When you dream, your limbs are immobilised. This is why you often feel like they are tangled or caught.

This morning I woke up and my arms were still immobilised. I could feel their weight on my chest. Interestingly, I still had my imaginary arms. So I started waving them in front of my face. They felt like normal arms. Even more interesting was that I could see a very faint outline of them. Then I started concentrating on my real arms. Once they moved, I regained senses in them and my imaginary arms disappeared.

I thought this might give some interesting clues on how the brain processes proprioception and visualisation, maybe even the treatment of phantom limb pain (going by what I've seen on House).

The only problem is that being the transition from sleep to wake, I can't tell whether I dreamt it all. I had not been thinking about this sort of thing at all. Normally it is fairly obvious what is happening. If I start flying around the countryside, it is a dream. In terms of the psychology of what was happening, does it make any difference?

freediver wrote on Aug 12^th, 2010 at 9:16am:

When you dream, your limbs are immobilised. This is why you often feel like they are tangled or caught. This morning I woke up and my arms were still immobilised. I could feel their weight on my chest. Interestingly, I still had my imaginary arms. So I started waving them in front of my face. They felt like normal arms. Even more interesting was that I could see a very faint outline of them. Then I started concentrating on my real arms. Once they moved, I regained senses in them and my imaginary arms disappeared. I thought this might give some interesting clues on how the brain processes proprioception and visualisation, maybe even the treatment of phantom limb pain (going by what I've seen on House). The only problem is that being the transition from sleep to wake, I can't tell whether I dreamt it all. I had not been thinking about this sort of thing at all. Normally it is fairly obvious what is happening. If I start flying around the countryside, it is a dream. In terms of the psychology of what was happening, does it make any difference?

Stop dropping acid just before bed ;D ;D ;D
Seriously though a mate of mine just had a leg amputated & was on some serious pain relief for quite a while due to the phantom pain.
Fortunately now he's managed to virtually kick the pain drugs (something he says was harder than the rest of his ordeal) but he often says the hardest thing now is the top of his phantom foot gets itchy at night. No pain but bloody annoying.

Have you seen that House episode where he treats phantom limb pain? Has your mate done anything like that? Does it work?

freediver wrote on Aug 12^th, 2010 at 9:31am:

Have you seen that House episode where he treats phantom limb pain? Has your mate done anything like that? Does it work?

Was that the one with the annoying neighbour & house ties him up & uses a mirror????
I'm lucky to remember that much.

Yeah that's the one.

BTW, we don't allow external URLs in signatures here.

freediver wrote on Aug 12^th, 2010 at 9:48am:

Yeah that's the one. BTW, we don't allow external URLs in signatures here.

It was only that you were speaking of this that reminded me of the episode so I'll ask if his done anything like this .
URL Gone :)

I used to get paid $45 per hour to watch people sleep.

...its amazing what is revealed.
:o

freediver wrote on Aug 12^th, 2010 at 9:16am:

When you dream, your limbs are immobilised. This is why you often feel like they are tangled or caught. This morning I woke up and my arms were still immobilised. I could feel their weight on my chest. Interestingly, I still had my imaginary arms. So I started waving them in front of my face. They felt like normal arms. Even more interesting was that I could see a very faint outline of them. Then I started concentrating on my real arms. Once they moved, I regained senses in them and my imaginary arms disappeared. I thought this might give some interesting clues on how the brain processes proprioception and visualisation, maybe even the treatment of phantom limb pain (going by what I've seen on House). The only problem is that being the transition from sleep to wake, I can't tell whether I dreamt it all. I had not been thinking about this sort of thing at all. Normally it is fairly obvious what is happening. If I start flying around the countryside, it is a dream. In terms of the psychology of what was happening, does it make any difference?

It might come under the rubric of lucid dreaming. Some psychologists believe that it could be harnessed to deal with issues like PTSD.

There is also the phenomenon of REM intrusion. You can wake up and find your dream unfolding in your bedroom.

I'm always guarranteed to have a nightmare if I sleep on my back (coffin-like).
My favourite nightmare is being hunted, attacked, etc by Aliens (movie version) and to a lesser extent, Velociraptors and other things.

Flying dreams have become less frequent (not enough points?) since taking up Scuba Diving. But I tend to think when a certain part of our own existence leaves the body ...its because of ill health more than anything 'spiritual', especially when the concept of 'spirituality' is nothing more than a 'fashionable' thing.

So your a bubbly eh? That explains everything.

...don't mind the Apnea either ;)