Squeezed at the waist or chest to the point of terrible pain

For a number of years I have been having nightmares about being squeezed at the waist ( I can't remember if I have ever been squeezed around the chest before) which is vividly painful. The dreams vary in the mode that I am being squeezed. These days, I do not like to be held tightly at the waist it makes me very uncomfortable because of the dreams. I awoke this morning after dreaming, I felt a rush in my chest like I was ready to take on the world then after 5 minutes I started to cry.

In the dream my husband and I are play wrestling on the floor then suddenly he decided it would be funny to disable me by squeezing my chest, very quickly it became painful and I pleaded with him to stop. It felt like it happened over a long period of time. I finally looked him right in the eyes so he could see I was not kidding, but he just laughed and continued to squeeze, I even cursed "it hurts so f...ing bad!" and tears came from my eyes but he showed no remorse, I finally and thankfully woke up soon thereafter.

I really need to figure out how to make these dreams stop. I am the kind of person who tends to hold back what she really feels or wants to do in order to maintain peace. Feel free to ask questions to clarily what I have written.

ok, i have had dreams similar to this where i actally felt physical pain as well as the feeling that i could not breath. For some reason my dreams would always be different but they always ended with some heavy wieght -be it person or object- on top of me to where i felt a pressure (painful) that made it difficult or impossible for me to breath.

when i researched it i found out they were "night terrors" you could possibly have this too but feeling like you can't breath is a key part of it.

in my case it had to do with some lost memories of a not so good part of my life. the more research you do the more you will begin to find out why YOU are experiencing them. In the meantime just tell yourself "it is just a dream, I can choose to leave my dream body" or try asking the person in the dream why they are hurtiing you like this - what are they trying to tell you?

I know it's stressful at the time but try to remain calm and remember that YOU are in control of your dreams

I think you just interpreted your dream better than we could, you are holding in your emtions & wants. I guess the play wrestling is the little disagreements and quarrels your husband and you have, but not serious fights. He's oppressive and you are recessive.
I'm guessing the squeezing at the waist is the pressure to be thin, but it could be more symbolic like the need for emotional nourishment. It also depends on what's doing the squeezing. Hope I helped.

Is your husband possibly flopping a part of his body on you when you are sleeping? Are you being crushed by his dead weight? Do you ever have these dreams when you sleep alone? Do you remember what postion the two of you are in when you wake up? Do you ever feel this way when you are awake?

If your health checks out ok and your husband isn't accidently crushing you, could it be sleep apnea--which is a really frightening thing.

Or maybe a symbol for something sexual or reproductive as below the waist is where the reproductive organs are. Something to do with that?

Of course, s tightening of the chest can precede a heart attack.

It sounds so utterly physical that I would first look into the possibility of a physical problem.

Have you read anything about sleep paralysis? The phenonenom that many here refer to as "the old hag?" (I wish they wouldn't use that term. They could just as easily call it "the stalker.") You might want to check out the threads that mention that.

Thank you for your replies.

They all helped, I will investigate the possibility in each one of your replies.

I know this is a very old thread!

However I just had a similar dream, and "think greens" comment about your husband having dead weight on you could be very valid, along with the sleep paralysis.

I personally have a history of PTSD and thus night mares, night terrors and sleep paralysis. However, sleep paralysis can occur more often due to some weird things like Ritalin and cocaine (I take Ritalin)

My boyfriend (with whom I live with) weighs a good 35-40kgs heavier than me and I'm quite a petite person. He is notorious for even having his own dead weight cause issues for himself while sleeping.

I just had a dream where he was holding me around my waist (the soft part between the hips and ribs, however it felt like a boa constrictor getting tighter and tighter no matter how much I begged and pleaded with him to stop because it hurt. In my dream I even played dead to show him that I had even passed out.. that didn't make it stop,

When I finally woke up I had this washing feeling of relief come over me until I suddenly realized that my boyfriend had his arm over my waist (cuddling me from behind) and that I was in actual physical pain in real life too. I immediately tried to get his arm off of me and burst into tears. In my dream it felt like torture - like my ribs were breaking and that there was no mercy for this unending pain.

Luckily my boyfriend is very kind and understanding and consoled me saying that it wasn't "real James" and that I was safe now. My side is still in a lot of pain and I'm feeling very traumatized about that "feeling" of helplesssness and no mercy

Here to add another reply 11 years later lol

I just woke up from a dream where I was driving and my old high school crush was in the backseat just messing with me. Things were pleasant, but at some point he started squeezing me around my waist EXTREMELY hard. I kept trying to relax but the tiniest movement resulted in an even TIGHTER squeeze. I did eventually wake up and thought it was the devil but I realized I had fallen asleep with my arm across my waist and I was very close to the bed's edge, so I think the hard squeezing was to make my body stiffen to avoid falling. Seems we all experienced this due to physical realities affecting our dreams. But why is reality amped up to 1000000% in dreams??

And I find it so odd that I thought of my high school crush when I spent hours thinking of my current bf before bed...we all dreamt of being squeezed by a man hmm

I want to add my own experiences to this if I may. I have also experienced intense pain in my dreams but can never find a real cause on waking. Rather than having a feeling of being squeezed I get a feeling that something or someone is digging into my ribs and I get a similar sensation like when you are being tickled to the point of pain. The last dream I had was that someone was poking me in the belly button but no matter how hard I tried I could not get them to take their finger away. I can't describe the agony. When I woke up I had no pain at all that could have explained it.

I’m back with another poking rib dream!

I’ve been practicing lucid dreaming each night with the help of sleep hypnosis videos on YouTube for lucid dreaming. I’ve always been a vivid dreamer and suffered from nightmares due to the PTSD in the past (it’s resolved now through therapy)

However last night I dreamt I was on an airplane and my partner (same one mentioned in previous post, but we don’t live together anymore so he’s not in the bed anymore) was sitting to my right, I was laying my head on someone to the left. The rib area under the armpit where a bra is - felt really ticklish and sensitive, and my partner was pressing HARD with a flat palm and fingers, with his 4 fingers poking really hard.

Anytime I moved in the dream he’d just press harder. I’d try play dead and tell him it was hurting, or peel away his hand but it was like a control thing and felt like pure torture. It went on forever and hurt so bad.

I woke up in a panic. I was lying on my left side with my right ribs facing up like in the dream. The only thing I could think was that I was wearing a soft material bra that’s elasticated - I usually wear very little and loose fitting clothing - and could’ve felt the tightness there. But the area that was being poked in the dream... is still sensitive and pulsating right now.

I’m still struggling to find clarity on the symbolism of specifically being poked in the ribs in dreams like torture!!

This dream has even affected me having a serious panic attack at work last year when a very immature male manager at a restaurant came up behind me and poked me in the ribs right where I dreamt and gave me a huge fright and then panic attack.