Waking up with injuries sustained in your dream?

I've had a couple instances where I wake up from a dream where I got injured in some way or even killed, and when I wake up, I'm in some sort of pain.

Examples (all from a couple years ago):

I was chased (by a member of a band I like, IDK why.) down this walkway over a lake. For most of the dream, I was just running away from him. I got to the end of the walkway, and was scared to jump in the lake because it reminded me of this place I went to in real life where the water could leave burns from the chemicals and heat. So I stopped there, looked back at him, and when he got to me he bit me, threw me in the water, and choked me to death. (I think he also might've slapped me but I cant really remember.) When I woke up from that, I felt like someone was still choking me, and everything was really sore. The next day I had a continuation of that dream, same place, same guy, but this time I fell from a cliff into the lake, he tried to save me, but I didn't trust him, so I broke free and ended up drowning. I woke up sore and not able to breathe again.

I also had a dream where I was walking to my car in some parking lot late at night, and some guy put me in my trunk and tied my wrists. There was more to the dream but I can't remember it. The point is when I woke up my wrists hurt like they'd actually been tied.

Another one was where I had this dream where for some reason, I needed to pull off my nails. There wasn't really much plot to it except that fact. So in the dream, I kept pulling on my fingernails, getting frustrated when they wouldn't come off. I woke up pulling on one of my nails.

I've also had several dreams where I run into something or something stupid liek that, and when I wake up, I'll have a bruise or scratch wherever I injured myself in the dream. My only thought it maybe I scratched myself... I tend to keep my nails kinda long so it is a possibility. It cant be from a pet or anything cause I don't let my dog sleep in my room. (and for most of these I didn't even have a pet)

More recently, like in the past two weeks, I've had dreams which are pretty similar to eachother: I'll adopt some animal, or itll just wind up in my house, and at some point in time, the animal becomes a human, who tries to kill/hurt/abduct/etc. me. Whenever I had these dreams, I'd wake up feeling like somethings sitting on my chest, so I can't breathe.

Any opinions?

A feeling of something sitting on your chest is sleep paralysis.

You were pulling at your own nails. This makes me think you have probably been injuring yourself.

Another possibility is you feel pain when you are asleep, then have a dream about the pain.

What do you think?

Alright. I thought it might be something like that.

Injuring myself how? Like intentionally? I don't do that... Unintentionally however, yeah. I'm a clutz. lol.

I've thought of that. But I don't get where the bruises and stuff would come from if I'm not near anything that could hurt me. :\

It's possible you're experiencing the opposite of sleep paralysis. Instead of the mechanism that prevents you from moving during sleep lingering when you wake, sometime it turns off while you sleep.

I had a dream where I was playing soccer, and I booted the ball as hard as I could. I ended up kicking the wall next to my bed and almost breaking my toe. Good thing I wasn't facing my girlfriend at the time!

Ow.

Oh yeah, also for the ones where I felt like something was sitting on my chest, I usually woke up either on my side or on my back, even though I usually fall asleep on my stomach... is that like sleep paralysis turning on and off or something?

Actually, I think The Cusp is on to something. Your body may not be getting enough melatonin during the night and you could be acting out your dreams to an extent...muscle spasms could do it. And it would explain pulling at your nails.
I usually wake up with small bruises...but nothing like that.

Alright. Most of this stuff was a while ago, except the whole not-breathing thing. I'll definitely look into that though.

Ok I had one last night that is kinda weird... not exactly like this, but not worth starting a whole new topic about.

So, in the dream, one of my teeth was partially missing. Like there was a little piece where the tooth met the gum, then nothing in the middle, then a sliver of tooth being held in by the teeth on either side of it. (the rest of my teeth were also pretty screwy in the dream. In real life they're not that bad. lol) Anyway, in this dream, I kept thinking "I hope I don't wake up like this..." So that leads me to believe I knew I was dreaming (My first real lucid dream? Yes? Maybe??) but I don't know why if I knew I was dreaming, I wouldn't realize that I wouldn't wake up with my teeth like that.

Well, this sometimes happens to me. I feel a pain ( stab, bite, pinch etc ) in a dream and I can still feel it, but thats because something is actually affecting your physical body and then you experience the pain in the dream, though in a different way, I had this dream where someone had stabbed me in the arm, but when i woke up I discovered I had just fallen asleep with my head on my arm. so dont worry about it.

A few times over the course of my life, in my dreams I've been very angry at my brother, and when I finally try and attack him, I wake up as I jerk my arm, or kick my foot out.

A while ago, I had a dream where I wanted to punch him, and I woke up mid-swing as I punched the wall. My knuckles were bruised for a couple of days.
This kinda stuff can happen in light REM sleep, I think.

This happens to me repeatedly. I've dreamt of running through a forest, only to wake up with cuts that look like thorns had scratched my skin. I've dreamt of falling, only to wake up with a bruise just like the one from my dream. My feet will ache, like I've been running, when I was just fine before bed. It's irritating and amusing.

This is my dream story "I was playing in a graveyard and I noticed that I was being followed, so I ran home thinking that I wasn't being followed again. When I got home I fell asleep for a while and woke up to screaming in my parents room. They said they've been seeing a guy in a red mask at the corner of their room but when they turned on the light he wasn't there. So we got in the car and left, and then I realized we were being followed by like 20 people and they surrounded the car. So everybody got out of the car and my dad had an idea. He told us all to kill ourselves because we had no chance at surviving all the people so we all committed suicide. Then I lifted up out of my body as well as my family did so we walked around wondering what to do. We started messing with some people in our dream and I woke up in real life. I went to go look in the bathroom mirror and realized I had the marks from me committing suicide in my dream and when I wash my face with cold water, the marks were gone". I don't know whether to be afraid or amazed. I don't know if my brain is playing tricks on me but I'm kind of freaked out.

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