Thread: Study: Playing video games beneficial for lucid dreaming

it's probably based on statistical findings, so we can't actually assume a causal connection between gaming and lucidity. i.e. we can't necessarily say playing video games improves your chances of lucidity. but, if it did I wouldn't be surprised. Why do gamers have better vision though? I know a couple people that feel sick when they play 1st person games because of conflicting perceptions (visual movement, but no other sensory perception of movement)

I'm a gamer, love reading and watching movies, and one thing that I have noticed is that I seem to NEVER do RC's in dreams even if the most bizarre things are happening. I think this is because i DO spend so much time in imagined universes, and so i don't find it 'strange'. Bizarre things happen all the times in my dreams but my mind justifies them somehow by thinking i'm reading a book/playing a game or something, not sure. I seem to only ever have WTBT WILD's to get LD's, very rarely will i have a DILD, from RCing.

I would agree with the control though, many 'lucid powers' that people use I'm quite proficient at (flying, telekinesis etc), so that helps.

You can assume it, you just can't prove it. Still though, statistical studies can be very reliable. I wouldn't know about a non statistical way of determining a connection between video games and dreams either.

Here's a link about the study on video games and vision: http://www.livescience.com/health/09...me-vision.html

Lol i'm set then. I can vouch that I have developed exceptional hand eye coordination and visual awareness since I am a Call of Duty-a-holic.

Yeah, i never seem to do RC in dreams if something weird happens. I play alot of games so the strangest things can happen in my dream and i'm thinking im playing a game or something.
Never get scared of monsters either, i just kill them

Valid point duppsko^^

Have they considered the lifestyles of gamers and lucid dreamers? It could be that gamers are more likely to be into LDing, and that would account for the correlation.
Playing games helps me enhance my carpal tunnel problem =D

Originally Posted by Hot Chocolate

You can assume it, you just can't prove it. Still though, statistical studies can be very reliable. I wouldn't know about a non statistical way of determining a connection between video games and dreams either.

Here's a link about the study on video games and vision: http://www.livescience.com/health/09...me-vision.html

thanks for the link. I can see how people who are good at COD can become better at seeing movement and contrasts. I find it really hard to see people in COD because I don't play it, but I notice that my sight improves when I get a chance to play it. Statistics can show connection through correlation, but they don't tend to show how the two are connected. It could just be that people's brain wiring makes them more likely to like computer games and be better at controlling their dreams, rather than playing video games being beneficial to dream control. I don't know a non-statistical way either, but perhaps scanning people's brains might help describe the connection.

im pritty sure that playing video games can make it easyer 2 lucid because i had been reading instead of playing games for a while before i found out about luciding. and the other night i played my dsi for like 3 hours and had my first lucid dream that night. i was sooooooooooooooo happy the next day! and hey i know this is off topic, but does anyone know how to control the wather in dreams? because i hate it when it rains or snows in my dreams...

I play video games occasionally. It goes the opposite way for me. I'll actually have a dream about the video game. When I say this I don't mean in the game I mean actually sitting in front of the tc or comp playing it. I think that is just a waste of a dream lucid or not.

Originally Posted by Glorfindel_III

I'm a gamer, love reading and watching movies, and one thing that I have noticed is that I seem to NEVER do RC's in dreams even if the most bizarre things are happening. I think this is because i DO spend so much time in imagined universes, and so i don't find it 'strange'. Bizarre things happen all the times in my dreams but my mind justifies them somehow by thinking i'm reading a book/playing a game or something, not sure. I seem to only ever have WTBT WILD's to get LD's, very rarely will i have a DILD, from RCing.

I would agree with the control though, many 'lucid powers' that people use I'm quite proficient at (flying, telekinesis etc), so that helps.

I have the same thing, I have never ever RCed to become lucid. Though, at the same time, I have quite a success with DILDing so far.

Certain games really induce dreaming for me.... Alan Wake and Silent Hill are very good at producing vivid imagery, and nervousness, if you play them directly before bed. I have had a ton of dreams about Read Dead too. The first night I played Alan Wake, I had a vivid action-nightmare in my first REM cycle. Although I sometimes get the annoying, playing video games instead of entering dream worlds based on them. There seems to be some vague pattern to the process.

I always have dreams that are video games (not necessarily real games but sometimes they are). In some cases they will be 8-bit Nintendo games with blocky graphics and everything. Just last night I had a dream about Bioshock.

Lol. I suppose this is the reason why I'm almost never in first person in dreams and sometimes when something special happens my view is somewhat like a cutscene lol. Just makes me feel like I'm playing game way too much.

Am I an outcast? Because I have less LDs when I play computer games all day. Exercise and a good sleep = Lucid Dreams.

Video games and TV before bed KILLS my dream recall... but if you play a little during the day and read right before you go to bed... that might be a good combination.

I seem to get god themed dreams when I listen to alot of music that has meaning to me. I tried keeping my ipod on once to see if I could recognize that in my dreams that music is coming out of nowhere but instead my dream was one big musical. Fun dream though.

I was once able to type in Grand Theft Auto cheat codes, into my dreams. That rocked.
I'd also see my ammo, health, wanted level and stuff.

Video games also enabled me to "spawn" vehicles behind me, that rocked.
but usually I could only make a bike, cars and stuff are usually too hard but i managed to do it a while ago when I really needed a ride.

PORTAL has been by far, the best game I could play, to affect my dreams.
Finding and making portals is great. I'm just scratching the surface with it now.
In the game they're just spacial portals. In dreams they can be so much more.

Left 4 Dead was really cool for having zombie dreams. I might start playing it again just for that.

I plan to upgrade my computer this summer, just to be able to play games that will affect my dreams.
Videogames have seemed like a waste of time to me, since I was about 16.
Then around 20 I realized how beneficial they can be, but I still don't play much at all.
I get bored quick, but play long enough to get something out of them in the dreamworld.

hmm.. one last thing; I only play games when I smoke pot it seems.
Which is not good because pot reduces my power in dreams, makes me not remember them and wakes me up too much to sleep at night.
It still works out in the end though.
/rant

"What happens with gamers is that something inexplicable happens," Gackenbach explained. "They don't run away, they turn and fight back. They're more aggressive than the norms."
Levels of aggression in gamer dreams also included hyper-violence not unlike that of an R-rated movie, as opposed to a non-gamer PG-13 dream.
"If you look at the actual overall amount of aggression, gamers have less aggression in dreams," Gackenbach said. "But when they're aggressive, oh boy, they go off the top."

I like this part. Definitely true in my case at least. A lot of the things I've done to bad guys would never get past the censors! Let's see, there's been punching clean through people, breaking necks, ripping heads apart, burning/electrocuting to a crisp and exploding skulls... to name but a few. I wonder how much of the tendency towards violence comes directly from games. I think it's a similar kind of satisfaction that can be had from tearing someone apart in a dream as from, say, chainsawing someone up in Gears of War. You take the same "Haaaa take that, bitch" attitude.

I play video (consoles and computer) games off and on all day - every day. I haven't been able to experience a lucid dream as of yet. What I have found though, is that I repeatably find myself dreaming about playing the same games allllllllll night long. I'm working so hard to attain lucidity yet. The one thing I can be thankful for is that I never find myself trying to flee from the mobs that I had fought on my video games due to them not ever chasing me or trying to get me in any other matter.