# Sleep and Dreams > General Dream Discussion >  >  What happens when you die in your dream?

## little nemo

not long ago i dreamed that i died: one instant i was alive, and the next i was dead. nothing happened physically, but i experienced a profound change nonetheless; i felt released from all obligations. it was really pretty cool, like nothing i've experienced while awake... i hope it feels something like this when really do die. 

so it got me wondering - what do others experience when they die in their dreams? if you have dreamed of your own death i would like to hear about it.

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## cygnus

the dreams i had of dying were actually very... enjoyable haha. there were a few where i was drowning. i just accepted my death, let it happen, and was liberated by that release.

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## Harper

Wow, that's pretty cool.  I have died a couple of times in dreams, but I usually wake up immediately afterwards, so I can't tell what actually being "dead" in a dream would be like.  For the most part, I'm not very upset about what's going on when I dream that I have died.  More like, "Aw, rats".   :smiley:

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## Lucidness

I was slapped in the face, fell unconcious and woke up.

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## Kanano

The only times I've ever felt I was dead was in a zombie dream, so I came back as a zombie. 



They had put me in a bed down in my basement, and waited for me to come back. I slowly sat up, knew I was a zombie, and looked over at one of the girls. She slowly raised a gun and shot me in the head, then I slowly fell back on the bed and everything went dark again.

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## jamie123

i died in my dream once.
i was in a car accident on my way to work. i was wearing the same thing i wear to work every day which coincidentally was a black suit. i got hit on the drivers side and everything went fuzzy. when i woke up i was still in the car and people were all around and paramedics were trying to pull me out. everything went fuzzy again and i was in a hospital in the emergency room with a bunch of people putting tubes in me and then i was being shocked. i blinked in slow motion and when my eyes opened again i was floating above myself just watching everyone work on me thinking...'no way'.
everything went fuzzy again and i was standing there in a grey place and i was with my Papa who passed away a few years ago and he took me hand and we went for a walk through the front door of my grandparents old house. there was a big flash and i was at my funeral, standing there at the back of the funeral home while all my friends and family were there.
when i woke up my arms and legs were asleep, i was freezing cold, shaking and out of breath.
wtf?

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## Dylan Tinning

Come to think of it when i was about 7 i had a long dream and in the end a zombie was chasing me outside and i just gave up running and i layed down on the grass and closed my eyes... i went into third person view and was looking at myself, then the zombie came and nelt down on the grass and picked me up in its arms then looked toward the third person me and then i woke up  :tongue2:  that was about the only death sort of dream i had... was pretty scary at the time  ::D:

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## Desert Claw

hell yeah

there was this one time, when I was in my garage fixing a car. that was kinda odd seeing as i don't own a car, nor do i know how to fix one... suddenly it exploded

I got thrown into the wall and I was completely paralyzed, I felt no pain, and there was a loud ringing noise in my ears. I could feel my body, and everything was black

I felt like I was there, but I wasn't? its hard to explain :/

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## Kaskame

I had a lot of dreams were I died... and were always the same way.....Its like a  monster who apears and kills me or I am trying to save someone and I die... Than what happens? I get panic and more panic and wake up and start to feel my body and thinking if im alive ^^

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## youssarian

Man, I would like to experience dying in a dream. It sounds like something I haven't experienced in real life (but no duh) so it'd be almost trippy to experience it in a dream.

All the best,
Youssarian

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## Luna

> i died in my dream once.
> i was in a car accident on my way to work. i was wearing the same thing i wear to work every day which coincidentally was a black suit. i got hit on the drivers side and everything went fuzzy. when i woke up i was still in the car and people were all around and paramedics were trying to pull me out. everything went fuzzy again and i was in a hospital in the emergency room with a bunch of people putting tubes in me and then i was being shocked. i blinked in slow motion and when my eyes opened again i was floating above myself just watching everyone work on me thinking...'no way'.
> everything went fuzzy again and i was standing there in a grey place and i was with my Papa who passed away a few years ago and he took me hand and we went for a walk through the front door of my grandparents old house. there was a big flash and i was at my funeral, standing there at the back of the funeral home while all my friends and family were there.
> when i woke up my arms and legs were asleep, i was freezing cold, shaking and out of breath.
> wtf?



Weird.....

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## Fabio-the-dreamer

When I got shot, I felt like I was getting a ten inch needle in my back.

But, It was actually quite enjoyable. I was lucid enough to know I wasn't really dying, so I was totally at peace with the world. As I fell, and the world faded into black, I was happy.

Love to do that again.

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## John1513

Once, I was killed by a car in my dream. It was really weird, I actually felt sad, as if I had lost a friend instead of my own life. I spent another 10 minutes being a ghost and watching my friends saying goodbye to me and the others who didn't make it.

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## TheLight

I've never actually _died_ in a dream, but when I'm about to, I just usually wake up  :tongue2:

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## Luanne

I died once in a dream, as far as I remember. It was beautiful. 

Intense dream, hiding from this serial killer who was murdering people in some building where we were. I was avoiding him, carefully sneaking from room to room, but that was so exhausting and filled with fear. I finally gained some lucidity and gave up the chase. The lucidity wasn't enough to let go of the fear, it just gave me some comforting feeling that it was going to be all right. So I set down on a floor of one room and anxiously waited. I was surrounded with a few people who were pretty much in a same state I was in, so we talked a little about it. The killer came in, pointed a gun at my temple, and I was thinking to myself: "I'm safe, this can't hurt me, but is this a dream? If it is, then it won't be done, I never die in my dreams... No, this has to be done, I want to go through this!". And I was shot. I felt such a relief and even joy. Next thing I knew I was leisurely leaned on a car bonnet with hands in my pocket. A friend came, knowing nothing, and I simply said to her "We cannot die. It's just a transfer." We got into a car and drove away.

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## LiveInTheDream

I've had a few dreams where I die...most recently, I got kidnapped by Sylar (villain from the Heroes TV show) and he cut my head open like he does on the show. It hurt like nothing else! I could feel the loss of sensation, the heat of blood pouring down my face...I even heard my ear ringing from loss of blood as I collapsed on the ground! Not so pleasant a way to die.

Interesting thing was, after a long period of total darkness and not dreaming, I found myself lying on the ground, my head still in pain, but the pain was easing. I tried to open my eyes, but everything was really blurry. Reaching my hand up, I felt that my head had healed somehow. It was then that my focus came back, and the pain stopped completely. I saw Claire Bennet (also from Heroes) standing there, and I figured that I had empathic mimicry (the ability to use the super powers of people around me) and was using Claire's ability to heal.

It was a pretty weird feeling, dying and then coming back to life, without waking up in between. I never once was lucid, so I accepted the whole thing as real throughout the entire process.

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## Hidden

After I die in a dream, I usually watch all my friends/family be sad and then I wake up glad it's not real.

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## Polilla

I was once shot and left for dead in a dream. The pain was overwhelming, so much so that I thought I'd wake up wounded.

Most of the time if I die I go lucid. Like I never really get there, though I know I am dead. I'm not making sense, but I hope you kinda get what I mean.

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## Loaf

Sometimes I dream about an afterlife.. othertimes I find myself in blackness for a few seconds then wake up.
Occasionally I take the form of someone else, or jump into the body of a DC.

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## xDoll

Mine was terrifying. I had a dream I was being mugged, and then felt him put a gun to my head and shoot. The amount of detail I remember is astounding. I could feel the wind, his breathe, and the icy cold tip of the gun. I woke up shaking- not enjoyable at all.  :Sad:

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## Luanne

^
I believe that's because you immediately woke up.  :Sad:  You didn't get to the good part.  ::D:

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## xDoll

Well, i did FEEL like I died. I HEARD the gunshot and FELT the bullet go through me- but I felt so violated, he took my money and life without permission. I think that's what terrified me the most  :Sad:

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## CeDeR

I have a recurring dream in which i get stabbed in the stomach and bleed to death.I start to lose strenght, feel dizzy and get this anxiety feeling about wanting to live longer.Then i wake up with tears in my eyes and somewhat relieved.Not pretty.

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## Jenga

I've died a couple of times in my dreams, the most memorable was being shot point blank in the face. It didn't hurt but it just went black then I woke up. Did'nt really bother me that much though.

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## Xedan

Nothing happens. People die all the time in dreams.

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## Aledrea

I've died a few times in my dreams. The first time I was stabbed in the back, and I woke up in terrible pain.  The last time I jumped in front of a bullet to save someone and I could feel the blood pouring out of me.  It was pretty cool actually  :smiley:

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## Federico

I find it funny, when i was about 6 i had a dream i was being chased by a serial killer and i woke up just before i died, then a year later i had  a (so to speak) sequel to the dream where i continued it and instead of dieng i relized "this cant happen in real life?!" and i imagined a sword (for some strange reason a mini purple lightsaber (most likely because walgreens was selling one and i had recalled seeing one) and the serial killer disapeared and i took control of the dream, until i woke up a few seconds later  :tongue2:

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## Samael

Everything goes fuzzy for the few seconds that it takes for my head to re-grow.

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## Xedan

I come to the darkly humorous conclusion that no oneironaut dies in their dreams. They just get beat, shot, and stabbed to a bloody pulp or wake up. I kind of had both recently when I had my skull bashed in psychically and was then strangled in a Darth Vader fashion until I woke up (in TREMENDOUS pain I might add).

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## ElsiaStar

I die in in dreams quite often, I'n not so sure thats a good thing... Usually when I die I just get back up somehow and continue with the dream. One time I was walking on top of a train and accidentally fell off and the train ran over me. The whole scene turned red and words popped up that said "Game Over" and then I woke up... It was really weird

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## Nacho

Actually, one time I was dreaming I was falling, and as soon as I died I woke up. IRL, I fell off my bed  :tongue2:

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## SteadyState

I've died numerous times in dreams. Sometimes, I'll die and the dream scenario I died in will end and another dream will begin.
Sometimes I just wake up and go back to sleep. 

I do usually get the same feeling when I die in dreams though, it's not painful for me at all. It sort of tickles, haha.

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## BigFan

I can't ever recall a dream where I have died before, even in cases where I would have almost died and were very terrifying, I somehow survived or I just couldn't recall the rest of the dream  ::lol::

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## Amoeba

I think I have responded to a thread like this before, let's just say after dying I felt completely normal (not "liberated" or anything) and had to find the Wizard of Oz to revive me... but with my friends acting as a medium for me.

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## ninnato

I am often dreaming that I am about to die.
Falling down from a skyscraper, drowning - but I always wake up suddenly before hitting the ground, not being able to breath, etc.
I always feel physically bad afterwards - I just hate it!

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## allensig3654

I just died last night. We were all being sacrificed. I got crushed by a large spike and fell to the bottom of the ocean. It was really peaceful. There was a thought of blue and I was just falling like dead weight. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, but other than that.. just nothingness.

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## TheOneirologist

I don't really understand how some of you can die and feel the pain, and enjoy it.  Unless, of course, you're emo.  How many of you are emo?

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## Kacolukia

I've died many times in dreams. In nightmares I've been killed over and over and it was horrible. However, dying for a just cause is totally awesome. I had a dream a while ago when I was trying to convince a friend that he was worshipping someone inpersonating a god. It ended with him stabbing me in the chest. It was not very painful, my mind was at peace and I knew that I went out for selfless reasons. When the "dying" was complete I woke up.

I'm a little more okay with the thought of dying now  :smiley:

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## Kacolukia

It's a very profound experience if it isn't in a nightmare. I'm not emo at all but it feels peaceful and I hope you get to experience it.

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## Quiver

I was burned alive a few weeks ago.  I recognized the building was burning, and could feel the heat on my skin.  I was about to try and escape when everything just when red.  There wasn't any pain, but there was definitely fear.  And my last yell just extinguished slowly as did everything else...it was just quiet and peaceful after.  An amicable nothingness.   I remember thinking, "This is death.  This is what death feels like".  And I awoke quite peacefully.

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## TheOneirologist

> I hope you get to experience it.



Sorry to trample your hopes, but I don't plan on dying anytime soon.

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## Samael

> I don't really understand how some of you can die and feel the pain, and enjoy it. Unless, of course, you're emo. How many of you are emo?



Meh, actually dying in a dream feels more like an over-the-top Game Over than anything. I occasionally feel a burning pain that's kind of like being electrocuted, but it's usually tolerable. Plus, I have the part where I freak everybody out by resurrecting myself (and slaughtering them) to look forward to.

I'm not emo; I'm megalomaniacal.

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## Hidden

> I don't really understand how some of you can die and feel the pain, and enjoy it.  Unless, of course, you're emo.  How many of you are emo?



Whenever I've died, it's either been like a game over (as Samael said) or the scene changed or switched to 3rd person before the actual dying happened.  Hopefully I'll get a real, 1st-person dream death eventually.





> Sorry to trample your hopes, but I don't plan on dying anytime soon.



Aren't you even a bit curious?  After all, these are just dreams.

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## TheOneirologist

> I occasionally feel a burning pain that's kind of like being electrocuted



I think I'm afraid of _that._

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## Kacolukia

> Sorry to trample your hopes, but I don't plan on dying anytime soon.



I meant in a dream -.-

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## Samael

> I think I'm afraid of _that._



It varies in scale, though. When I'm fully lucid, I only really feel a warm tingling sensation.

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## TheOneirologist

Still, I'd rather not take the risk, especially when I've only been lucid for a total of ten seconds.  I'd completely feel the pain if I tried it anytime soon.

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## Astral

I've drowned an astronomical amount of times in childhood nightmares!

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## TheOneirologist

....Well, doesn't *that* sound like fun...

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## J.D.

I used to fall off buildings repeatedly in dreams as a kid, always waking up with a jolt at the point of impact.  I've only ever had one non-lucid where I died properly.  Somebody summed it up pretty well earlier- like being released from all obligations, really peaceful.  It ended up being a choice between dying and forcing myself back to life.  Dying was way more appealing for some reason!  If I ever come close to dying in dreams these days it always triggers at least some minor lucidity, meaning invincibility.

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## Mzzkc

> ....Well, doesn't *that* sound like fun...



Drowning actually isn't all that bad a way to go once you get over the initial shock of pumping liquid through your lungs. It's like being in the womb again, only deadlier.

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## samantharb

i died in a dream once. i had no idea what lucid was.. i was in my living room, and i think i was tied up. i was on my knees, and i got stabbed.. i just fell back to the floor, and lay there. i didn't know if it was real or not.. it felt so real. i was looking around the place.. i don't know if i was alive or dead. there was other people there, i then woke up. . it probably makes no sense, but it kinda changed my life,. (iknow thats stupid lol)

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## deanmullen10

In my dream it was a mix of SP and Nightmare, I dreamt I was playing football and my friends legs caught my neck, and it was braking and I was also I dying, time slowed down, motion began to become disordered, and when I died, i had another SP afterward, but it did feel between the two sessions was an empty gap or space of nothingness which of course cannot be recalled as it was nothing basically.

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## deanmullen10

not so... I can understand how it would be profoundly moving as it would for anyone.

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## scrumpy

I have only once dreamt that I died. I was shot in the chest and fell to the ground and I remember all the warmth draining out of me through the hole. Eventually "I" was sucked through the hole and was suddenly flying over a field of yellow flowers (so cliche'). It happened a long time ago, I do remember intense emotions but not what they were specifically but the details of the dream have stayed with me for years.

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## TheOneirologist

I died in a non-lucid dream a few nights ago.  The moon from Majora's Mask had just hit the planet, and as in the game, I saw a wave of fire coming toward me.  I felt a strange, anticipated feeling that I can't describe as pain, but wasn't pleasant, either.  Actually, I was watching some of it from third person, and I saw myself get blown away, but it never occurred to me as death until after I'd woken up.  So there.

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## Richard24109

I've had a dream when I died, it was weird. I dreamt I was in a video game, the ones where u can respawn in like Halo. It was actually kind of fun i woke up pretty happy. 
Another time I dreamt I was falling into a huge hole and once I got to where I couldn't see anything I felt like I hit something, then I woke up and jumped out if bed scared as all hell.

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## monk3y

usually when i die, most of the time by drowning, everything goes black for a few seconds until a new dreamscape appears..

Only one time i recall dying and actually going to heaven where i met jesus and god and other dead people ::lol::  and for some reason when i was there time went very quickly on earth and in a matter of days all my family and friends had gotten old and joined me

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## aktw4

When I die in dreams, I get shifted to SP and become 100% convinced that I am dead.

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## LexiGirl

I was killed by a knife and i got like another life and when i was about to die the second time i woke up. Worst dream of my life. It scared me for life.

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## mikeac

Holy necropost, Lexi.

/threadcpr

I like respawning after dying in dreams.  Mos of the time I just wake up, or I go back in time to prevent the death, but when I occasionally respawn it's absolutely priceless seeing the look on the everyone's face seeing you suddenly reappear.

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## Aerotactics

My dreams mainly consist of the video games i play, so i typically just respawn where I started, if I can remember where i started  :smiley:

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## littlezoe

I rarely die in regular dreams, but when i do i usually wake up immediately.

In lucids i never die...  :smiley:

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## Strelok22

I got killed by some commies with AK's recently.
After I shot like 10 of them someone took me down ... 

It was strange.I was like "Shi- .... get up the HQ need you ... damn i'm dead"

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## mooseantlers

I dreamt I got choked to death once. I had a false awakening after that.

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## Kurainui

I have had quite a few dreams where I have died. My first, I had a heart attack and just died. I became a ghost and spoke with other ghost children. When I would fall asleep as a ghost there was a sense of nothingness. In my second death I became a ghost and then went to heaven. I went back and forth between earth and heaven until at the end, I was walking toward a bright light in the clouds. The next time I 'died' it was while running from a nuclear explosion but I woke up after everything turned to white. In all of them there was no pain and just an "oh..." feeling.

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## SilverJay

I usually never die in a dream. In the only instances where I've almost died, I'd be falling off a cliff then rght before I was about to land - I'd get a kick.

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## NewZealand

I was getting chased down the main street in my city by a massive swarm of cats  :Oh noes: 
I ran into a dead end, and they all covered me!
I then slowly rose in 3rd person view, into a google earth style view of the city.
then i woke.
I am curious to know if you all get the same feeling as each other when you die in your dreams?

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## TheOneirologist

If I can recall, when I "die" in a dream one of three things happens:

a) Everything goes black for a moment, then/or
b) I have a false awakening
c) I wake up

And like littlezoe said, I usually don't die while lucid.  One time I got shot in the chest with a machine gun, but I was lucid.  I didn't even falter, and I just kept walking.  Oh, and another time I got a grenade to the face while lucid, and I walked out of that unscathed as well.  :Cheeky:

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## Phion

I usually wake up immediately when encountering any impending doom, or heightened state of fear within my dreams.  On the rare occasion fear doesn't wake me up my dream becomes some type of hyperlucid, and I search for ways to wake up in near futility.

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## Aeolus

Tonight I had videogame themed dreams.
In the first one I died and got a game over screen, dream ended.
In the second one I died, all my items got dropped, and I respawned.

I guess it depends on the dream.

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## jakeflee

i was at a school in my town and was framed for murder i was running around the school for about a week trying to get info on the murder that i had apparently did. As i was going out the door of my school there was a cop waiting for me so i ran i turned in to a small street and couldn't run any longer and the cop came around the corner and pulled his gun and shot me in the head. i could hear the shot echo down the street but i couldn't see.i felt confused about being killed but it was not my first time i was killed in a dream. i woke up 2 or 3 min. later in my body when i was 3 i was in the same town i was in at 3 every thing is as it was 13 years before, except, i had a sister; not just a sister but an older sister (there is more to the but im lazy and didn't want to write a book :Cheeky: )

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## Ezrael

One time I was murdered by this blonde haired lady that seemed other worldly to me. I bled out. I remember not being able to move and everything going dark, wasn't painful and I accepted it.

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## Baron Samedi

When I die in dreams, I go into a void for a few secs, and respawn.

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## Batch

I don't die often in my dreams, but it has happened a few times. For me it is almost always followed by instantly being resurrected or reborn in some way, often with new added powers ... then followed quickly by waking up.

Once in a while I 'wake up' into a new dream, instead.

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## darkritual

I died several times in my dreams but, the one i still remember is this one. 

I was eating at a restaurant with my family, they started saying crap about me, i went on a rampage, started insulting them back, threw a cake in their faces and started running until i got hit by a truck.

My soul left my body and i ended up in a strange place. I had a laptop in front of me so i decided to turn it on and heard "You failed the test, here watch a video of a successful person.". I destroyed it and said "Fuck this shit, being a ghost is better than being alive anyway" and woke up.

It was a weird dream but had a lot of meaningful things in it.

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## Oceandrop

In the dreams I died, I mostly have been shot by someone and in all of them I was reanimated, like in a silly Ego-Shooter.

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## PiggyDreams

> I have had quite a few dreams where I have died. My first, I had a heart attack and just died. I became a ghost and spoke with other ghost children. When I would fall asleep as a ghost there was a sense of nothingness. In my second death I became a ghost and then went to heaven. I went back and forth between earth and heaven until at the end, I was walking toward a bright light in the clouds. The next time I 'died' it was while running from a nuclear explosion but I woke up after everything turned to white. In all of them there was no pain and just an "oh..." feeling.



In my dream I had the same "oh..." feeling but the dream was different.

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## BugFolk

I've died a number of times in my dreams. Any of these below I've experienced.

1. Fade to black and I wake up. Sometimes with a bout of sleep paralysis involved before the full wake up.
2. I float around as a ghost some time after death scene.  Sometimes trying to communicate with people I know or dream characters but being unable to.
3. Nothing.  Change in dream scene perhaps. Sometimes a change in character POV.
4. Facing a God like creature. Usually the Guy isn't happy to see me, lol and I get sent back to wake up.

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