We all know that we don't sleep well with RSD and a lot of the meds produce some wicked dreams. But, I am completely disappointed that I don't get any pain relief in my dreams. If I'm in a situation in ANY particular dream I am having, I still am burdened with my exact pains/disability/immobility that I have in my daily awake life with RSD. RSD follows me into my dreams! Which makes it really difficult when I have to run away from being shot at and my legs are burning and don't wanna move

Does anyone "get a break" from their ailments during a dream session??

Vanna,
That's a great question!

My dreams (nightmares) are mostly about the painful losses I've suffered, due to these injuries. (I won't go into it again).
But, I dream about how things "used to be", or "should be", even "should have been". A good dream is about how things might be.

But, I don't really feel any pain in my dreams. I've been in such "psych" pain, that I've never really thought about physical.

I can often wake with a migraine though.... yuk. That's often the TOS, and sleep positioning.


pete
asb

Let me say Vanna and Pete....

That since being diagnosised a few years ago..I don't remember any of my dreams....I can't recall even one..but I can say I have huge problems sleeping without my Ambien... Better yet..Pete..I too, get these horrible migraines sometimes.. I wake up with them..You think they are TOS, cuz not aware I had that.. I felt they are RSD of the brain or something..cuz as you know... they are aawful!!I get a sharp pain on the left side of my head..deep inside.. I actually had those plus a hearing loss issue ~ 2 - 3 years prior to having the obvious RSD showing up in my rt. leg after having a painful walk starting...then knee surgery... I think back and I think the RSD actually was present long before I was aware I had a problem...funny you mentioned the headaches.. really like toss your cookies sick feeling headaches..I often drink coffee.. take migraine meds and sit up until they are gone....nasty!!

KS

Vanna, It is so strange that u mention this because i was recently telling my husband that i have no pain in my dreams and last night he woke me b/c i was screaming-(i was dreaming i was being bit by a bug and it was burning and i couldn't get it off) when i woke i was having really bad burning pain in my wrist-one of my usual areas that burn. I feel like i jinxed myself. momof4

I think it is WONDERFUL for you all to get the opportunity to feel like a 'normal' person in your dreams. MOM, hilarious about the bug bite burning in dream sequence identical to the actual true pain in your wrist. That sort of thing happens to me all too often. I just wish that I could get a break from the painful, crippled body thing and at least just float painlessly in my dreams. LOL. Maybe my mind forgets what a non-RSD body feels like and can't project that into my dreams for me

I did have a dream where I was beaten and kicked by a mob. I imagine it was my sleeping minds' attempt to explain the pain felt by my body.

More recently, and perhaps better suited for a different thread, I have had problems with pins and needles in my arms and foot cramps when trying to sleep.


-steve

The only time I don't have a dream with pain is when I decide to take an Ambien for sleep aid. I usually only take one when I am having a bad day, pain-wise. With the Ambien, I am totally out of it.

Otherwise, like Steve suggested, the dreams usually have some explanation of why the pain is there. I am being eaten by a shark, or crushed by a subway train, or maybe sitting too close to a campfire and my shoe is in flames.

Sometimes I will try to find soothing music or even put on the TV and fall asleep listening to something other than my body. That seems to help.

Mike

Thanks for your input. Most dreams I have are violent, and now I think I've made the connection. Pain is usually inflicted by violence, so my subconcious mind is more than likely drawing up a dream scenario to match up with the pain I'm feeling at the time.

I'm going to make a point to occasionally take pain meds at bedtime on my BAD days. I'm conservative and usually feel I'm wasting the pain meds while I'm sleeping and rather use them to be pain free during awake hours. LOL!

Meds definately make you have dreams. I am only on Mitformin and Nexium right now and the Mitformin makes me have one dream after another.

I have had dreams that I was in pain. I have thought it was tied to the pain that I have awake.

What I am going through now is that I will go out of one dream right into another. I can't remember what they are about but they are short ones.

When I was on a lot of meds I would have dreams about falling off of cliffs. I would have dreams about people I hadn't seen in years and people I had never seen.

Pete, I had a headache last night from my TOS. I also had chest pain which I haven't had in a long time associated with the TOS. It was running up to my cheek and ear and down my right arm. I hadn't had the chest pain in a couple of years due to the lidocaine shots. I'm thinking the weather brought it out. To me the TOS is just as bad as the RSD. No cure for it and even with surgery, you still have a lot of the symptoms.

Ada

This is a good question. Yes, I think you can have pain in your dreams.

I have had a few and for me at least they were not reflective of pain I already had while awake....the dreams were "messages" that something I wasn't paying attention to, was hurting me.

I had one where I had a knife stuck in my back --and it turned out I was having a gall bladder attack. I've also had tooth dreams, which were pointing me to get some low grade thing fixed.

I have never had a pain dream that included an obvious long term pain tho. I've had alot daily pain in my life, but rarely is that pain in my dreams.