Surreal Pain Dreams
Throughout the past year, I have noticed that even in the deepest slumber, my ankylosing spondylitis pain can control me. Often, the pain might wake me. This is annoying, but what I find worse is when the pain enters my dreams.
It can be a normal dream, but it is usually a nightmare, complete with confusion, terror, and intense dread. Real pain in a dream can make the whole experience more vivid and unnerving.
My first ankylosing spondylitis pain dream
In the first pain dream that I can recall, I was walking around my hometown. If you’ve seen the movie Split, you can imagine what I will say next. I was carrying "Kevin Wendell Crumb," played by James McAvoy, on my back. At the end of the movie, he is inhumanly strong, like the Hulk. So, you can imagine that he was pretty heavy to carry on my back. In the dream, I was trying to put him down, but the more I tried, the stronger and heavier he got. I know, hilarious, right?
I have had many ankylosing spondylitis pain dreams since this. Often, the pain manifests in dreams simply as someone or something putting pressure on my back or slipping and falling on my back. Or it may be a nightmare. The dreams may be fantasy or seem so real that I’m left confused when I wake up. The dreams are purely illusions, but the pain I feel during them is real.
Pain nightmare
Sometimes, the pain takes total control of my dreams, and it feels so real. In one pain nightmare, I was driving home and crashed my car. There was no fantasy in this dream; everything seemed like real life, including the road, the houses, and my car. When I crashed, my car rolled over and over until it landed upside down.
I was in a car crash before, and the thing that stuck with me the most was the sound, which was terrifyingly loud. That exact noise happened in my dream. The windshield and windows broke, and there was glass everywhere. I was upside down, and my whole body hurt.
I wasn’t scared, I was just in pain. All I could see was glass everywhere, and my phone was also smashed. I got out of the car, and the paramedics were there. For the rest of my dream, the paramedics were pulling shards of glass out of my back.
The aftermath of a pain nightmare
When I woke up that morning, my back was in agony. It felt like I was hit by a bus. For a couple of seconds, I thought the car crash really happened. I searched for my phone to see if it was smashed.
Isn’t it crazy how much pain can control us, even while we sleep? I hate being woken up by pain, but I would prefer that to having these scary, realistic dreams controlled by my pain.
Does anyone else have their pain manifest in their dreams? Or am I just a little crazy? I would love to hear your dreams, the crazier the better!
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