Abnormal Amount of Sleep with Celiac
Posted by Mike in Mike's JourneyJan 28th, 2009 | 11 responses
Over the past few months, I have been tired all the time and will sleep for a long time every night. It wouldn’t be uncommon for me to sleep 10, 11, 12, or occasionally 13 hours a night! I just don’t get it. A “good nights sleep” is usually referred to as 8 hours.
My abnormal amounts of sleep is one of the main reasons I am finally switching to a gluten free diet. It isn’t like I am getting sick all the time, I just sleep a lot and could take a nap at any point during the day. If I make myself get up after 7 or 8 hours of sleep, I find myself taking a nap a few hours later or struggling through the rest of day. When I am tired, I am unproductive.
One of the many things I have been tracking on an Excel spreadsheet is the amount of sleep I get each night, and after going gluten free four weeks ago, I have not seen an improvement. Currently, I would not consider myself a “healthy” Celiac… so I am going to continue to track my progress and see if there is any correlation between amount of sleep and my gluten intake.
Does anyone experience the need for a longer nights sleep when they cheat on the diet or were an “unpracticing” Celiac?
Digg This Article! http://digg.com/food_drink/Abnormal_Amount_of_Sleep_with_Celiac
11 Responses to “Abnormal Amount of Sleep with Celiac”
Leave a Reply
About Me
Interesting! I have a gluten allergy/intolerance (I’m not a diagnosed Celiac because all my tests are negative…even for any allergy actually) and Fibromyalgia. I’ve been gluten-free since April (with overall GREAT results) but, I haven’t been able to figure out how to get a good night’s sleep in years. The one thing that has made an improvement (oddly enough) is working out a min of 2-3 times a week. Makes me tired enough to conk out yet somehow wake up feeling refreshed. Still I do get a minimum of 9 hours of sleep per a night…
@ Kelley
Thanks for the reply, please keep us updated as time goes on.
Have you had an endoscopy? My dad’s bloodwork repeatidly showed no signed of whatever antibody they look for to diagnose Celiac, but his endoscopy showed he was a full-blown Celiac. He was misdiagnosed for his whole life. They should have dug deeper sooner into the Celiac route because it is very prominent in our family(starting with his mother). He has noticed big improvements since going GF!
you know i didnt notice it but i guess i do sleep less than i did before, i used to fall asleep during the day some times, not often but once in a while, and even with 7-8 hours i was tired all the time. now i sleep about 8 im fine, and just depends more on the time i wake up now to how awake i feel (kinda weird but that may have just been my weirdness). but i have not slept more than 8 or 9 hours in one night for the last few months really so it may be something to it
-matt
Hmmm, very interesting! Not something I remember noticing. I’ve always loved sleeping and I don’t think that will ever change
It makes sense though: body heals while sleeping, so it probably needs more sleep when undiagnosed/contaminated. I do remember no feeling as sluggish and slow, overall. Most noticeable was the disappearance of “fuzzy brain syndrome”.
I work a different place in the morning than I do in the afternoon. I used to barely make it to work in the afternoon….I would be so tired. Once I got there, I would lay the seat back and take a 10 minute nap before going in. I always thought it was my schedule or I didn’t get enough sleep at night. I haven’t had to take a “car nap” since being gluten free.
I was beginning to think that I was becoming a bear and needing to hybernate. I haven’t been sleeping well, have found myself wanting to take naps on my days off, and feeling very worn out – very little energy or motivation. I haven’t had the fuzzy brain feeling or the 10 minute power naps at my desk since going back on the gluten free diet. Some say it could be the barametric pressure changing…who knows, but I really need to find my energy. My to do lists are growing too fast and too long.
Hi!
i started a gluten free lifestyle on April 24, 2009. I am feeling a little closer to my old self as each day progresses. I have felt sick for 12 years. I was probably born with celiac and I suspect others in my family have it as well. I went on the diet BEFORE the doc did my bloodwork. I got an endoscopy, though he did not take a biopsy…so, as far as WE are concerned, I am a Celiac Patient…because the diet works so well for me. I still feel REALLY tired most days…sometimes…I just wake up tired…and fuzzy brained. Somehow I must have had gluten that day before. I suggested to the doc yesterday that perhaps I should be on some supplements to MAKE up for all the time I have not been absorbing. He said No, No, No! your body is already absorbing and restores all the nutrients very quickly. i feel better when I take iron, b12, fish oil, evening primrose, C, probiotics, E, Zinc, And I have been reading that i can get off of the celexa and ambien by sticken to this
I had the same symptoms. Sleepy all the time. I could literally get up, exercise for an hour, and then go back to bed for the rest of the day. It gets better each day that you are gluten free. However, it does take a while for your intestines to heal. So just be patient and you will get the results you are looking for. You must watch out for hidden gluten. Even a small amount makes me exhausted!! I use the book – Cecelia’s Marketplace gluten free guide to help me find gluten free choices of everyday products that a normal grocery store would carry. I have also found a wonderful assortment of food at Whole Foods Markets which are pretty common in missour! good luck
If I am not completely gluten free I am still tired during the day and sleep 10 – 12 hours a night. If I am completely gluten free I sleep 8-9 hours and wake up alert and do fine all day. Each time I eat gluten it takes 3 days out of my life. I sleep all the time and I am still so tired I can’t seem to accomplish much. Recently, I found that my supplements had gluten in them so that has been the find. If you are still feeling tired and are very sure that you are gluten free you may be deficient in some nutrients. Iron, B12, folic acid, B6 are common ones that can make you feel tired. So can some essential amino acids.
Before I figured out that I had Celiac I had a very hard time staying awake even if I got 9-11 hours of sleep. I would often fall asleep in class even though I wasn’t at all bored. It was as if my brain kept shorting out and I would slip into sleeping but then jerk myself out of it. Now that I’m gluten free, I don’t have that problem unless I accidentally eat gluten. When I do eat gluten all I can really do is sleep it off–it takes me several days of sleeping 12-14 hours to recover from gluten contamination
I decided to go off gluten recently because I have OCD and I want to see if gluten triggers anxiety for me. I haven’t noticed a change in my axiety since I went off it on Saturday, but on MOnday, I was able to hop out of bed after 8.5 hours of sleep with no problems whatsoever. SAme thing happened this morning. I used to be able to sleep for hours and hours and never feel rested. Today, I feel a bit tired and probably could take a nap, but I do not feel exhausted like I normally do. I felt alert this morning and it was great. I’m certain the gluten has something to do with it. I tried going off sugar once and it really didn’t affect my sleep at all. I felt as tired as ever. Now I realize it was probably the gluten that was the culprit.