Thread: Can You Be Hurt In A Dream

I've had a dream where I felt pain, not only in the dream, but also for a few minutes after I woke up. Basically, a madwomen had massacred my school, and when I confronted her, she shot me three times. One in the leg, one in the shoulder, and one shot scraped by my cheek (taking a bit of flesh). I managed to kill her after a scuffle, but the pain from the wounds caused me to wake up afterwards, only to keep on experiencing the pain for a short period. Not pleasant, but I can say I've experienced something similar.

How on earth could you feel pain from something that never actually occurred!? It's a dream, in your head. The pain you felt was most likely psychosomatic.

Originally Posted by goldney

How on earth could you feel pain from something that never actually occurred!? It's a dream, in your head. The pain you felt was most likely psychosomatic.[/b]

It was probably psychosomatic. I've only had one experience of awakening to feeling pain, but after I woke up, the pain faded after a short period of time. Though, to be honest, I'd rather not have it happen again. Not exactly a great start to have to a day.

How can you not feel pain from something actually occurred? People stick big metal pins through their biceps and feel no pain.

I think the pain is real, what happens in your mind does affect your body. I dreamed once that I was drowning and the freezing cold sea had paralysed my arms. I woke up gasping for breath and had absolutely no feeling in either arm. I was a bit worried until the feeling came back!

Stephen LaBerge also cites Exercise Without Movement by Swami Rama in Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming. I haven't read it but I assume it works because of the mind's effect on the body if there is no movement involved.

EDIT: I don't think getting really hurt in dreams is anything to worry about by the way, I just meant that I believed your experience was real.

I'm pretty sure this is normal. You'd be surprised what you can simulate in dreams.

I was once stabbed in the back in my dreams, dont you dare say that i was just imagining the pain! It hurt like hell btw.

I have felt pain in dreams before *shudders to a mouth injurydream*

But no there is no evidence that dreams can cause physical injury so I don't think thats it. Maybe you did some exercise the day before and the muscles ached afterwards?

Originally Posted by NeAvO

I have felt pain in dreams before *shudders to a mouth injurydream*

But no there is no evidence that dreams can cause physical injury so I don't think thats it. Maybe you did some exercise the day before and the muscles ached afterwards?[/b]

I've had a dream in which I got tortured... pain in that and everything... thankfully, the pain didn't continue when I woke up... but man, it really did mess me up.

Was going to suggest perhaps the pain you experience was from some form of physical exercise from the day before, or perhaps you were lying funny and cause pain that way?

I had a girlfriend who tossed and turned a lot in her sleep. She would occasionally hit the wall (or me) and wake up with bruises.

I was once stabbed in the chest and had to pull the sword out myself. Yeah, that hurt, but only in the dream. My friend Ian said he had a dream where he got shot in the leg, and when he woke up his leg was asleep because he had been laying on it.

Last night, I dreamed that I was really drunk and went into a discotheque. The bouncer was not happy with me entering, but when i heard my favorite number i rushed to the dancefloor. Because i could not orientate I hit a old friend with my head and she passed out. Now the bouncer was really mad and he runned to me, and hit my at my ear. The blood came pourring out, he was so nice to give my a small white towel to stop it, but it kept guttering. When I left the building people where laughing at me, but because I was so drunk I fall over one of those guys, he was not amused, I woke up.

No bloody ear afterwards though, what does this dream say?

GReetz PAco

personally, i think its just your brain thinking its real, when you do things in dreams the same thing happens to your brain (same parts of your brain are active) as when you were awake, for example, if you count out loud while you are awake and then you do it in a dream...

(i havent really learnt this jsut picked it up from lots of different websites and other things i have read about dreams etc...)

Its only ever happened to me once, during a dream i suddenly felt like 6 spears had gone through me, 3 on the left side of my ribcage and 3 in the right. It was agonising pain but only lasted about 2 or 3 seconds after i woke. It obviously didnt leave me hurt physically in anyway.

How on earth could you feel pain from something that never actually occurred!? It's a dream, in your head. The pain you felt was most likely psychosomatic.

Yup, just like amputee patients sometimes get itches in their missing limbs just after the operation. The brain just tries to decode information and signal the body the best it can.

yeah the worst dream i had involved pain, though it was only in the dream. it was a non-lucid and i thought 100% that it was real, though the signs it wasnt were damn obvious afterwards...

But yeah it hurt a lot in my dream, i was soo damn scared when i woke up, but there was no pain anymore.

Details from "The Matrix" can apply here, to a certain extent, I highly doubt you can die from the content of a dream. ( Althrough if some sort of Dream causes you to have a Heart Attack for a reason or another, it IS possible. )

As for pain, it could be side-effect of lucidity, if you know you are dreaming, and you induce pain, you might belive it away, but if you do not, you conscious will take the full force and use its usual methods to attempt to "repair" this "injury."

Althrough being shot will not cause ur heart to stop, being electrocuted in a dream may very well cause you to contract your muscles around the area.

I would have no idea though. ( Take my words for a grain of salt. )

I've had dreams where some pain carries over from the dream into the 5 or so minutes after awakening. Eg. In one dream (non-lucid, still haven't had a lucid with ANY conscious control) I got chased by a LOT of bees. I'm talking hundreds. Anyway, got stung a lot (never stung by anything before, except fire ants and types of ivy, though they just feel like you've been stung) and could still feel the pain upon awakening, though it faded after a few minutes.

Anyway, pain can carry over from dreams. However, it's nothing to really worry about. If you get hurt in a dream, some of the feelings of being hurt can carry over, but you won't actually be physically hurt upon awakening!

I have been set on fire in dreams, killed, physically beaten, had stuff stabbed through me, fallen to my death, thrown electric items into water, and a lot of other stuff which has never caused physical pain. When I died in a dream I either woke up or entered a new dream.

I've grown used to people attacking me to the point that I become a God in the dream. Even when my dream character declares itself as a God doesn't mean I am fully controlling the dream. It's like the matrix just without the side effects.

Originally Posted by goldney

How on earth could you feel pain from something that never actually occurred!? It's a dream, in your head. The pain you felt was most likely psychosomatic.

First of all: I had a experiance with something biteing me in the leg when I was a kid and I woke up and could still feel the teeth... I scared as hell but it gradualy went away.

as for: it´s a dream in your head. New flash: Everything you experiance is in your head. Your brain devides your waking experiance in to 3 worlds: outer, body and inner. but it´s all experianced from inside your head. Every thing you experiance is a creation of your mind. Nobody can know for sure how this reality looks like first person as we never get to experiance it first hand. Pretty cool mind hu?

What is pain? it is pain when you say it is pain. Nothing is anything untill you/we make it in to something. Think your self happy... Nobody else can...

I have done some pretty crazy stuff to myself in lucid dream's,
with no pain. I have shot myself many time's, and let other's shoot me.
cut my own arm off, It came back after a moment. I layed down in
front of a train and let it hit me. I had both arm's ripped off at the shoulder's
by pin head, from hell raiser.( I just laughed at him) There was a lot of blood,
but my arm's just came back. I went swimming in molten lava. I step in front of cars on freeway's a lot. I just feel a tug on my body, then I will
pass right though the car. one time, I put my hand in a snow bank.
and it felt cold as hell.

These are just a few example's. I have felt mild pain in none lucid dream's though.

It's just a mental thing for sure.

I can say for certain that I have experienced pain in a dream.
Remember, pain isn't a physical thing, as it's in your head.
Pain is a sensation, such as an orgasm.
You can experience an orgasm in a dream, so why say that you can't feel pain in a dream aswell?

One dream I had, I was hiding in a palm tree for some reason and I got bit by a crab.
I can 100% remember feeling pain in my hand as it bit me.

Originally Posted by simon4amiee

Has anyone been phsically hurt upon waking from a dream, the other day I had a dream in which I was beaten up. The following morning I awoke to find that my shoulder hurt like mad, also my stomache and ribs killed.

I don't do anything the could explain this, and have 2 mattresses of my bed, so cannot explain why!

maybe you could have sleep walked? (is that how you say it? Sleep walked? slept walked?... )

Your post has me kinda worried, simon4amiee. I sometimes dream I cut off my own "you know what". I'd really hate to wake up to something like that...

You know, maybe you just got sore from physical activity or bad posture or something and the pain got in your dreams... The opposite is just not likely at all!