Can you feel pain in a dream?

[northcave]

We were at the dinner table over Christmas and the topic of dreams came up so i enlightened everyone to what a Lucid Dream was. A question was raised if you could feel pain in a dream. I said i'm not sure but I could certainly test it next time I happen to have a lucid dream. As it happened i did have one maybe a day or two later. In the dream I was on a street and decided to run down it until i found something interesting to do when i remembered the conversation at dinner and decided to test it there and then. I placed my hand on a small wall and picked up a conveniently placed slab of broken paving (funny how that happens). After thinking twice and double checking this was ok because i was dreaming, I proceeded to whack my hand with the slab. I felt the sensation of squashing my hand which felt uncomfortable but... no paid at all. Not even an ounce, just the sensation of impact. So that's my thoughts on the situation. No you do not feel pain, only sensation of the impact, cut, fall etc but not the pain itself. Anyone else got a view or managed to test it out?

[Oneironaut Zero]

Hell yes, you can feel pain in dreams. http://www.dreamviews.com/f60/12-30-...gement-108448/ I don't always feel it, but when I do, it can be excruciating. When I'm lucid, and can usually control whether or not I feel it (unless the dream is extremely vivid), but when I'm not lucid, I have no control over it, and it also depends on how vivid everything is.

[Peetee36]

No one likes to feel pain. Not for any reason. So your mind knowing that you weren't actually hurting yourself meant that it never created the pain. But pain can be extremely real in dreams, any feelings can.

[Arra]

I've experienced horrible pain during an OBE which was difficult to free myself from, by imagining something was happening to me. I've also had a dream in which I suffered from a bad stomach ache or cramp, which was gone when I woke up. Other than that, I have no memories of actually feeling pain during a dream. I think it's likely Peetee36 is right. Your mind isn't going to invoke feelings of physical pain when it 'knows' you aren't really suffering. Maybe feeling pain would cause us to wake up and interrupt our sleep cycles, so our minds 'purposely' don't often make us feel it. (Can someone tell me what this blue flag that's suddenly appeared under my name is? What is a tagger? I only yesterday found out about the whole award system on this site. I guess I could look it up.)

[Drokens]

I think it would be harder to feel pain in a lucid dream since you know that you're dreaming and to cause yourself pain knowingly isn't something your mind may be so willing to do. In a non lucid dream though, you would think it was real and the pain could be very real.

[Mathius]

hahaha so I better be a damn good gladiator when I lucid dream or im screwed D:

[dakotahnok]

Pain comes in my non-lucids If there vivid and my lucids if I want it too.

[Rybread34]

Generally what you expect to happen in a dream happens. So you can "feel" (just a simulation?) of pain in a dream if you expect to feel it. In one of my recent dreams I was shot in the shoulder (wasn't lucid) I don't remember feeling excruciating pain but I do remember feeling it.

[Arra]

So you can "feel" (just a simulation?) of pain in a dream if you expect to feel it. If pain is defined as the subjective feeling we experience, then I'd say we're really feeling the pain, and 'simulated pain' is nonsensical, even though our pain receptors aren't technically being stimulated by anything external.

[Zealot]

I have felt pain in many mannnnyyyyy of my dreams. I've been shot, stabbed, choked, punched, crushed, had f*ing acid dripped on my throat, had my throat slit, bitten by many poisonous creatures and felt their poison. ugh. Just last night i had a dream i was shot in the back, i felt the sensation of my breath being taken away followed by the delayed pain in the back and an aching in the chest. After that i slid down a cliff etc. so... yeah some people feel pain in their dreams.

[Hyu]

I have felt pain in many mannnnyyyyy of my dreams. I've been shot, stabbed, choked, punched, crushed, had f*ing acid dripped on my throat, had my throat slit, bitten by many poisonous creatures and felt their poison. ugh. Just last night i had a dream i was shot in the back, i felt the sensation of my breath being taken away followed by the delayed pain in the back and an aching in the chest. After that i slid down a cliff etc. so... yeah some people feel pain in their dreams. Ouch, that sounds pretty bad. I have (non-lucid) nightmares only very rarely, and if I do have one involving pain, it doesn't really hurt. It's more like a feeling of great discomfort, but there is no actual pain involved. At least I can't remember a non-lucid dream where I've experienced "real pain". I have felt it in a few rare lucids though, and it did hurt like hell. Fortunately in lucid dreams, I find it very easy to simply "turn pain off".

[siuol]

one time i was being stabbed, before i became lucid i felt a painful pinching sensation, but nothing too bad. another time bugs were latching on to my skin like burs, it was a little painful, but i mostly learned you can be super itchy in dreams too.