It’s well-known that dreams can be peculiar and perplexing. They’re often famous for their ambiguity and indecipherability. Dreams typically feature bizarre characters and incoherent storylines that may be hard to comprehend upon waking up (via IFLScience). However, the content of our dreams is largely subject to chance. Some individuals might have delightful dreams filled with silly and positive experiences, while others could encounter nightmares involving more distressing situations, such as being attacked or tortured. But, is it truly possible to feel these experiences in your dreams?
Despite limited knowledge about the nature of pain in dreams, it remains a complex and intriguing topic for scientists and researchers. Most experts concur that pain can be felt during dreams, yet whether this pain is actual or perceived is another question. The distinction between the two lies in how the body processes pain.
Research shows it is possible to feel pain in your dreams
Although rare, research suggests that experiencing pain in dreams is possible. A 2017 study published in the Open Pain Journal reveals that pain sensations occur in about 1% of dreams among healthy individuals and in 30% of those with acute and severe pain. In this study, researchers distributed a questionnaire to 100 patients with lower back pain and 270 healthy patients without back pain. Those with chronic pain reported experiencing pain sensations in dreams more often than their healthier counterparts and also tended to have more negative-toned dreams.
The study’s findings also showed that patients with chronic back pain frequently reported dream pain persisting into their waking state compared to the control group. The study’s authors concluded that dream pain might result from actual physical pain in individuals with chronic pain, while pain in the dreams of healthier people may stem from recalling painful memories. “Future research should clarify how pain is processed during sleep,” the authors suggested.
Is the pain you experience in dreams real?
According to Erin Wamsley, an assistant professor of psychology at Furman University, determining if dream pain is real or imagined is not as straightforward as it seems. “I would argue that even ‘actual’ pain is kind of all in your head,” Wamsley explained to Vice. When conscious, your pain experience is linked to neural activity in the cerebral cortex regions responsible for pain perception, triggered by pain receptors in the nervous system. This implies that if you fall and injure your leg, the pain is felt in your brain, not your leg.
In dreams, however, there are no external stimuli to provoke this pain sensation, yet it is felt because sensory regions in the brain remain active during sleep. “This is why during dreaming you can ‘see’ without actual visual input to the retina, and ‘hear’ without actual sound waves hitting the ear,” Wamsley continued. Research indicates that neural activity associated with experiencing pain in dreams can closely resemble that during wakefulness. The only difference is that you don’t suffer physical harm in dreams unless the body sustains an injury while asleep.
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