Study: Gamers Have Control Over Their Dreams

I’ve sometimes had stuff on here under the “Keen Dreams” title, which goes in to how I often dream about video games as well as going into detail about what the dream was about.

I’ve read several posts over the past week talking about some study that was undertaken which apparently came to the conclusion that gamers have some of the best dreams – mainly because they are able to have some sort of control over what happens in them.

They claim that gamers can control events that happen in the dream or nightmare, and in the case of being chased or hunted by something, they can even “turn the tables” and assume control and start directing and even dictating what happens. This is because we’re actually more aware that we are dreaming, and perhaps lose some of our fear and fight back. Apparently spending hours in a virtual world, playing games, is like preparation. We’ve been labelled the “dream warriors” and excel in what is called “lucid dreaming”.

And the chances of you dreaming about games increase if you do it just before bed, so they say.

I have noticed this myself over the years. When I was young I would often flee in my dreams and fly up into the air and away. But nowadays, when I occasionally do dream or have nightmares, especially during a bad night’s sleep and waking up every few hours or so [more chance of REM which induces dreams, I reckon], I’ve found that I not only dream about games, but that I can also take control and act more like I would in a game I suppose.

You can’t always run away.

At any rate, it’s a refreshing thing to see after having seen so many “studies” and theories that suggest that gaming is bad. Now you know what to do when your kid has nightmares or complains about a monster under the bed: get them to a PC or video game console post-haste, and fire up a game.

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Sources: Video gamers can control dreams, study hints [MSNBC]

Study: Gamers Have Control Over Their Dreams