Broken wrist from a dream or obe?

I have experienced pain while "dreaming" and upon awakening have found bruises, scratches, blood, swelling etc. I'm not sure why I can go to sleep perfectly fine and awake feeling and looking like I've just come from a train wreck, but I've gotten semi used to it. I have tried to look up other people whom have shared this phenomenon, but the answers are lackluster such as: "You got hurt physically and your mind tried to incorporate it into a dream." Ok, possibly, but I went to sleep fine, dreamed I was running from a creature who was trying to grab me and when it did, I woke up to find bleeding scratches all down one thigh. I did NOT go to sleep with a tiger, nor do I sleep with a porcupine quill blanket, so wtf? I don't have dreams like this all the time. Maybe 7-10 times a year that I awake from dream pain to real pain without any logical reason. But last night I had a dream in which my hand was grabbed and twisted. I was screaming and crying and trying to get away. I fell and jerked awake with real tears running down my face and excruciating pain in my wrist. I went to the hospital about 2am this morning and was found to have a distal radius fracture. It was reset and a caste was put on. When I got home I looked around my bedroom and see absolutely no way to have hit anything hard enough to have broken bones. I have never been known to sleep walk, so I can't contribute that as a reason. Does anyone have any answers or could you point me in the direction of someone who might know?

however much you might think something in your dream was the culprit it's probably nothing more than the "lackluster" responses you've gotten before. you could try going to a sleep specialist or even set up a camera on yourself while you sleep and i'd be willing to bet you'd see yourself thrashing around during sleep when you have an episode like that. i used to be a really wild sleeper, so much so that my wife would be anxious to sleep next to me at night because i would throw punches and elbows and kick during my sleep. not just a little movement, i'm talking full strength break something, hurt myself or someone else movements.

I woke up once days ago, with my toe falling asleep on me and it felt like frost bite, very bad too. But i am inside not outside sleeping, it hurt too much to flex it. This ruined my dream that i was having and i was getting annoyed about it and woke up and cursed my toe for distracting me, odd thing is, it had nothing to do with my dream lol. I got up and it went away in 5 minutes.

Yeah, you are probably correct. I may be a thrasher and not know it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Impdreams

Yeah, you are probably correct. I may be a thrasher and not know it.

---

I'd go with the thrasher hypothesis too, but stop short of full commitment to it. My reason is just that I don't believe any absolute distinction between dreams and "reality" can be maintained.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Impdreams

Does anyone have any answers or could you point me in the direction of someone who might know?

---

I was thinking about your post last night and it occurred to me that one way to get some answers might be to check in with a forensic scientist. You've probably watched enough CSI (or the equivalent) to know that they can tell all sorts of things about the physical characteristics of the things that leave wounds by the nature of the wounds themselves. You'd have to play a game of not telling them everything you know--because otherwise they'd just dismiss you as a nutter--but if you could do that you might be able to get some information that would enable you to credit one of your hypotheses.

I suppose you'd need a sympathetic friend who is a forensic scientist to really do this and that it would probably be hard to find one. But maybe you can do some of it yourself. Think about it: are the scratches you received the sort of thing you could have received while merely thrashing around in bed? Can you get a hand and/or foot up in the right position and apply enough force to have done it with your own nails? Are you sleeping with someone? Are the scratches consistent with them being his or her fingernails or toenails? Is there anything in the bed that's the right shape or size?

I'd be pretty reluctant to draw the conclusion that I was being scratched by creatures from my dreams--mostly because that sounds damn scary--so I'm not saying the above would settle it, but maybe you could make progress in thinking about it this way?

I hope you're ok; I think I'd be a bit freaked out if what you described had happened to me.

Lol, I used to be "freaked out", now I'm just searching for answers. I get the "You must be thrashing" answer a lot. Maybe. But obviously I've done area checks to determine if anything nearby could be doing it (ie. wood splinters, nails, any sharp edges, etc), but none. It's not my nails, I chew them. It's not that I think demons are attacking me in my sleep, but if the mind can heal, can it not also hurt? We know that it can via mental illness. But healing is applied to the physical body, so I'm wondering if dreams could be "so real" that the mind can also destroy the physical body. New age insists that our thoughts become our reality, but when our thoughts are lying below the conscious mind in dreams and nightmares, could it affect our reality, also. I was not very "new age-ish", but it points to a possible cause that I can't totally deny. I will look into your ideas as I am open to any thought. Thank you for your serious consideration of the problem and not just giving me a pat answer.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Impdreams

Lol, I used to be "freaked out", now I'm just searching for answers. I get the "You must be thrashing" answer a lot. Maybe. But obviously I've done area checks to determine if anything nearby could be doing it (ie. wood splinters, nails, any sharp edges, etc), but none. It's not my nails, I chew them. It's not that I think demons are attacking me in my sleep, but if the mind can heal, can it not also hurt? We know that it can via mental illness. But healing is applied to the physical body, so I'm wondering if dreams could be "so real" that the mind can also destroy the physical body. New age insists that our thoughts become our reality, but when our thoughts are lying below the conscious mind in dreams and nightmares, could it affect our reality, also. I was not very "new age-ish", but it points to a possible cause that I can't totally deny. I will look into your ideas as I am open to any thought. Thank you for your serious consideration of the problem and not just giving me a pat answer.

---

Have you tried meditation and prayer? Maybe you should. Even if there's nobody to hear a prayer but you, it could still be a good exercise aimed at taming those inner demons. I'd also be seeking out religious leaders--priests, monks--from different religious traditions if I were you, as it seems you're dealing with something beyond current scientific reach--even if it is ultimately all "in your head" somehow.

I really sympathize. I'm glad you're not freaked out.

Well it seems to obvious to me but if your dreams are having this much effect on your physical body then you should really concentrate on healing.

Just imagine what you might be capable of when your dreams and waking state are focused on healing!

I have done and had a lot of things happen while in my incredibly lucid dreamstates. Some have been downright silly, like turning so fast and so many times throughout the night I have actually given myself good rugburns. Others have been less silly, waking up with scratches and the such, Dying in my dreams at the hands of others etc. But one thing is for sure, your body and mind are connected. When you fall asleep your brain sends a chemical messenger that sedates your cells. That chemical messenger gets washed away as you start to wake up. If your brain forgets to send the washing agent, you will end up in the spatial darkness similar to a K-hole, paralyzed and in a semi painful state. If your brain does not send enough sleeping agent, as is sometimes the case with lucid dreaming, you will feel physical pain from the stimuli in your dreams. This also means your limbs are still motor driven (eg; grabbing yourself hard and dreaming a monster is grabbing you) . Since your CNS is also awake , falling a high distance in your dream can cause a contraction type defense reaction, sometimes so severe you will wake up with swelling, bruises, possibly even pulling muscles.

Not trying to say its one way or the other, god knows I have a lot of dreams I could never come up with, but perhaps learning a bit more about the proposed mechanism of sleep might do some good in helping you figure out whats what...

Is it Tibetan Buddhists who believe that even waking life is really just a dream?

Not that I actually really believe that, ...

But if it were, that would certainly explain this. :)

Thank you Licuid. It's an explanation that makes sense and I appreciate it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JoannaB

Is it Tibetan Buddhists who believe that even waking life is really just a dream?

Not that I actually really believe that, ...

But if it were, that would certainly explain this. :)

---

I strongly incline to think something very like that is right, actually.