" everyone!

A talking horse is pretty scarey. I once had a nightmare about these huge black furry spiders that made big webs in the corner of the room up near the ceiling. and these spiders would look at me and then they would laugh. Laughing spiders. Now there's a nightmare I'll never forget.

But my nightmares and bizarre dreams all stopped once I went gluten free. Now, I usually don't even remember my dreams. They fade away as soon as I awake.

Now, it's just restful sleep zzzzzzz

I almost never have a nightmare, although I do remember my dreams more often now. But last night, I had a dream that a certain neighbor that I don't get along with was at my house when I got home and was redecorating my family room. I didn't want any more trouble, so I let her do it! Even in my sleep, I can be a wuss sometimes

Whoa~

"Talking Horses, Laughing Spiders, & neighbors re-decorating your Family Room," WOW!! This is so awesome that some of your folks are sharing your vivid dreams here! I got a good chuckle out of the stories, & some of this stuff almost sounds like it would make a good Movie "plot" for Star Trek or something, huh?

I am still having some really "bizarre" dreams, and so far, with being "gluten-free," my dreams have NOT diminished any. But of course, I think everyone is different, so I may just be the type that will possibly "dream my Life away~"

... as long as they aren't real horrific dreams, I guess I can handle it. { I haven't had any nightmares about trying to eat out in a "Wheat-infested" place or anything yet!! } Laugh!!! Thanks for sharing!

Talking horses would not bother me but hairy spiders would.
The other night I dreamt I was mad at everyone over environmental pollution, the year was 2046. I got so mad at all the countries for continuing to pollute that I declared it was time for me to die.

WHOA Rusla!!.... the year 2046???? WOW!.... just think, I don't think any of us will have to worry about "gluten" that far in advance, huh? (giggle!)

Only been gluten-free for 6 days. Very rarely do I remember my dreams. So yesterday at 5:30 am I awoke from a horribly vivid nightmare. It involves my two grown siblings, my parents and me. I have never dreamed about my parents since I've been grown that I remember anyway. So we are in a hotel which inside evokes memories of the house I grew up in. During this trip my dad who is in the car business somehow sold my car behind my back (excuse me it's not even paid off). In the dream the only material possession that was from real life was my car. In return for my car my dad gives me a check and some cash and a trade in car (life sized plastic thing that doesn't even run!) and all that added together is much less than my car is worth. So I start screaming at him and he keeps saying he's really sorry, he couldn't help it. So then my mother chimes in for me to stop yelling at my dad and I turn my venom on her. This screaming went on until I started to lose my voice and then I woke up with a racing pulse.

After calming myself down, I tried to think why had I acted so hatefully in the dream. I have never yelled at my dad in my life and was a typical bratty teen who did yell at mom sometimes, but never like in this dream. I love my car in real life but would not value it over my family or any person ever needless to say. Then finally it hit me. The car represents my old way of life which was taken from me in an instant. Everything about the way I go through my life has to be relearned - like I'm in kindergarten almost. I feel like a freak in a sea of 'normal' people. And I know that one parent had to give me the gene for this lovely condition. But I don't of course know which one, and may never. On a subconsious level I'm obviously blaming them which I'd never do in real life. The only thing that was odd is regarding the money my dad gave me, the check amt. and the cash amt. were $500 different. I could not figure out if those figures (and the fact that they were different amounts) had any meaning. Anyone out there who likes to interpret dreams?

For years and years, I never had any dreams while I slept. After going gluten-free, I started having dreams again/ Some were 'nightmares', some were just weird.

For those of you post, have your dreams changed and gotten scarier, or are you just having/remembering more dreams.

My guess is that I'm sleeping more soundly, so I'm (happily) spending more time in the deep sleep state necessary for dreaming.

....Hmmmm, this is interesting here, because since I have gone "gluten-free," my Sleep patterns & dreams have actually gotten WORSE! This is no kidding. I'm wondering if anybody else out there is having this same problem???

I'm hoping my system will adapt to all the changes, & perhaps "settle down" later on? Maybe I'm just having "Wheat-withdrawals!"

Nightmares Yes ! I totally understand I have them Alot and they stick with me all day, The images aren't a scary as the emotion I fell during them. I have Axiety also acctually since I was 11 and now I'm 34 I was ok for about 10 yrs but I got very very sick a month ago and was finally diagnosed with Celiac and the Panic has kicked back in! I also have Food Phobias which now makes sence cause I always did . I would Eat , feel sick , Think the food was bad or tampered with , then I would panic and throw up , It's awful.

Hi Kim, and welcome! What caught my eye first was your name--are you in upstate NY? I'm from Syracuse. Anyway, I totally relate to the dreams. Before I began the diet, I rarely remembered my dreams--now, they are more vivid and I remember them (too) often! Weird combos of people and places from very different times in my life. Strange

Thank you , I am acctually in Waterford NY near Saratoga and I am trying to find any information or any support groups in my Area. I am so scared of changing my life , but I am also happy that I finaly know whats wrong with me. I was really sick of having Doctors tell me it's all in your head. Now I know it was all in my Tummy!!

I have always had nightmares but my worst one to do with gluten was being held prisoner in a room. The had me tied to a chair and were trying to force donuts and bread into my mouth. I wasn't that crazy about donuts before going gluten-free.

Nightmares that seem real for a while when you wakeup may indicate narcolepsy

Only about 10% of the population that have Narcolepsy are ever diagnosed for this disease. My GP had to look up cataplexy (loss of muscle control) in his medical dictionary when I suggested I had it. I diagnozed myself after reading a newspaper article on the subject. I had problems with falling asleep and I had cataplexy...the latter scared the H3LL out of me as I thought it was Parkeison's or something like that.


I posted this in another forum area but I think it should be posted here too. It will help you know if Narcoplexy is a possibilty

I am borderline narcoleptic. I have undergone a sleep study to prove it. During the study I got 10 hours of very light sleep....relatively normal....but following this sleep every hour for 5 following hours you are asked to fall asleep....after 10 hours of sleep I could do this within 5 minutes of being asked....this is not normal.

Hence I am borderline and have to be very careful driving distances...there are various tests to decide if you may be narcoleptic, prior to being subjected to a sleep study...they include:

1. Have you ever fallen asleep at a movie theatre or in front of the TV when you REALLY wanted to watch that show?
2. Do you dream and wake up from a terrifying dream...but not realize that you are awake and live the dream for a while?
3. Do you drive your car on a highway but don't know where you are until the next signpost goes by?
4. Do you intend to drive to the mall, but suddenly realize you are driving to work? (automatic behavior)
5. Finally....and this was the confirming condition for me....do you have cataplexy? This is the condition where you lose muscle control when excited....literally "fall down laughing" or paralized speech lasting several seconds. I have this....very embarrassing...for me it happens unexpectedly when I find something funny or crack a joke...rarely but sometimes when I am angry.

So that is how you suspect you have narcolepsy....most GP's have no clue how to diagnose this disease.