Feeling pain in LD.

All very interesting. This could go along with the “Nasty SC” theory from inception. Ypu;re own mind trying to wake you up by generating pain.

@Faraday: Thx for the detail. So it does happen sometimes that you bring pain from dreams. It might even last for a long time according to your experience. So let’s put a warning sign !!! :wink:

@Madison981: So according to this piece of info, the “sleepwalker paralysis leak” is not connected with the same sleep stage than REM. But sleep paralysis does occur throughout all stages right? So could it be related to that mechanism? Or maybe you have an other hypothesis?

@Jayhaze: Ty for the neuro details XD. So maybe the all scene in my dream with the female DC is a metaphore for pineal gland activation.“The emotions and automatic reactions to pain are processed in a number of location, including the hypothalamus, superior colliculus, and amygdala.” I couldn’t find a clear relation between pineal gland and pain brain control areas (besides serotonin action on the pain process catalyst). So my guess is that the waking up process and pain perception aren’t directly related. But it is connected in the sense that feeling pain raise up attention and awareness extremely thus leading to waking up.

@fleshandbone: I’m looking forward to see the results of your experiment. I’ll try to do so either. Maybe we can think of 2 experiments:
1 - Stab oneself’s right foot in a LD and continue sleeping. When woken up see the result in term of pain perceived and its location.
2 - Stab oneself’s right foot in a LD and wake up just after. Then check for the same results.
But be careful! Like in @Faraday experience it could lead to lasting pain :wink:

So whole picture start to make sense now. Thanks everyone for your comments. If someone has other dream related to pain experiences or can suggest articles on the subject it would be greatly appreciated.

@allenthelero: Yes i see your point! It is exactely what i infer from @JayHaze comments.

i feel pain all the time in LD’s, but i choose to revel in it.
it comes with my job, and im used to it, and choose to better myself from it, and to expect it when i see it coming.
that way, i can learn to avoid pain, and better myself and skills through it, but in dreams, i also feel fatigue.
in my last LD, i had to run after a man who was being a dick, and he ran FAST.
i took off after him faster than i normally could, and i was keeping that pace very well, but it started taking a tole on my body, and i could feel it.
i kept running after him, let the blade in my arm rip forth (i take the form of a blade acolyte in dreams, a person with blades embedded under his skin, like their a part of him, like wolverine) and killed the fucker without a second thought, but then i felt tired from running at least a mile and a half in 4 minutes.

funny thing though, each time i experience a new form of pain, i feel it after i wake up for a good 2 hours.
like the first time i was shot in a dream, i couldnt shake the feeling for 2 and a half hours after i woke up :eh: .

@Akuma Kizuato : Nice dream and explanations. According to your experience and others, i come to think that pain perception in and out of dreams are not so rare. I haven’t experienced many of those dreams though (beginner LD dreamer :wink:) but i completely agree on your point that pain is not something to be feared or avoided in dreams. It is part of the overall experience. In your case it might be interpreted in terms of effort you put in achieving your goals. Your blade shaped dream body is also quite cool XD

On the subject of feeling dream-pain outside of dreams, I once had a dream where I was slapped across the face and, apon waking up, discovered that my cheek was sore. It was pretty strange.

I’ve felt pain in dreams on several occasions. The strangest occasion was when I dreamed I was playing Quiddich and got whacked in the head with a bludger. I felt it and when I woke up i had a bruise right where it had hit me.

I assumed that while I was sleeping i must have hit my head or something.

Nice experience! ^^ Actually this exactely what I’m looking for. I try to gather cases where the dream itself is cause of pain perception. I guess it is more common to be hit by something in RL and “translate” it in your dreams. But i try to gather evidence on the opposite, if possible.

I haven’t ever had pain transfer over that I can remember, but other feelings…
For example, once I was flying in a LD and when I woke up, for a second I coulda sworn that I could still feel the wind wrapped around my body; until I moved…

Wow people, very interesting. I cannot recall ever having experienced somatic pain in a dream (neither LD nor ND). It would indeed be a grand scientific venture if more people would sign up–joining–Kairo’s quest for pain and its possible transference into the awake life.

I remember I felt pain in one of the little LDs I had during naps, it was a few seconds before I became lucid, I was in a bedroom and I hit my head on the ceiling, it hurt a lot and the pain was very realistic !

I find it logical to feel pain in dreams, because pain is merely a nervous information that your brain send to you, telling you something is wrong. If something “wrong” happens (you hit your head, burn your skin or whatever), your mind doesn’t make the difference between dream and reality, something “wrong” is happening so the nervous impulse is sent (sent for real even if you’re dreaming) and you feel pain. So I guess if you wake up right after that, you still feel pain a little bit because the nervous info has not faded yet …

I agree with Aldarion that it is absolutely plausible.
I am, however, curious why some would feel it so intensely while others (as myself) have not felt anything… and I have had dreams in which something happened that would cause tremendous pain IWL

Hmmm… If you’re interrested in this effect wouldn’t it be possible to do some simple experiments? Of course we’re not gonna make people hurt themselves but you could do other things to see if physical feelings from dreams can carry on into waking life.
For example; someone has a LD and does some intense workout (hmmm is that even possible :hmmm:, no idea). Do a tiring workout and then see if you feel fatigue IRL after waking up; muscle ache, shortage of energy etc.
Wouldn’t that give you some indication?

That’s a good idea, Blenderman :hmmm: I think such experiments could help us to appreciate the power of your mind in influencing your physical feelings … (I’m not sure I’m speaking correctly here ^^).
I am completely new on this forum so I’m not sure but maybe we should put that experiment proposal in the Lucid Lab ?
Anyway, when I have my 8th LD, I’ll try to feel some pain to see what it’s like !

Had some pain in a low lucid/ND this morning and remembered this topic. I had a small thin wire stuck through my thumb! It did hurt and I woke up and could still feel it (of course I’m not really sure how much I actually woke up). The pain faded as soon as I moved a little. It was dream pain, though, so it doesn’t really hurt in the same way as IWL. It’s more like unconfortable than proper pain. Quite interesting! :tongue:

Hi nilas :smile:
this is crazy…I have also recieved pain like this in a dream and had to wake up as it was so intense, and when i woke i still felt it for a second or two. It was very real. crazy ■■■■…I got frazzled by high voltage by some invisible being, electrocuted, in the brain and in the midriff, when i woke up from both dreams the pain was still there like i’d been really hit. i really did feel like i’d been electrocuted, lol, I had no explanation, it freaked me out a little,
after the two dreams, having 2000 volts cursing your body i was left in a bit of a shock and had to bring myself to believe that i am protected by a secret rubber forcefield supplied by my guardian angel … so i am now immune to these kind of attacks. Don’t know about you but i’m not a lover of pain and don’t wish to consciously or unconsciously produce it, but believing i’m more powerful than the dream creatures has given me a boost to overcome my nightly demons :smile:

i’ve also had a lot of times when i got hurt in dreams, woke up and still could feel pain for a minute or two. it’s normal, i thought.

It is actually fairly normal. It’s just leftovers from the brain actually thinking that it is injured. Next time you get hurt IRL, pay attention. Pain usually slowly fades away rather than just suddenly disappearing. I’m pretty sure it’s the same thing here.

If you can orgasm and feel intense pleasure in a LD, i’m certain you can also feel pain.

Both are rather rare though in my experience, these intense feelings usually wake me up ( or “shift me on” to another dream).

You might be able to summon her again in another dream and ask her more about what she wanted to communicate and why.

I have often felt pain in my dreams.
In one LD I decided I was going to die well with no fight, so I put my head down for the soldier coming after me, and he brought his axe down on my neck several times. It felt as if my neck was made of steel, and felt huge vibrations go through me, and I was still until I thought I couldn’t stand it anymore, he couldn’t cut through my neck, I kept wondering whether I was dead yet. Then I felt a knife start to sever the tendons in my neck, and THAT hurt enough to make me feel about to lose my mind, until another soldier pulled him off.

A dream I had recently featured some weird jungle warrior kind of guy, and I was semi-lucid, coming to sort of groggy as he was holding me by my hair and was sawing across my mouth and teeth…it hurt like heck until I told myself to just surrender to it, then it wouldn’t hurt…and it stopped hurting and actually began to feel kind of gooey and good. Just a few weird visuals after then I woke up.

I also had another dream where deep, deep, nearly unimaginable abdominal pain woke me up into my dream, and I felt paralyzed as a woman stood next to me digging into my intestines. I could barely squeak out to her to please stop, I can’t even tell you how intense the pain was…I started to become more lucid and began deep breathing and insisting “I. KNOW. THIS. IS. A. DREAM.” which seemed to really pi** off the DC, but I woke up. I think this dream was some sort of trauma reaction or re-enactment to a c-section I had a long time ago.

So…pain in dreams…it happens. It would make sense, if we can have sexual LD’s and experience pleasure, why not pain? If it were me I’d totally try to get in touch with the DC again and ask her more, though, you’ll likely get more relevant and useful answers than here.