We all know how it feels to struggle through the day when you didn’t get enough sleep the night before. Your brain feels fuzzy, it’s tough to focus, and you simply aren’t the best version of yourself! The good news is, there may be a simple explanation for your sleep disorder – and there are steps you can take to eliminate the potential celiac symptoms that are keeping you up at night.
Today the Gluten Free RN shares her struggle with sleep deprivation as an undiagnosed celiac patient who also worked the night shift in the ER. Find out how she leveraged a Paleo diet and went from having a contentious relationship with sleep to becoming a champion ‘Olympic Sleeper’ who enjoys at least eight hours of rest every night!
She also covers the components of an ideal sleep space, suggestions for implementing an evening routine, and the benefits of a good night’s rest. Listen and learn about the connection between sleep disorders and undiagnosed celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity.
What’s Discussed:
Nadine’s struggle with sleep working the night shift
- 10 years as ER nurse working 12-hour night shifts
- Difficult to shift into normal sleep pattern on days off
- Circadian rhythm thrown off, felt fuzzy-brained
- Needed extra sleep
- Struggle to block out distractions
The correlation between undiagnosed celiac disease and sleep disorders
- Celiac symptoms can keep you awake at night
- May experience joint pain, muscle pain, DH, eczema, headaches, muscle twitches, restless leg syndrome
How a Paleo lifestyle can alleviate symptoms preventing sleep
How many hours of sleep you should be getting each night
- Nadine recommends 8-10 hours of good quality sleep
- Provides the energy for your body to carry out the tasks of daily living
The components of an ideal sleep space
- Comfortable mattress
- Quality sheets
- Plenty of supportive pillows
- Appropriate temperature
- Fresh air, if possible
- No electronic equipment in the room (i.e.: phones, televisions, computers)
- Source of white noise (e.g.: fan, music)
The model evening routine
- Limit screen time in the hours before bed
- Try relaxing activities like reading or knitting instead
- Take a warm bath with Epsom salt (muscle relaxer, source of magnesium)
- Consider magnesium supplements
Celiac symptoms that can cause sleep apnea
How your body heals neurological damage in the absence of gluten
The repercussions of vitamin C deficiency
Signs of sleep disorders in children that may be caused by undiagnosed celiac disease
- Can’t or don’t want to go to sleep, crying
- Cranky and fatigued during the day
- Decreased productivity
- Learning disabilities
- Difficulty with focus
Signs of celiac disease in children
- Short stature
- Anemia
- Falling off growth chart
- Learning disabilities
- Seizure disorders
Why anyone with sleep disorders should get tested for celiac disease
How Nadine’s sleep issues went away on a gluten-free diet
- Eliminated back pain, joint pain, skin discomfort, muscle pain, muscle spasms and leg cramps
- Now she qualifies as an ‘Olympic Sleeper’
The unhealthy approach to compensating for lack of sleep
- Take in stimulants to make it through the day (e.g.: coffee, sugar)
- Take depressants at night to help fall asleep (e.g.: alcohol, prescription meds)
- Everything you consume impacts your health and ability to sleep
A healthy option that functions as a sleep aid
The benefits of a good night’s rest
When to take multivitamins
- In the morning with food
- At night before bed (absorbed differently)
The risks associated with prescription medications
Connect with Nadine:
‘Your Skin on Gluten’ on YouTube
Books by Nadine:
Dough Nation: A Nurse’s Memoir of Celiac Disease from Missed Diagnosis to Food and Health Activism
The GF/RN certainly seems to be onto something regarding the connection between heart failure/Cardiac Disease, stroke, sleep disorder and Celiac Disease. I am a Retired Registered Nurse who has noticed throughout my career how slow medicine is to recognize signs and symptoms that connect and/or leads to various diseases although that has been a casual or coincidental observation of mine, not a study. My lifelong undiagnosed conditions and symptoms contributed to my observations.
After numerous doctor visits and clear complaints; my ER visit complaining of being awakened from my sleep with an intermittent episode of shortness of breath, that ER ECG that read, “Abnormal ECG, LBBB” and discharge diagnosis of Bronchitis, I am a witness to what the GF/RN writes of. Thanks to my daughter being a mid-level supervisor in the Medical Records Dept, a month later, I was given copies of ALL my ER records generated on that particular emergency visit on my way to my Primary Care doctor. It was that day that I got to read my ECG report and learned of the “abnormal ECG, LBBB”. Neither the ER doctor nor ER nurse told me anything about that.
At age 74, after going to many Allergists with complaints of rash breakouts for years, severe itching, post menopausal Anemia, non-reactive skin tests and prescribed various allergy pills, I was finally given a blood test for 20 foods, found sentive to 18 to varying degrees and told I would needed to go on a Gluten-Free diet in addition to eliminating more than half the foods I showed sensitivity to and others, one by one if the rash and itching persisted. Two years before that, I had a right-sided stroke; two years later, place on an Apnea ASV device and about 5 years before that was when I learned of the LBBB and subsequent diagnosis of Congestive heart failure and given an implanted intracardiac bivalvular pacemaker and defibrillator, not having the usual persistent legs and feet swelling.