A connection between video games and lucid dreams? As an avid video game enthusiast since I was little, when I came across this research article, I was obviously a little more than slightly interested.
It has been proven that video games have a generally positive effect on cognitive performance, such as increasing reaction times and spatial awareness. Also of interest is the persistence of psychological absorption, which is indicated by altered states of consciousness (i.e. drifting, flying). However, in the research article "Video game play and lucid dreams," published by the American Psychological Association, the author Jayne Gackenbach takes a new approach in analyzing the effects of game play. She claims lucid dreaming to be a kind of "virtual" reality and the key to potentially unlocking higher states of consciousness. Additionally, studies have shown that video game playing has resulted in a higher frequency of lucid dreaming, including both observation and control. In other words, instead of looking at dream content as a function of video games, rather the study looks at the form of dreaming as a function of video game play.
The study involved distributing two self-report questionnaires on college students' video game playing habits. The first questionnaire asked a few questions about video game play and consciousness development in classrooms, while the second questionnaire was basically a more detailed, electronic version of the first. Overall, there were more lucid dreams, more dream control, and more dream observation reported for the more frequent video gamers. However, there was no difference between hardcore gamers and casual gamers on the mystical and psychological absorption scales (or Temperament and Character Inventory), which suggests that wording in the questionnaire may have been a factor.
For a hardcore gamer, this relationship between video games and lucid dreaming is definitely one I would be interested in pursuing at some point. If I were to ever seriously pursue trying to lucid dream, this is the method I would try first.
1 comments:
Do you have a link to this study? The name Jayne Gackenbach sounds familiar.
I have often experienced more vivid dreams in general, not only lucid dreams, after playing games. This especially applies to RPGs and exploration themed games.
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