Terrifying Dreams And Gluten

[mimommy]

Hmm...very interesting. My little girl started sleepwalking, sleep talking, moaning and crying in her sleep, all when her worst symptoms were taking place prior to diagnosis. It was really weird--I would wake up because I felt someone staring at me and there she'd be, silently looming over my bed. It was creepy as h**l! I would ask her what was wrong over and over and she wouldn't answer me or just utter non-syllables. I had to walk her back to bed, sometimes several times a night. From the moment she went gluten-free, this stopped happening (I've only heard her moan once since) and she has no memory at all of ever doing it.

[caek-is-a-lie]

Please tell me this happens to others! I feel so neurotic!

Oh this TOTALLY happens to me. If I eat gluten I wake up at 2am with panic attacks worrying about the stupidest things. My heart races before I'm even awake, and those ghost dreams are the worst! I wake up paralyzed and can't scream and it feels like they're in the room.

Of course, I have Narcolepsy from eating gluten and this is called Sleep Paralysis and Hypnogogic/Hypnopompic Hallucinations. "Normal" people can get this too. It's terrifying when it happens! You are not the only one by far. I've had the gluten-induced panic attacks since I was a kid, but never knew the cause.

You can hang out with more people who experience this all the time at http://www.narcolepsynetwork.org/forums/ I'm dogdreams there. And yes, several of us people with narcolepsy are gluten intolerant. I started a poll to find out just how many, because my theory is that it's quite a significant number but people just don't want to try the diet.

[caek-is-a-lie]

This is kind of embarrassing and yet, really funny. Numerous times I have had (I guess you could call them nightmares) dreams where I accidentally eat gluten and then immediately wake up.

LOL that happened to me 2 nights ago. I had these giant slices of cheese pizza in my hand and I thought "no, I can't eat them" and then I was talking to someone and thought "screw it I'm hungry. I'm eating them" and ate them anyway, and then I was horrified "oh no I'm going to get sick!" Then I woke up and thought it was real for a minute or two. I thought in all seriousness "I can't believe I ate pizza! what was I thinking??" Total nightmare! But so hillarious.

[Guest simrnz]

Oh this TOTALLY happens to me. If I eat gluten I wake up at 2am with panic attacks worrying about the stupidest things. My heart races before I'm even awake, and those ghost dreams are the worst! I wake up paralyzed and can't scream and it feels like they're in the room.

if you're so much obsessed in an attempt to make something "happen" and following gluten free diet so forcibly then nightmare or panic attacks are a general symptom. So first of all you really dont need to worry about it at all. The more you're conscious about your gluten cheats, the more anxious you'll feel. Just let it go if you've done it mistakenly or by intentions once or twice. You can also fix a day to go with gluten depending on the severity of your disease. Nightmares are nothing but the repetition of our daytime routines.

[Ms. Skinny Chic]

Oh my gosh, I was accidentally glutened last evening and I actually didn't have an issue falling asleep but I had an issue STAYING asleep! I kept having terrifying dreams paired with panic attacks that I would wake up gasping for air and heart pounding!

I kept dreaming about an evil spirit in my house, grabbing me and I just recall having a super heavy feeling on my chest where I had a tough time breathing.

Please tell me this happens to others! I feel so neurotic!

I had a similar dream once before 2. Wheat and Gluten are really bad for you...

[Jennifer S]

I have definitely had both insomnia and nightmares at times. I take B vitamins to help with nueorpathy symptoms, and if I forget to take them or have alcohol (which strips B vitmains right out of you) I get really spooky dreams, feelings of anxiety and worry, and just poor, unrestful sleep. No celiac diagnosis, but am looking for a new GI guy. Gluten free for three months.

[hollyres]

I wake up screaming - this is something that started when i was 19. My husband has to shake me to wake me up. I have frequently thought dead people were in the room. One night I fell/rolled out of bed and really hurt myself. It doesn't happen hardly at all now that I am good about my diet - but I also get it when I have other allergic reactions. Now I know I am not alone. I just thought I was crazy.

[caramckelvey]

So when I have horrifying nightmares it probably means I've been glutened?? Oh man, I've had nightmares, night screaming and jumping out of bed and I just thought it was me!!I'm usually so careful about what I eat but now am having serious bowel problems and have to get a colonoscopy. Could it be living with others who eat lots of gluten, like there are bread crumbs on table and we share the same pots and pans? I always thought if they were washed it was ok...can anyone help??

[nomentanus]

There's a very strong correlation between celiac and sleep apnea.

With sleep apnea, in a deep sleep your brain has to increase your level of adrenalin sharply to wake you up if you're not breathing. It will do whatever it takes to do that, wake you up and save your life.

I'm always amused by how inventive "cruel to be kind" brain can be! Extraordinarily, and viciously so.

Makes me awfully calm in real life though... nothing compares.

[grainfree]

To all of you who have posted in this topic - how are you now with regard to dream status? Better, worse, same?

[Angels~Exist]

I had nightmares too, I just didn't know it was because of the gluten. Most of the time it just made me tired but sometimes I had nightmares. Thanks for making me feel more sane

[oceangirl]

Yes, terrible nightmares when glutened-somehow gluten itself makes its way into the dreams in some nefarious way, too. I have nightmares sometimes without gluten but I ALWAYS have them if glutened. It's interesting to hear others have similar experiences.

Sleep tight,

lisa

[ElizLyn]

Hi Keegans Mommy!

I'm a member of the International Association for Dreams (www.asdreams.org) and in all of my research and reading they have not determined that food is linked with nightmares. If this were my experience I would think I was having an issue with "Sleep Paralysis" which unfortunetly happens very often to people. You might want to browse around ASDs website listed above or google Sleep Paralysis to get a better understanding of this. Sleep Parlysis is a sleeping disorder which is AWFUL as I have experienced it a couple of times. However, I do understand that people say that if they have eaten certain foods that nightmares follow so I would not think you are crazy

Good luck, hope this doesn't happen again!!

[littleflower]

Well, goodness I hadn't thought my nightmares were gluten (or other intolerances) related. I've always had weird dreams and they did let up for a while when I went gluten free, but now other intolerances are showing up they've come back with a vengeance. I see I'm going to have to clean my act up even more - what happens when theres nothing left I can eat?

[VikingMac7]

This s$#& happened to me A LOT too, before I knew the connection between the gut and brain, and how gluten intolerant people can be driven to even a state of schizophrenia when they are eating gluten over time. I think the dreams play on our worst subconscious fears. I was heavily indoctrinated at a young age with Christianity (I'm not longer a religious or spiritual person), and so obviously I'd have nightmares that God was going to send me to hell or that he was going to punish me in certain ways. So mine is a bit different, even though I did have a ton of nightmares at times, what I mainly had were HYPNOPOMPIC and HYPNAGOGIC HALLUCINATIONS. The hypnopompic ones were the most prevalent for me (and still are at times when I've been glutened or eat too late at night). I would be having a normal regular dream, and then right before I woke up, it would change and I'd snap awake, seeing numbers or hearing voices.

I woke up on February 28, 2013 for example, hearing the words 'I HATE YOU'. It was almost like a whisper in my ear. At that time I was still pretty religious minded, and I thought it was God telling me that he hated me. I would wake up other times and have epiphanies of things I wasn't consciously aware of in my waking life. The things I'd start thinking about as I woke up were terrifying, like God was going to torture me in certain ways once I die because I walked away from Christianity and I stayed in 'sin.' It was all so stupid because I know Christianity is false now, but those subconscious fears are still deep seated inside of me from being indoctrinated at a young age. 

I also read another story from a female who has celiac. She wrote her story back in 2012 (which I'll link below). She said she would have hypnopompic hallucinations upon waking, where she'd see dead people standing in her room. She had been seeing these dead people from as far back as she can remember as a child. Once she went gluten free, those hallucinations went away. Here is the link to read that below 

Open Original Shared Link
 

[Pepper88]

On 3/14/2018 at 2:41 AM, VikingMac7 said:

This s$#& happened to me A LOT too, before I knew the connection between the gut and brain, and how gluten intolerant people can be driven to even a state of schizophrenia when they are eating gluten over time. I think the dreams play on our worst subconscious fears. I was heavily indoctrinated at a young age with Christianity (I'm not longer a religious or spiritual person), and so obviously I'd have nightmares that God was going to send me to hell or that he was going to punish me in certain ways. So mine is a bit different, even though I did have a ton of nightmares at times, what I mainly had were HYPNOPOMPIC and HYPNAGOGIC HALLUCINATIONS. The hypnopompic ones were the most prevalent for me (and still are at times when I've been glutened or eat too late at night). I would be having a normal regular dream, and then right before I woke up, it would change and I'd snap awake, seeing numbers or hearing voices.

I woke up on February 28, 2013 for example, hearing the words 'I HATE YOU'. It was almost like a whisper in my ear. At that time I was still pretty religious minded, and I thought it was God telling me that he hated me. I would wake up other times and have epiphanies of things I wasn't consciously aware of in my waking life. The things I'd start thinking about as I woke up were terrifying, like God was going to torture me in certain ways once I die because I walked away from Christianity and I stayed in 'sin.' It was all so stupid because I know Christianity is false now, but those subconscious fears are still deep seated inside of me from being indoctrinated at a young age. 

I also read another story from a female who has celiac. She wrote her story back in 2012 (which I'll link below). She said she would have hypnopompic hallucinations upon waking, where she'd see dead people standing in her room. She had been seeing these dead people from as far back as she can remember as a child. Once she went gluten free, those hallucinations went away. Here is the link to read that below 

Open Original Shared Link
 

Oh man, I always get these too. The period before wake or sleep is horrible - SO MANY DISTURBING HALLUCINATIONS. Whether its voices, schreeching in my ears, ghosts and figures attacking me, its all really disturbing. 

As for the whole other dicussion... Ive had freaky chronic nightmares for 3 years now. Been gluten-free for 2 months now and they have decreased in frequency... I hope it keeps decreasing. Sleeping is my least favorite part of life.