Little is known about pain in dreams. Some studies indicate that it is
rare and that it may be beyond the representational capability of dre
aming. However, the present study describes experiences of dreamed pai
n that were reported incidentally in experiments on the effects of som
atosensory stimulation administered during rapid eye movement (REM) sl
eep. Dreams were selected from five subjects who had reported at least
one instance of dreamed pain in these studies. The subjects had under
gone 42 stimulation trials over 20 nights and had reported a total of
13 dreams (31%) with one or more references to pain. Most often, these
references appeared to be direct, untransformed incorporations of rea
l sensations produced by stimulation. Pain was the principal motivatin
g agent in a majority of these dreams and was in many cases associated
with strong emotion-typically anger. Dreams often depicted the subjec
ts' attempts to obtain relief from pain, in some cases by repetition o
f actions, in others by metaphoric renditions of the goal. The results
indicate that although pain is rare in dreams, it is nevertheless com
patible with the representational code of dreaming. Further, the assoc
iation of pain with dream content may implicate brainstem and limbic c
enters in the regulation of painful stimuli during REM sleep.