Pain in Dreams

Dreams about pain... this has different meanings.

I have read about some dreams where you are actually being injured or have a pain somewhere in your body, so your mind simulates this into the dream while you sleep.

There are dreams that the pain is so intense in your mind that you would swear it is really happening, only to find its just a dream.

There is also the myth that if one dies, such as reaching the bottom of a cliff, in their sleep that they die for real. I have had this dream many times, almost always hitting the bottom, and have not died yet.

My question is... Do you believe it is possible to be injured by the dream itself, not an outside solid force? (Like walking into a wall in your sleep and having a headache the next day- that would be an outside solid force)I haven't been able to find any information on this specific subject.

What is your opinnion on this? Would it be paranormal? Entities coming into your dreams? You being hurt in the Astral World? Could this be possible? Other than the Freddy Kruegar movies.....

By the way, the links at the bottom deal indirectly with the subject. There aren't any in this post related specifically to being hurt by dreams.

www.experiencefestival.com...
www.som.org...[/url]
en.wikipedia.org...
www.freedreaminterpretation.co.uk...

Ye i think its possible to be injured while dreamingif you dream about huting your foot for example and your mind thinks it happened then you would experience pain in your foot. its all in your mind pain and that.

I used to have dreams where I got hurt all the time.
My opinion is that in terms of mind over matter, there are some pretty good stories and cases where people have done some pretty interesting things with their bodies.
Apparently, it is possible to think of exercising and a get a small benefit from it.
So, it's possible that if you have a particularly vivid dream, you can believe yourself to be injured for real.

Most researchers will tell you that pain is the only thing you can't feel in a dream. If you do feel pain then you need to wake up because something is happening to you in the real world.

What about actually waking with evidence of this pain? If there were no way you hurt yourself while sleeping and yet in the your dream you get attacked by a bear and wake up with scratches or cuts.

I am only speaking out of curiosity as to what others think. I have had no personal accounts myself.

However, I have a friend that swears he got this bruise on his back because he was fighting something in his dream. He said he hadn't run into anything and I don't believe he could have caused this to himself. It was at a strange angle and rod shaped. Like he had been hit hard by a stick. (Which, coincidently, they were fighting each other with in this dream.

He lives alone with no pets. He doesn't sleep walk. (That he knows of) So, this incident is what brought about this curiosity.



[edit on 22-8-2008 by Enigma7221]

I don't know is my honest answer. I guess it is possible but although I am experienced in lucid dreaming and have had many very odd and violent dreams in my life I have never experienced pain or injuries afterwards.

When I was 14 years old I dreamt I died in an explosion. I knew it was a dream and i wanted desperately to wake up but I couldn't manage to wake up in time. I vividly remember my body explode into tiny peaces high in the air and thinking: ok this is weird I don't feel a thing! I landed back on earth, first thinking that i was awake now but nobody could see me and I got scared because I realised I was dead.

reply to post by leapoffaith


Wow that IS strange! My personal death dreams have never been like that or that vivid. I have had vivid ones about other people though.

Thanks for the replys so far.

I believe you can get ''affected''.
Injured to a certain degree, I highly doubt you'll be going to see sudden slashes and blood flowing all over the place because of a dream.

I once had a dream in which I got hit by a gust of wind at one point.
That wind kept my body cool all day, during a heatwave in my country.

As such I am highly positive that dreams can affect the senses, and as such, could technically cause Pain.

Injuries however are something different than Pain, as Pain does not necessarily mean damage.

Also thanks to my Lucid Dreaming all my dreams are supremely vivid and realistic up to the senses. But regardless of injuries in-dream, they never transferred to real life. (Injuries, not pain)

I once got shot in a dream and when I woke up my whole body was sort of numb and felt swollen.

[edit on 22/8/08 by -0mega-]

I had a dream where I was shot 3 times in the stomach. There were 3 distinct pains where I was shot for all of the next day.

reply to post by -0mega-


I once was shot in a dream as well - right in the face

I was always told you couldn't die in your dreams -

but I did - and was aware - in my dream - that I had died

don't remember pain - but would be interested to know what that meant - if anything

Well explain this one off skeptics... I was once dreaming about being in a sword fight with some knight, he slashed an 'X' on my chest before I woke up. When I got out of bed, my sheets were bloddy and I had a huge red 'X' on my chest in the exact same spot I dreamt I was hit.

I've no clue how it happend, or what made it happen, all I know is that I spend many nights trying to force myself awake whenever I dream about getting into a fight with someone.

I think it depends on whether this was dream related or a sleep related condition such as sleep apnea etc.

Sleep apnea: www.helpguide.org...

Dream interpretations site:
www.near-death.com...

I had a dream a few nights ago that I had some type of worms crawling on my arm that I was pulling off and it was similar to tape pulling on my hairs which woke me up. Sometimes it feels like someone is nudging me to wake up when I sleep too long. Sometimes leaving the radio on is incorprated in my dreams also, but rarely. Which makes me wonder about certain movie sound tracks might do.

The most I feel in a dream is emotionally related such as fear or dumb dream confusion. The good or more interesting dreams are typically spoiled by my own conscience or waking up too soon.

I do recall what seemed to be more of an OOBE and abduction than just a lucid dream and even went back to sleep the next moring and continued the same alleged dream and or location. This was as if in a different time such as 2,000 years ago in Capernaum with some middle eastern girl that was as if the daughter and princess of the queen of sheba and in some tent with typical furnishings. I was even in some other persons body.

I've read some people don't dream with most of their senses either. I don't recall not dreaming in color and many dreams I can also smell things such as a wet dog, probably from memory. The sense of taste usually doesn't work right though.

[edit on 23-8-2008 by aleon1018]

I woke up once after dreaming i had been in a bike crash, when i woke up i saw that i had a large cut on my elbow like i did in my dream, it never hurt though. Not even when i washed it with soap/water, no sting or anything. I thought i got abducted by aliens and they did surgery on me

[edit on 23-8-2008 by gibbs1189]

I dunno about real pain from dreams, but I definately have felt real pleasure in a few dreams

The night before last, I dreamed that a big, black spider bit my finger. It hurt very badly. When I got up the next morning, I felt pain in my hand. Upon examining my hand, I found a large "bug" bite on the same finger as in my dream.

I can't remember ever having a dream of being injured when there was not an injury that occurred when I was awake.

Originally posted by leapoffaith
I vividly remember my body explode into tiny peaces high in the air and thinking: ok this is weird I don't feel a thing! I landed back on earth, first thinking that i was awake now but nobody could see me and I got scared because I realised I was dead.

For years I have had dreams of falling off a cliff, but I always woke up before hitting the bottom. The last time I dreamed this, I actually hit the bottom.

I remember in my dream thinking to myself, "That didn't hurt at all. I don't know what I was so afraid of." I remember standing up and feeling great; in fact, much better than before I hit the bottom.

It seems, though, that out of the corner of my eye, I saw something that looked like me laying beneath me. I didn't for a second during my dream think that I had died.

Thinking about it, though, I think that in my dream I did die and just didn't realize it.

I haven't had that dream since.

This is giving me a lot to think about. I think it's great that everyone has had different experiences to talk about.

So, I have heard the phrase before that your mind can make it real. (not just from the matrix movie)

When I worked at a nursing home during training, there were several people with dementia, schizophrenia... etc. Some of them would see bugs crawling on them, be talking to people that were not physically there(people alive and dead). These patients (a few of them) really believed they were being hurt or that someone was trying to get them. Some would wake from dreams screaming saying they were on fire and their flesh was burning off and just look as though they were in agony. Of course, we would do our best to comfort them, but there is not a doubt in my mind that they actually saw and felt whatever it was, even though it didn't exist in front of our eyes. Their minds made this real or maybe we just couldn't see it. There were no physical marks to show this though, except the ones they would infflict it on themselves.

People who hallucinate in extreme conditions, thinking they are drinking water in a desert, their mind has made that image or mirage real.

So, do I think the mind can make pain so vivid in your dreams that you actually wake up feeling the pain or soreness? Yes I do. However can these same physical reactions to mental pain make marks? I don't know... jury is still out on that one. I trust my friend. I don't believe he would intentionally make something up. Maybe he might have forgot he hit something with his back and it made him dream about it. Then, again maybe it did actually happen to him. I am open to the possibility that it may be true.

Thanks to everyone so far who has posted. I hope to continue to hear more either way.