Gluten and sleep disturbance
Posted on August 10th, 2008 by alison
Someone asked me recently if there is a connection between gluten intolerance and restless sleep or other sleep disturbances. Yes, was my immediate answer, based on my own experience and that of my friend’s husband. I then did a search to see if there were any studies related to celiac and sleep — I came up with no medical studies. I did however come up with a slew of personal stories about sleep disturbances and gluten, and even dairy and soy.
First, my story… I used to be a restless sleeper. I moved around a lot throughout the night. I had too-vivid dreams. I did this strange thing where I would rub my feet together in a certain way before I could settle down to sleep. I had leg cramps. I also had tingling and shooting pain at times in my toes and legs. Sometimes I was nauseous during the night. I was often congested. I snored (attractive, no?). I even had sleep paralysis a couple of times — if you have never experienced this, it is an awful state in which your mind wakes before your body and you are unable to move although you are awake. I actually didn’t even remember this until I began reading about other people’s sleep problems as related to gluten and found a number of people who suffered from sleep paralysis until going gluten-free. Amazing. And my sleep since being gluten-free? I sleep calmly. I hardly move. I can breathe!
Then there is the story of my friend’s husband who had restless leg syndrome. I remember her telling me that every morning she would have to massage his legs because they would be in knots from their involuntary activity all night long. As my friend searched for a treatment for him (other than the medication the doctors wanted to prescribe), she found that gluten could be a cause of restless leg syndrome. This discovery was a powerful one — once gluten-free, his restless leg syndrome went away. You can read all of Lan-Ping’s story.
Want to hear more? Here are a couple of articles that link restless leg syndrome to celiac disease (or a mineral deficiency caused by celiac):
Click the link below to enter a forum focused on gluten and sleep and read about the connections people have found between gluten and restless leg syndrome, sleep apnea, nightmares, insomnia, and even getting up too often to go to the bathroom. There are 10 pages of related topics, so be sure to click to the next pages.
I would love to hear any personal experience you have with sleep issues and gluten or other foods. Please comment below!
I have both the restless legs and Sleep Apnea along with my Celiac but some of the leg problems are caused from the Diabetes I also have. My problem is mainly I can fall asleep to much. I have done so at my computer, watching TV, and even sitting in my swing outside. One day I will have lots of pep and the next I can hardly put one foot in front of the other. It’s gotten so I have to take a nap to get through some days.
Our son had terrible sleeping problems and often woke in the middle of the night. He averaged between 7-8 hours of sleep at night as a toddler and was very hyper prior to going to bed. After putting him on a gluten free (and all natural diet) he began sleeping through the night and sleeping an average of 11 hours daily. I was also very congested at night prior to going gluten free. I also had tingling and numbness issues with my hands and feet. Both resolved themselves when I started to eat like my son.
HLA-DQB1*0602, one of the main genes that predisposes to non-celiac gluten sensitivity, also predisposes to narcolepsy. It seems pretty obvious that there is a strong connection between gluten intolerance and sleep problems. It’s sad that so little research has been done.
For the last year, I have had a hard time sleeping. First I would get to sleep, but would wake up several times a might and would fall back to sleep. In the last few months, I have nights where I cannot get to sleep at all. I started taking the bio-hormones a couple of months ago, and I am still having a hard time sleeping. The doctor thinks I may be gluten intolerant, but has yet to test me for it. I do have alot of tummy troubles ( Acid relux disease ) and take Nexium everyday. Could my problems be gluten intolerance??
When glutened, I have an undeniable link to not being able to sleep.
The first night is the worst, wide awake till 3 or 4 am and then only small 1 hour interludes of restless sleep till I”m finally glad it’s morning and I can just get up.
I used to think I was simply a sensitive sleeper (I wear ear plugs) but after realizing I had a gluten intolerance and abstained, I slept better than I had in years. What a relief! The connection was very clear and immediate.
Now, it’s a matter of not getting contaminated which unless making all of my own food myself is hard to maintain. I’m not sure if the sleeplessness is related to the body being uncomfortable, tense, and upset, or if there is actually another symptom because I often feel really wired like I had a pot of coffee.
I hope they will find a cure or fix for this, I can’t say how many terrible nights from gluten have made my days unproductive and miserable.
That second paragraph is pretty much me at night time. I too rub my feet together to get to sleep (and when I wake up) and am woken by numbness and tingling in my legs and feet. I have sleep paralysis if I wake up then go to sleep again to soon, and often (like right now!) wake up for a few hours in the night feeling nauseous.Not to mention the daytime nausea. Thank you for this post, I’m going to suggest celiac disease to my doctor and hope it’s the answer!
I had major sleep problems before diagnosis and the recommended cure which worked was to take an antidepressant. Unfortunately they had undesirable side effects so I went off with some difficulty, but after my diagnosis which I got after my own insistence ( my aunt was diagnosed at 50 after coming close to death and she is now 85) when my nutritionist friend dragged me to a Shelly Case workshop for dieticians, I sleep like a baby. If I am not sleeping from a likely gluten poisoning I take an antihistamine like Reactine and I am sleeping like a baby in no time. I discovered this after having a year long series of anaphylaxis reactions that started about a month after my diagnosis. They have disappeared now but I do have lesser reactions to some allergens. The longer on the gf diet the better I feel. Funny, reading about the foot rubbing brought back memories. Thanks Alison - I have read lots about celiac and visited many sites and yours stands out as tops. I used to fall asleep on my desk at school sometimes too; and sometimes just lay my head down and cried after the day was over from exhaustion.
I am amazed at how well I sleep now. I hope that Peggy and Lucy have checked to see if they might be gluten intolerant - please comment again and let me know! I also recently found that if I eat dairy at night, I am stuffed up. So now if I want ice cream, I eat coconut milk (non-dairy) ice cream.
Thank you everyone for your comments and Jane for your kind words about the site. Glad it is helping!
This is so interesting to hear about other people’s experience. I too have Celiac disease and have had really painful cramps in my calves and throughout my legs, so bad that in the middle of the night I will wake up with screaming pain and have to walk around and move to change the position. . . then I use an old remedy that my Grandma recommends: a shot of pickle juice! . . . Before going gluten free I did experience sleep paralysis as well, which is extremely unpleasant. Things are much better though, now that I am g-free!
JB,
I wonder what is in pickle juice that could help with leg cramps! I haven’t heard that one! I almost never get leg cramps now.
Funny, I thought I was the only one that rubbed their feet together in order to fall asleep LOL. My ex-husband used to call me Jiminey Cricket! Had no idea that sleep paraylsis was actually what it is. Just thought it was one of the worst nightmares I had ever had…continually! Wow. Please tell me where I can find out more info about the mineral deficiency that can be caused by celiac…I am interested to know more about that.
Great site, thank you
Jennifer,
Restless Leg Syndrome is associated with low iron levels, which can be caused by celiac.
I didn’t really know what good sleep was, until going gluten & dairy free. Had trouble falling asleep, restless, woke several times a night. I probably was only getting 3-4 hours on a good night. Now I fall asleep easily, very seldom wake in the night and feel a LOT more rested when I wake up. With the other problems that I had related to gluten & dairy, I wish more doctors would even think to MENTION trying a change in diet for some medical issues.