Painful dreaming

This hasn't happened to me in awhile, but I used to feel it all the time when I was younger: Every now and then when I begin to fall asleep and enter a dream, I feel an intense discomfort all over my body. The best way I can describe it is the feeling you get when a foot falls asleep. Not exactly pins and needles, but severe discomfort. A lucid dream usually follows, but not all the time. I wonder if the pain itself is a dream, but I feel mostly awake. Does anyone else experience this or know what causes it?

In what position do you usually sleep?

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If it's in your legs, it may be restless leg sydrome. Sounds very similar to me.

It's not just my legs, it's my entire body. I always sleep on my stomach. It's tough to recall how it feels in the middle of the day after not having it happen for awhile, but I was thinking about it last night. It's like I'm pressing into a dream too fast or something. It feels like there's a presence while this is happening. Once I get past the pain I can usually see the dream world materialize before me. The last time it happened was last week, and it felt like I was fighting against some... thing, soon after I went into a lucid dream (I thought I fell out of bed... or that the presence knocked me out of bed... and spilled a glass of water, but it was just a dream). So that's why I was wondering if it's real, or dream-pain. There have been instances where it's so uncomfortable I have to adjust my sleeping position.

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Originally Posted by Dream Master

It's not just my legs, it's my entire body. I always sleep on my stomach. It's tough to recall how it feels in the middle of the day after not having it happen for awhile, but I was thinking about it last night. It's like I'm pressing into a dream too fast or something. It feels like there's a presence while this is happening. Once I get past the pain I can usually see the dream world materialize before me. The last time it happened was last week, and it felt like I was fighting against some... thing, soon after I went into a lucid dream (I thought I fell out of bed... or that the presence knocked me out of bed... and spilled a glass of water, but it was just a dream). So that's why I was wondering if it's real, or dream-pain. There have been instances where it's so uncomfortable I have to adjust my sleeping position.

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This does sound resemblant to restless leg syndrome as Pensive suggested. I would suggest trying to take some melatonin before bed and seeing if that helps you at all. Of course, I would suggest a physical by a doctor, but I speculate that it is something really minor unless you would grade this pain on a high degree... would you?

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