Shifting slowly from being unconscious to groggy and fogged, I was hesitant to open my eyes. I was thankful for feeling tired, as if I could drift back to sleep. No luck.
After a bit of Googling, I found that one of the side-effects of my wheat/gluten-free diet is insomnia. Averaging three hours of sleep per night over the past week is taking its toll. Fighting an allergy flare-up that could be a cold really requires the body to fight off the goo. Without the ability to sleep aside from downing a horse-pill like Benadryl, the body is weakening. Sure, I managed to hustle a run the other day, but the fatigue is something I feel and see in my eyes.
Reading the gluten-free and celiac blogs, it seems this ailment is one frequently kept hush-hush by most of the dietary activists but common. Those affected seem to medicate with sleep meds as well as drowsy-formula antihistamines. I did read a few listings detailing foods that enable sleep: almonds, banana, warm milk, wine. Perhaps I'll stock a few bananas for these 3 a.m. disturbances.
Nonetheless, I'm curious why the insomnia is kicking now. I've avoided the wheat for five months or so. The gluten adherence is still being understood, so perhaps there was the slow-adopter factor that helped. Still, I was averaging four to five hours at that point. Catching a six hour snooze sounds so delicious.
