SpoilSport

I have been here at TFP for about 18 months. I have added my reply posts but never STARTED a thread. This is my first one. *deep breath*

I have exceptionally vivid dreams. I can FEEL things in my dreams. Pain, especially, quite clearly.

It's 02:43am, and I just woke up from one of the more unsettling nightmares I have ever had and I do NOT want to go back to sleep. I'm tired. I am very tired. But there is NO way I am going back to sleep. First a disclaimer: Normally, I do not retell my dreams. I am sure they do not carry the weight that I, the dreamer, had. I am sure that is as boring as piss to listen to. But part of the reason I do not want to go back to sleep is that a sensation remains from that dream, still. It's been about 20 minutes now. And it still hurts. Allright, now...I am not sure what I was accused of, I think it was a murder that I allegedly committed while on drugs. Now, I don't do drugs. I don't even drink, except for once in a blue blue moon, maybe once or twice a year. Even then it's usually *A* drink. Okay, so I was convicted. But it was an outpatient type thing where I had to show up at this sort of lethal injection clinic and see if I was to be executed that day. I showed up at the appointed time. I signed in. No one talked to me for about two hours and then an annoyed nurse told me basically to go away, nothing was happening today. My next check in was several days later at 14:00pm. I missed that appointment. I was in my parent's apartment in Hawaii (? - my parents live in a single family in Virginia) and my sister was there (I lost my sister in April this year). Two men showed up to execute me. They were annoyed, sarcastic, and patronizing. Telling me details from the events leading to my execution that I knew could not possibly be true, and that everybody else KNEW was untrue. They sneered and told me how drug use will make you conveniently forget thinks little details like killing somebody and the fact that I vehemently denied any drug use was typical of heavy drug users and was not going to get me out of this predicament. One man did not say much. He told me that he needed to administer a preliminary injection, a sedative. - Bear in mind that I was never placed in restraints, I was able to move about this small apartment freely. So, one guy holds me while the other puts TAC (topical anaesthetic cream) on the injection site (high on my right butt cheek, almost my hip) and then in goes the needle, which I do not feel, I feel like a very slight pinch and then warmth. He leaves the needle in me. he tells me to leave it, it's okay. So I am wandering around the apt. back and forth from my father whose in one room, to my sister and mother. I am frantic to find a ring and a rosary that I want my sister to have. It's important. I am trying to reach my fiance, but cannot. I find the ring. I put it on my sister's finger. I tell her that I love her, this is all a mistake, and I'm so sorry. My mother's upset and will not look at me directly or acknowledge the pending execution. I keep asking the two gentlemen for a little bit more time to say my goodbyes and telling them that it is all a mistake. The talker laughs and continues to mock me in that stupid patronizing tone. The needle is still hanging off me. I am distantly aware of it, but the sedative makes the thought of the needle breaking off or my impending death less important than the fact that I didn't do it. The talker tells me it's time, no more stalling. He's leading me to the living room where my father sits, devestated. I realize I haven't said anything to my mother. I ask to speak with her, to kiss her goodbye. As I turn around I see that my sister is visibly pregnant, she is walking away with my mom. She touches her belly, speculating on whether or not it is a boy or a girl. They walk away and I am somewhat relieved that they will not be witness to this. My father, however, is putting on a brave face for me, and offers to hold me in the last moments. I am thinking that there's no way in hell I am going to have him cradle his child as I die, and I back away a bit and bump the needle. At this point I tell myself that I cannot take this anymore and I am going to wake myself up - most of the time I have this kill switch if the dream is TOO intense and it's all about "Fuck this, I am OUTTA HERE". I wake myself up. My first response is to touch the injection site, which still feels as if there is something there, and then to call my father. I touch the spot and spare Dad the 02:20am phone call because I had a bad dream. There is what looks like a mark, but think that it's my imagination. The injection site still hurts, in that distant way when you've had a topical anaesthetic applied. I checked the bed and my clothing for anything that might have stuck me or poked me. Nothing. But now I do not want to go back to sleep. No WAY.

Now, I am a little too old to be behaving this way. A LOT too old. I was wondering if some of you out there have the same problem. And request that you tell me about them. I dream a LOT. I have a lot of nightmares. But I have always thought they were kind of fun, in a roller coaster/horror book/movie sort of way. Every once in a while I have one that throws me for a loop like this and it's always a BAD one. This was one of the bad ones.

So, do you feel pain in your dreams? Are your dreams vivid? Do you remember your dreams clearly? And do you have some that are so bad you don't want to go back to sleep?

I don't mean to be shitty, but I'll head you off at the pass; 1) yes, there's a LOT of stress in my life b) yes, I recognize that I have authority issues 3) I know that the pain was probably caused my real sensation that happened to my body and incorporated into the dream e) yes, I know that I am a big baby and that I should just go lay the fuck back down. But I feel better after typing this (albeit a LITTLE bit, I'm still kind of freaked) and want to hear about your dreams. Thanks for the therapy and in advance for your responses.

Drider_it

nightmare and i are intimate old friends. ive had nightmare all my life.. every dream ive had is a nightmare. The reason i have about 6000 paperback books atest to this fact. I go till im exhausted, sometimes it helps i dont dream its all just a black void. I have over the years been able to effect my dreams finally like pop claws out like wolverine and such to ward off.. but the human mind is like the old nintendo or an old cpu in a puter. when the action starts going fast and such its slow motion time. ever have that happen?

and to those that say you cant die in your dreams i have a finger for you. ive fell off a 30 story building in my dream and smacked. went black then woke up going wtf cool.

ive had a katana planted in my chest.. in the dream i was holding on to the blade as it cut through my finders.. man blood was everwhere. and with my other hand i was pulling my left eyelid open.. guess what

when i woke up shortly i was holding my hand where the katana was and my left hand had my eyelid stretched out. that and my fingers were cramped for two hours afterwards.

i try and keep all weapons well away from me. some people when they dream they do things in thier sleep. thankfully im not one of them. hell ive even had credits roll while i sat on a hill side watching the sun rise right before i woke up. funniest damn thing ive ever seen.

just go get something warm to drink and read a book.. dont watch tv the light patterns involved in it is too much stimulation for your brain to handle before sleep. the book is better your own imagination determins what goes through.

foods too. going to bed on a full just eaten mean can be bad. like a large ammount of sugar. your metabolism is racing in yoursleep.

but there is facts that stated that the brain translates pain in ways we dont understand. like the positive effect.. i think im sick so therefor i am. you stress your brain you get run down then you get sick. ive seen people fight off cancer with just their faith and a positive mind set.

__________________
It means only one thing, and everything: Cut. Once committed to fight, Cut. Everything else is secondary. Cut. That is your duty, your purpose, your hunger. There is no rule more important, no commitment that overrides that one. Cut. The lines are a portrayal of the dance. Cut from the void, not from bewilderment. Cut the enemy as quickly and directly as possible. Cut with certainty. Cut decisively, resoultely. Cut into his strength. Flow through the gaps in his guard. Cut him. Cut him down utterly. Don't allow him a breath. Crush him. Cut him without mercy to the depth of his spirit. It is the balance to life: death. It is the dance with death. It is the law a war wizard lives by, or he dies.

Zeraph

I've had some very intense dreams before as well. Though I don't have a problem with them, I just accept there occational occurence.

One was a dream full of pure dread and despair, until that dream I had felt nothing like it. There was a nuclear bomb about to go off and destroy the world (details don't really matter.) Another dream was about aliens (well they were humans, from space) making a deal/treaty to share their advanced technology with us, but I knew they were lieing and that they'd enslave us if it went through. They carried black ceremonial spears. Another one was where I and about 10 other people were about to commit ritual suicide (but in the dream it was a good thing.) My parents were there in the crowd/audience as if it was an award ceremony for school. I was still very nervous about doing it though. When the time came I (we) put special tubes to our heads (think shotgun) and BOOM! I "felt" a hole blow through my head and brain, then for a split second darkness. Then I woke up.

Those are my main vivid, intense dreams I can think of right now, though I know I've had a few more. Keep in mind Ive had normal nightmares that were "scary" but those are nothing like the dreams described above.

MortyLup

The only real bad one I've had that kept me from sleeping was about a year ago. I dreamed I was with my girlfriend (at the time) and we were being thrown into some old basement somewhere by a bunch of really burly guys. The walls were made of rusty-colored bricks and there was one light in the room, the kind where it's just a lightbulb in a socket hanging down from the ceiling.

Two of the guys grabbed us and held us against the wall while a third went upstairs to get my parents and sister. He brought them down and one by one shot them in the head in front of us. Then they threw my girlfriend on the ground and killed her, too. Then he pulled out a shotgun, pointed at my chest, and fired. I woke up right as I got hit, and for two hours I could feel the pressure on my chest. It felt like someone had just smacked me real hard. I didn't go back to bed that night.

Coppertop

I too had believed the "you cannot die in your dreams" theory. Then I had a dream where I was shot in the top of the head. I quite clearly died in my dream. I woke up and was pretty freaked out by it. I was convinced for a long time that I had forseen my eventual death. Now that years have passed, it is a much less intense feeling.

My dreams are almost always vivid. I keep a journal by my bed and write my dreams down in it to help remember them. I sometimes even email my friends. Just the process of getting it out of your head into another medium seems to help.

I also think I dream in black and white. At least I never remember any color to them. Until one time I did have flashes of color in a dream, but only certain parts of it. I have no idea what that meant.

I wouldn't say you're crazy though SpoilSport. Be glad that you dream at all. I know of many people who claim that they do not dream at all, or at least do not remember them.

Grasshopper Green

I've never felt pain in a dream unless it was a physical pain I already had, like a stomachache or really bad headache that managed to incorporate itself into my dream...

I do have a lot of vivid dreams, some that I can remember from early childhood. One thing I've noticed...I went on some medication a few months ago and made my dreams much, much more vivid. Might be something to consider if you take anything.

__________________
"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"

Formerly Medusa

TexanAvenger

I was actually having a conversation about this with my friend yesterday. While she claims to never feel anything in dreams, I feel things quite vividly, like you especially pain, and even once I wake up. I've sat up in the middle of the night feeling everything from a bee-sting up to places where I've been shot. The latter is somewhat interesting because I've never been shot with anything more than a paintball but when I describe the feeling to either of my grandfathers, both having fought in and been shot in battle, they agree that what I'm feeling is the exact same thing. One night, after having dreamt of being strangled, I woke up, alone, feeling the blood pulsing through the hands around my neck for a full fifteen minutes before it faded away. As for the whole not being able to die in dreams thing, I've yet to experience it, and don't look forward to it either.

Frowning Budah

Taking any drugs? A lot of things can trigger very detailed and vivid dreams.
I have died in my dreams but it wasn't that bad. I sort of just disintegrated into pieces. I have had some really horrible nightmares as well. Most of the time I don't remember them, but I know I thrash around and talk because my wife tells me abt it.

DJMala

I can't recall ever having felt physical pain in my dreams. In one of the more vivid ones I've had, I was riding a motorcycle, getting on the highway. Just as I got up to speed, I lost control of the bike. It bucked back and forth under me as I fought to control it. Finally, I wiped out and went sailing through the air, smacking into one of those big, green highway signs. All of the sensations were extremely vivd: the feel of the bike under me, the sensation of sailing through the air, the THWACK of my body hitting the sign, but somehow (thankfully) no pain at all.

My dreams don't often linger long after I wake up. I've almost never had trouble going back to sleep, even after a particularly bad nightmare. The only one that I really recall sticking with me for a long time after waking up was very strange. The whole dream was a head-and-shoulders close up of a black man, wearing what looked like traditional African or maybe Caribbean garb. He was speaking in a language I couldn't understand, but somehow I had the impression that he meant me harm. That was all there was to it, as I was woken up by my alarm for school, but for some reason I couldn't get that dude out of my head for an hour or maybe more. Weird.

LoganSnake

Well, have any of you ever seen The Matrix? Remember when Morpheus was explaining Neo about how the mind and body are directly linked and how whatever happens to you in the Matrix (dreams) will directly affect your body in the real world (reality)? Having intense dreams like you guys described can stimulate the mind so much that it sends signals to your body that mimic the feeling you've felt in your dreams. The thing about dreams, though, is that your mind does not believe it's 100% real, and thus you wake up or can force yourself to awaken (I've done it many times).

The hardest thing to do, is to realize that you are dreaming. When you are being chased by something/someone, or see a scary face through the window, what do you feel? Panic. Your heart starts racing both in the dream and in reality, you get a rush of blood throughout your whole body, you believe what you see and you cannot stop it. The more you are afraid of the dream, the more intense the sensation you feel. Forcing yourself back awake is realizing that there is a way out somehow, that what you're experiencing has a way of being stopped. Realizing that thought further will place you in a state of lucid dreaming. Once you command yourself to calm down, the nightmare will end.

The closest I've gotten to stopping the nightmare is when I once stopped running from this omnious black cloud that was chasing me, facing it, and...waking up in panic. My heart was racing for half an hour after that.

__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

embryodb

Once, as a child, I woke up crying, and immediately stopped. That weirded me out. I always have "the falling dream", and recently I woke frightened of something that I didn't remember. Other than that, I don't dream often.