Real pain in a dream...

[nkaiser57]

I had a dream the other night where I was at a party, and a girl I was talking to smashed a bottle of gin over my chest. For some reason I distinctly remember it being a bottle of gin. Anyways, I woke up shortly thereafter and my chest was kind of hurting. Kind of weird/funny.

[prokofiev]

ive experienced this many times, not pleasent

[strange girl]

I've never been on a forum before but I'm up at 3am looking for answers. I had one of those dreams where you wake up in your bed and something is not quite right or horribly wrong (ranging from a cowboy setting the house on fire across the street from his horse and 911 arriving in the form o a giant red and white robot to my dog just being the wrong colour) and then you realize you're dreaming and try to wake up; but when you wake up you're not really awake you are just in another segment of the same type of dream. I must of "woke up" 13 times or so into weird dreams and in the last one my puppy was biting and biting me and wouldn't stop and it hurt so bad (she would never do this in real life, she adores me and is much too young for senility) the pain woke me up for real and although there were no marks on my hand it still hurt bad for a few minutes (it wasn't tingly sleeping on hand pain it was fang-like pain). This has never happened to me before and I didn't know it was possible. Yikes, don't want to go back to sleep.

Sincerely,

Freaked Out

[eight bits]

Howdy, strange girl.

Welcome aboard. I hope by now you have recovered from the experience and caught up on the lost sleep.

There is a common dream motif called "false awakening," which means what it sounds like: you dream that you have woken up. It is a searchable term.

People who report dreaming this motif often say that what they sort-of wake up into is a realistic world, except <insert unrealistic feature here>. The motif also sometimes has a peculiar twist: it "nests." That is, you falsely awaken, realize that you haven't really woken up, and that realization wakes you up, falslely, and you realize that then, too, you haven't really woken up ... (as many times as it takes) ... and then finally, that realization wakes you up, for real.

A baker's dozen levels of nesting may be a new indoor record. But in principle, there would be no obvious upper limit.

As to the pain, people do report that dreamt pain sometimes persists after waking up, without visible injury. It is difficult to rule out after the fact dream incorporation (also searchable), that is, maybe you really did cause yourself some pain while asleep and it both showed up in your dream and also took a while to go away. It is quite easy to cause lingering pain and leave no marks (for example, the "funny bone," also searchable).

Hope that helps. If this bothers you, becomes chronic, or interferes with your normal functioning, then you might consider consulting with a healthcare professional.

[TehGrant]

I rember having a dream similar where I got into a fight with a friend and he punched me in the face in my dream and my cheek was swelled up a little and in that dream I knocked him out giving him a black eye. At school the next day he had a black eye saying he woke up with it. wierd huh.

[DevilDogPratt]

i was stabbed in my side in a dream before and i woke up cause of the pain and it kept hurting for a little while

[blindchicken11]

i remember having a dream where i bit into this giant lollypop and all my teeth shattered, and when i woke up right after it, it seriously felt i had been hit in the face bat or something, it hurt so freaking bad. i've also had dreams where i'm falling, and right when i hit the ground i wake up and it feels like i'm falling into my bed, not sure if that would be considered the same type of thing though.

[Anniehoppa]

When I was 10 years old, I dreamt that I got shot in the chest. I felt the heat, heaviness and then I remember collapsing. I felt wetness. This was 28 years ago and I still remember……………

[Teen Cthulhu]

I've never really experienced true pain in a dream.

Occasionally I'll have a severe leg cramp, but I'll always wake up first. I wake up and know it's gonna happen, and then all I can do is shout and hold my leg.

But in dreams where I am bitten or stabbed, I feel only a dull pressure. Almost like the creature bitting me has no teeth at all. Claws, teeth, knives, hatchets, bullets. None of these cause any pain in my dreams, and my dream self knows this and never succumbs to an injury.

Does that make me dream Super Man?

[Stormcrow]

I believe it every bit, but I don't think it has anything to do with supernatural forces. Sometimes when you dream, you might not realize that you're still asleep--and your body may believe that what's happening is real. It's important that while in REM sleep your body "shuts down" so that while you dream you don't physically hurt yourself, but if the mind perceives something as being real, there is a possibility that it make "trick" itself into hurting. If you think you've been slapped, but really haven't, your body may feel that pain because it believes it happened. I have had MANY exhausting dreams where I've waken up more tired than when I went to sleep, or where my arms and legs just felt completely drained. I've even had dreams where I've eaten something (in the dream), and when I woke up I had that taste in my mouth--and it wasn't pleasant.

[snappydragon]

I used to have loads of those where I would fall from the top of the stairs and wake up before hitting the bottom. But the last one I've had, I hit the bottom but ran out the door in front of me so I din't die when landing or feel pain for that matter. I've never had the dream since. I guess it means a problem was solved.

I sometimes have pain in dreams but I more commonly have dreams where I stop breathing and it's scary because I become a little more 'lucid/awake' in my dream and I can feel myself not breathing. Scary enough when it starts.

My husband when he was little sleep walked off a flight of stairs that had no railing. He was in the hospital for a week. I see alot of dreams of not being able to breath, it could be sleep apnea.

[Shadesong]

I've had several dreams where I begin to suffocate. I've also had a couple where I very much feel pain. I'm of the opinion that it's just your mind trying to make sense of what's happening in the waking world. ie: You twist your arm the wrong way (whilst sleeping). Logically, something must be causing your arm to hurt, so your brain creates a situation that gives cause to whatever discomfort you may be feeling.

That's how I've always looked at it, anyway.

[captainkirk]

I felt pain once when some acid landed on my leg and it started smoking.

[DevilDogPratt]

a couple of nights ago i had a dream where i was falling and i woke up and felt like i was being pushed into the bed as if i fell onto it... weird

[morrigan]

I've felt pain in my dreams many times. The most vivid was being shot point blank in the chest with a shotgun. I felt the ripping and burning of the shot entering me, I smelled the gun powder, I saw my blood pumping out in rhythm with my heart beat, I even smelled the blood. I managed to wake myself up and had a lingering pain in my chest that was unbelievable. I've been woken up by leg cramps and stomach pains before, but they were nothing like this. So odd the way the mind works.

[Tvorceskiy]

I have always felt pain and sensations in my dreams, just as I have smelt things in my dreams, and tasted things too. I've never woken up hurt, or smelling my dog, or missing a pillow when I've woken though.

[OldTimeRadio]

There's nothing unusual about experiencing pain in a dream, just so long as you actually are experiencing pain while you sleep, just not so sharp or so severe as to awaken you.

The other week I dreamed I was stabbed in the leg. Upon awakening I realized that I'd been scratched in the leg by the tip of a broken bedspring poking up through the mattress.

[devilmaycare]

Eh. You can do or feel anything you want while dreaming except sex and eating and laughter will sound different. I have experimented and have willed myself to feel drunk or stoned and it works fine. i have willed my body to change shape-very hard to control. You can play any song you want from beginning to end at any volume you want with no interruption-cool. I tried sex-doesn't work. I have never been hungry nor felt pain though I have been attacked a couple times. When I was young I remember being threatened by apes such as in The planet of the apes movie. I remember I always used to run in the house and hide but the leader always came after me anyways. One of the best dreams I have ever had was one of eating. It was a spiritual gathering or simply a very early memory I had. I remember all the love at that table was incredible and edible. Pain? nah

I do remember having erotic feeling dreams about this 'thing' when I was a teenager and remember it attacking me at one point as if it were trying to scratch my guts out. I woke up fast and my stomach was wet right around the belly button area which kinda disturbed me but believe you me i never played with my sexual energy like that again.

Edited September 14, 2008 by devilmaycare

[SystemOfADown]

For certain, i have experienced pain and great discomfort in many dreams. Several times, i've been shot or like had a profound 'crushing' sensation when being attacked or squeezed by a monster or something random and i really do feel severe pain when im dreaming, it's there when i wake up. And those dreams where you are falling and hit the ground, i feel those too, usually i also wake up from them with a sensation as if i've literally just fell back into my bed from somewhere.

[Set the Fallen]

I've had many diffrent knd of painfull dreams.

One I know I really did not like that hurt like hell was a dream with a cursed wound. The dragon in the dream told me the wound was cursed. (won't expain how the wound goth there)

Another paindream I had... I was eaten by a shak at my side... I lied in the water tasting blood and salt... it was horribel, feeling the life go away and the shark came to eat more of me to... (horribel dream not going to explain more).

Another one more weird and also painfull... My ear was almoest cut of in a dream by darkness with wings (not going to explain) and his gang, and it hurt, but when I wake up I had a wound there...

I could go on forever really... so many paindreams...

I'll tell to more.

¨

In one of my dreams I had a broken wing, and this hurt like hell... SOMEWHERE that DOES NOT excist on my body, but it really hurt like it was real.

The last dream this darkness dude grabbed at my side so hard and painfull I always wake up so painfull is this dream. If I fall back to sleep the pain is unberable. It's actually one of the worst dreams I've had except the cursed wound. But this is worse because my whole body hurt... it's horribel.

So paindreams seems comon enough... though they hurt like hell.

[OldTimeRadio]

The human organism is supposed to have absolutely no "pain memory."

That is, we can remember how bad something felt, but not the actual pain itself. We simply don't possess the requisite physiological equipment to do it. (Or at least that's what they teach in medical schools.)

But interestingly enough this doesn't seem to apply to dreams!

[Isis2200]

My husband when he was little sleep walked off a flight of stairs that had no railing. He was in the hospital for a week. I see alot of dreams of not being able to breath, it could be sleep apnea.

Hi Snappydragon, I love your cute avatar.

Well, I've only experienced pain in a dream once during my life, and it happened about two weeks ago. The dream was crystal clear. I was in another dimension or world. It was about 10:00 in the morning. The sun was shining and there were a few clouds overhead.

I got onto a train along with other passengers. The train was old and there were hanging wires. I remember the seats were pretty small and my seating area was also small. I remember reading a sign that was posted at several areas inside the train that read "Caution: temperatures to exceed 95 degrees F."

Ok, so the train began to move and things began to heat up fast. I looked out the window and saw men pouring molten lava along the railroad tracks. I remember in that dream I was wearing a tank top and some shorts.

As we entered a tunnel, my legs began to have a burning sensation and I could tell other passengers were also very uncomfortable. The burning on my legs began to get so bad that I moved them away from any wires or sides of the walls of the train. When I woke up, I didn't notice any sensations on my legs or anywhere else on my body.

This was one scary dream.

[mnemeion]

The only pain I get in dreams is this massive force crushing my body, right in my solar plexus. Its really painful, and

every time I wake up I really have to gasp for breath.

[Isis2200]

The only pain I get in dreams is this massive force crushing my body, right in my solar plexus. Its really painful, and

every time I wake up I really have to gasp for breath.

I wonder if you're experiencing sleep apnea and/or sleep paralysis.

[pinOi32]

I had a dream before where I couldnt breathe, and it felt so realistic.