The Nature and Prevalence of Pain in Dreams

Antonio L Zadra,Anne Germain,Tore A Nielsen,Dc Donderi,Gilles Lavigne

doi:10.1155/1998/946171

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the frequency and nature of pain in dreams. Several authors have suggested that pain may be beyond the representational capability of dreaming.OBJECTIVE: To obtain more detailed information on the nature and prevalence of pain in a larger sample of everyday dreams collected through home logs. To examine the context within which dreamed pain occurs and to assess participants' retrospective recall of past experiences of pain in dreams.METHOD: One hundred and eighty-five participants completed a battery of questionnaires and recorded their dreams for two consecutive weeks.RESULTS: Retrospective responses to the questionnaire indicate that close to 50% of individuals report having experienced pain in their dreams at least once. A total of 3045 dreams were reported in the home dream logs. Eighteen of these dreams contained unambiguous references to the subject experiencing pain.DISCUSSION: Pain sensations in dreams are reported as being realistic, localized to a specific area of the body, typically resulting from violent encounters with other characters and often accompanied by intense affect. A model is proposed to explain how sensory experiences such as pain can be produced in the dream state.CONCLUSION: Cognitive systems that contribute to the representation of pain imagery are sometimes functional during dreaming.

Highlights

Little is known about the frequency and nature of pain in dreams
In a follow-up study we found that ramped pressure stimulation of the hand during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep did not result in subjects reporting pain dreams [7]
That the vast majority of these participants had no obvious past history of pain-related conditions suggests that many healthy subjects likely remember having had a dream with pain at least once in their lives

Summary

Introduction

Little is known about the frequency and nature of pain in dreams. Several authors have suggested that pain may be beyond the representational capability of dreaming. OBJECTIVE: To obtain more detailed information on the nature and prevalence of pain in a larger sample of everyday dreams collected through home logs. RESULTS: Retrospective responses to the questionnaire indicate that close to 50% of individuals report having experienced pain in their dreams at least once. A total of 3045 dreams were reported in the home dream logs Eighteen of these dreams contained unambiguous references to the subject experiencing pain. DISCUSSION: Pain sensations in dreams are reported as being realistic, localized to a specific area of the body, typically resulting from violent encounters with other characters and often accompanied by intense affect. CONCLUSION: Cognitive systems that contribute to the representation of pain imagery are sometimes functional during dreaming

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion