Yep, inabilities to perform certain physical tasks or to do them forcefully is very common in dreams. I'll list a few of the reoccurring instances I've had.
-Inability to yell, talk loudly, or speak at all.
-Inability to throw something more than a few feet.
-Inability to run at full speed.
-Inability to throw a punch, or the feeling of slow motion when attempting to hit something... as if under water.
-Turning on a light, but not being able to see any better. The room doesn't get any brighter, or only gets slightly brighter.
I've also noticed that, in any dream where I'm being shot, the bullets will only have a minimal effect, as if I was being shot by a BB gun. I'll often have scenes where I'm being chased by a group of people with guns, and I'll get cornered, they'll start shooting at me, the bullets hit me but feel like minor bee stings, but even so I'm still afraid of them.
The only reason I can think of, that could explain the lack of physical power in a dream, is simply the fact that the body is asleep, the brain has shut down many of its functions, and because of this, dreams are sometimes incapable of rendering accurate, powerful, physical bruteness. Some process that is essential to adrenaline, anger, physical assertion, reflexes, etc is asleep. This is a pretty watery explanation, I'll admit, but it's the only thing I can think of without going into psychiatric postulating. Simply saying something such as "your fears of being incompetent, ineffective, impotent, weak, helpless, stranded, and alone in real life are reflected in your dreams, which have a tendency to fall in the extremes of euphoria or fear, the latter commonly referred to as 'nightmares'."
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