Can your dreams Hurt You In Real Life?

I am not going to go into detail about what happened to me, but I ended up in the hospital due to someone lacing something with Coke. I was having very bad hallucinations. The doctors say the only reason I am here today and not in a coma or worse is due to the fact I knew in my mind that it was fake and I knew in my head that I was going to be ok and I would freak out, but keep composer due to knowing what I was seeing and hearing was not in fact true.

Now this was about 3 weeks ago now that this happened to me. 2 nights ago I had a dream that felt very real to me and in my mind I got to thinking to myself(mind you I was dreaming not awake) that maybe I am not awake and in the hospital. As I started to think this I kind of started to do the same as I did do during my hallucinations I started to separate real from fake.

Once I got to the point of knowing. This has got to be a dream. In my dream I felt myself starting to have a stroke or something. This caused me to wake up. As I awoke my face was very numb. I ran into the bathroom, but everything was ok.

My guess is due to the last thing I did in my dream was grab and hold my face I probably did it just before I woke up causing this.

Who knows I don't know. All I know is make sure you know what your reality is. It could save your life.

Originally posted by The Cusp
As an experienced lucid dreamer, I've discovered that the first rule of dreaming is that "Everything requires your attention to exist". The best way to defeat an enemy in dreams is not to fight them, but to ignore them into oblivion. This applies to pain as well.

I agree 100% with this statement. In my accident above I was ignoring everything that would have caused me to go into a coma or shock the doctors said.

Example: When police were asking me my date of birth and the doctors I was hearing "time of death" and my answer I would return to them would be "I am not dead." or "I am not going to die." They told me this. I remember everything I was hearing seeing during the time I had the problem to the time I got stuck with a needle to make me go to sleep.

A lot of the stuff I was hearing/seeing was about me dying or me not waking up and I wouldn't believe it.

i once had a dream where i fell down and continually spun on the ground, and when i woke up i was dizzy, like i had been spinning in real life. I have also had dreams where i am under the influence and the feeling is really real. And when i wake i can still feel it a little

reply to post by GeminiSky


I know exactly what you are talking about. Last Night I had a vivid dream where I was fighting someone and in my dreams I can punch as hard and fast as I can but it doesn't do any damage. The next morning my knuckles were sore and bruised. I can feel everything from emotions to feelings as well as memories. At times I become aware that I am dreaming and sometimes can control the situation. Another strange experience for me is my mom passed away a few years ago and whenever she is in my dreams everybody acts normal but I am the only person who realizes or understands that she is dead and not supposed to be there. I believe that all dreams are not important but the ones that stand out should get a second look. Try a dream journal write down every detail you can remember.

had a flying dream, that i had so much, it was routine. one night that changed.

i was doing the usual" ho-hum" flying bit, and something distracted me and i broke concentration and fell. i hit the ground so hard in the dream i waas shocked at the pain i felt. i immediately jumped out of my sleep to the sensation of having the wind knocked out of me and my whole chest hurt horribly, as if i was blind sided in an american football/ or rugby game, and i played football, so i know how it feels. my whole rib cage was super sore for about 2 weeks afterwards.

but i think theres a chance that if life can influence dreams, why cant the opposite be true?

There was a time when I woke with some scars in my hands (2 years ago) after having weird dreams.

Can you imagine the limits of the real and the limits of the mind?

Originally posted by pavelivanov22
Ok well i had a dirty dream

and when i woke up it did feel like it was real, i could feel everything in my dream as if it was real..

the only question is who was that girl?

I have read that unrecognizable people in dreams could be a random person you saw at any point in your life or even a collage of people you have seen. I have had this experience as well.

I believe this can be explained in many ways:

Such as you acting your dream out as its occurring by "sleep walking" or somnambulism (which I do).

Its common, for me, for real life events to transfer into my dreams as well.

There are also documented cases of dreams killing people because the mind's effect on the body can cause perceptions to manifest even if they are not occuring on the real world. It can cause someone to have a heart attack out of fear or stop breathing.

The mind can even convince the body it is hurt. I think it is completely believable that this could cause a bruise. A scratch is more than likely a result of sleep walking or self-inflicted.

I have had instances of this. Like getting a chunk of my leg bit off by a dog. When I awoke it felt like I was actually missing a piece of my leg until i touched it.

In short I dont think the dream itself hurts you as much as I think its likely you unknowingly acted it out during sleep.

I don't know - I think it's the other wya round - whereby thigns in reality can alter your dream.

Once when I was little, I dreamt for the entire night that I had a bee down the back of my shirt that was stinging me over and over all freakin' night long. I then awoke in the morning to find that I had been sleeping on a drawing pin (thumb tack?) that I had dropped during the day as I put up posters above my bed. Lol

I once had a dream, in which I was running through a park, when all of a sudden a dark figure stepped out and swung a club (baseball bat, large stick, something to that extent) straight into my chest. I woke up immediately after hitting the ground in my dream, only to find I had the wind knocked out of me. I was in the same position as I'd fallen asleep. It took me about 5 minutes to completely regulate my breathing and I had bruises for the next two days.

I find that the mind is more powerful than it's "supposed to be".

I believe everything youve said about being hurt physically in real life after being hurt in a dream cause i have a story of my own. So ive been having dreams but im older so its in the future. Anyway it started with one dream and the next night i had another dream right from where I had left off in the last one and this has been going on for about 2 weeks now. My dream is im stranded on an island that has a giant lake in the middle and there are 14 survivors including me. BUT in one dream i was stung my a wasp or a bee or something and then when i woke up i had a sting that hurt and itched right where i was stung in the dream. And i was shot by an arrow in the side of my body and i woke up with extreme and intense pain in my side where i was hit. I could barely move. And whats also wierd is my dreams feel more real than real life. Like its different from a normal dream and I remember every detail of the dreams also. Some people say dreams can show things that happen in the future. Does anyone think i could be stranded on the island when im older cause the dreams are perfectly real like no random stuff like zebras that juggle or dancing elephants. ANd my friend is in the dream and in one she was drowning and that morning she was having trouble breathing. What is happening?

This thread reminded me that I used to commonly get these tough scratches all across my back spanning from my shoulder all the way down diagonally. At the time there were shadow people that came and gone from time to time and those types felt very evil on contrary to some of the other shadows I've come across. We don't know if it was the cause of shadows or somehow I managed to scratch my back like that (without nails because at the time I would bite them until they bled) and they would appear even when I wouldn't be sleeping with my ex.

I had completely forgotten about this experience until I read this thread so thank you for reminding me! Now, one of the things that I have read is that if you wake up with bruises or scratches etc... There's a chance that you (or your partner) may be harming you/yourself while sleeping. This may be caused if you are very stressed, and the story about your (OP)'s mom being pregnant is enough to warrant this as pregnancy can be incredibly stressful. It may also be related to depression.

However, being me -- I wouldn't rule out something paranormal because why take out a fun possibility? Okay, it's not so much fun if there's no control over this. I hope it's something within your control to manage =)

Interesting thread op.

Personally I believe that the majority of these cases are either dreams reacting to real world events (leg cramp while sleeping, getting scratched/bitten by a bug, etc) I'm not going to claim we know enough about this stuff to say it's impossible for a dream to effect reality in that way, but I just have yet to be convinced.

Although I find the idea of mental damage more interesting, couldn't traumatic dreams negatively effect your mind? People get PTSD after going through extreme situations, is there any mechanism at play that stops your mind from reacting to things in dreams in the way it reacts to real world events?

I've had dreams that have effected me for days. I've had dreams effect my opinion of people Not that I was judging them for what "they" did in a dream, but it was impossible to not feel put off by this persona after the dream.

Can dreams cause PTSD? A mental breakdown? Can you brain basically self destruct, and manifest something in your dreams so terrible you are forever damaged? It may sound crazy, but when you think that things that happen in real life are capable of inciting mental breakdowns in people, and your brain isn't limited by the "real world" when dreaming, meaning your own mind could come up with situations or things far worse than would be possible in the real world.

Then also think that sometimes people who have traumatic experiences will block knowledge of this experience. Combined with our tendency to forget dreams, how scary would it be that every time you fall asleep you risk driving yourself insane from the terrifying thoughts in your own mind?

I find this a bit more scary than scratches and rashes. To think that our minds are subjected to experiences and stimulus that can negatively effect our lives, and that we may have no memory or knowledge of.these once we wake up.

Basically every time we sleep, we open ourselves to horrible abuse, brought on by our own mind.

I'm probably rambling now, but I just found the whole concept pretty freaky.

reply to post by GeminiSky

Can your dreams Hurt You In Real Life?

This is a really good subject for an OP... especially now as people are so easily swayed by minor things... like, back pain, lol.

No, I'm serious.

I know this much for a fact; when sleeping, sounds coming in to your head via your physical ears, can take on an entirely different meaning. Something as simple as thunder is filtered into the dream world as something very different. Using this, it is not out of the question to wonder whether that from a dream, may be reformatted when awakening...

If we could all reach a state of lucidity when dreaming... meaning that we know we are dreaming and then, taking control of said dream, this wouldn't be an issue. But, here and now... lucidity in the dream state is still rare.

When I was a kid, I had repeated dreams of falling and then waking just before I hit bottom... with my heart crawling out of my rib cage and my lungs sucking more air than a Hum-V. Over six decades, that dream went away... replaced with those of far less import but much more psychological stress... so... one day, I might not awake and it won't be because of anything real.

Just a few things that have crossed my mind.

Good OP! S&F

I had a dream last night, that had my body sore. It felt like my whole body had been beat, yet that didn't happen in the dream. The dream was a stressful one, though, and it had me concerned when I awoke. Not anything life threatening, but it sure was annoying. It's funny that you post this thread.