Painful inspiration

I admit my chronic migraine pain influences my fiction writing.  All that write what you know business.  It has made a few of my newer characters have unbearable pain.  But they are lucky because they get their victory, while the rest of us, not so much.  I also get sleep paralysis which can be a terrifying experience and one I have used in a few novels.  Sometimes I even get inspiration from dreams.  I have never been one to dream of anything mundane.  I don't tend to get stress dreams.  Often I do not even play a role in my dreams, as in I am a character.  Sometimes I have super powers.  I think even in my sleep I enjoy escapism.  My last dream, where I was a secret agent actually caused me to be late for work.  The alarm rang and I stared at the numbers for a long few seconds and thought 'I'm not supposed to meet my secret agent friend for another twenty minutes' and promptly went back to sleep.  Although honestly the most powerful dream imagery comes from migraine nightmares... because the pain soaks into the dream thus making them suprisingly violent and bloody.  Part of me thinks pain should come with blood.  Like a migraine should make you bleed from your eyeballs and ears.  Because blood means injury to ourselves and others, but pain alone cannot be shared.  So while I may inflict my characters with unbelievable torments what makes it so much better than real life is that there is a reason for their pain.  There is a reason, a solution and an end to their pain.  I suppose that is what writing and reading are all about to me, that escape from a pain defined existence.