Video Gamers Can Control Dreams, Study Suggests

I've always had a degree of control over my dreams, something I find that people either can do, or simply cannot. But I've never dreamed of video games, even though I enjoy them. I find them relaxing, especially tactical games like the Total War series.

But I think more over different people have different levels of control.. I had a friend who couldn't ever dream faces.. bizarre, she swore, never in her life, even if it's people she knew, she simply could never dream their faces, they were always blurry. Or the girl im with has absolutely no control over her dreams and can rarely remember them, and the ones she's told me about are off the wall weird.

My dreams are always repetitive, each one slightly different than the last, but following the same story line -- I imagine depending on my mood that day, I don't know. But the study of the unconscious or I should say, subconsciousness, is very intriguing.. what our minds are doing when the master walks away from the controls so to speak.

Before I even read the article, which I most certainly will in a few minutes, I'd like to share that I've been a gamer my whole life. I'm 35 years old and still play video games before bed. I have 2 to 5 dreams each night, and they are usually very vivid. Some are very real. I can read words, numbers and colors are usually vivid. I have always attributed this to always eating right before bed. I had no idea it may be associated with my gaming tendencies.

Great Thread.
LOLOL almost all my dreams are inside a call of duty MW2 map. I dont play that often but when i do its usually related to the game. The dreams are also very lucid and i tend to control my dreams the way I want it to be. Having dreams about video games probably isnt the best, that just shows you how they effect our minds. I curently quit everything T.V related. We need to clear up our minds

~Energy Flows Where Focus Goes~

I posted the same article a couple of days ago:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

It didn't get much attention, but I'm glad to see the topic getting some more discussion. It's really interesting stuff.


TheAssoc.

Same i've had dreams inside the Terminal map of MW2, most of these revolve around me tubing other players and sometimes it turns into a nightmare when a commando-knifer comes round the corner.
Most of my dreams (hundreds per year) are about trains though, go figure?

Sorry for not readin all the pages but its almost 2 am .. just wanted to add my views. Im an xbox gamer and into modern warfare and battlefield style games. Often my dreams after playing the game, i often find myself in a battle field somewhere or doing something with a gun. Ive been shot in my dreams too lol

Originally posted by MikeboydUS
reply to post by Aliensun

 

Some forms of meditation require an external focus.

Yantras and Mandalas are both examples of that. Some meditation requires candles or lights.

The imagery in a video game is light, geometric patterns of light. One might say they are like yantras or mandalas of light.

It seems to me that some people when gaming enter a higher state of conciousness.

They are not awake, dreaming or in deep sleep. The next state of consiousness said by some is "transcendental". I'm not saying games lead to even higher forms like cosmic consciousness, just an altered form thats not standard.

Thank you. Here you really prove my point that you know nothing about higher states of consciousness or TM. Thank you, again.

[edit on 29-5-2010 by Aliensun]

i can never remember my dreams

reply to post by MikeboydUS


I've always had intense dreams having sleep paralysis (my first memory of childhood is an SP episode) latter learning to lucid dream.

So I have always been very aware of my dream state/scape and am also a hardcore gamer.
I'll have a very long game sessions and will continue to strategize and problem solve in the game and playing it out in my sleep with myself being in the actual game world it's self.

It can be kind of thrilling/lightning when you're in a game such as fallout,fear,dead space,COD or really fun and interesting when in a game like Mario or other games of that nature.

It's almost like it's been emended into my brain/sub conscious and eyes,
I'll close my eyes and it's all I can see then it carries over into the dream state.

I always thought I was weird, and a bit obsessive with games at least I know I'm not alone now haha.

Thanks for posting OP.

Originally posted by tetrahedron
Hah this report is definitely true.

When I was younger and went on epic Starcraft runs (6-7 hours), I would close my eyes and see the game being played out. Ditto Call of Duty.

Yeah man. I'd be thinking about starcraft and new stregies in my dreams. Even warcraft 2, command and conquer and other games. I'd be losing or playing a really hard map in real life that i was having difficulty with. I'd fall asleep and test out different strats to win in my sleep. And id test them out in real life and thy would work and i'd win.

But with thte lucids dreams thing, im not sure if its because i used hypnosis to try and hep me control my dreams. Or the large ammount of games i play, but i do control my dreams in a way that if theres a monster, it cant get me, and i can change and twist my dreams around like that....Subconsiously that is...but also sort of consciously... i dont know how.

Weeww..

Ive experience this control of dreams and fighting nightmares/mental trauma..

Sometimes when im dreaming im aware that this is only a dream and i can take control of my actions in my dreams..

one experience in my dream is touching a teet of a girl then i think of myself which part of my bed is this teet.. ^^

YOu might find this interasting then


I had more control over my dreams as a kid then i do now.

I am a pro gamer, and have been for over 4 years now, starting in counter-strike 1.6 and moved onto COD


i played CS for 8 years 6 hours a night.


Still i had more control over my dreams as a k8id, before i layed eyes on video games.

I play video games every night before I go to bed. I play alot of call of duty. When I lay in bed at night I see people thowing gernades at me a stuff it's crazy. But I've been suffering alot of nightmares lately.

reply to post by Aliensun


I'm going off of written material, Hindu, Taoist and Buddhist in origin. Maybe it doesn't conform to your ideas, but I prefer it to any modern New Age/Theosophical concepts.

You know instead of being rather rude, you could be more enlightening. I just don't get why the hostility here.

I kind of agree with this article it seems that whenever I play games for an extended period of time and then go to sleep I have a few dreams. Though when I play for an extended period then usually do a quick work out routine my dreams become sharper. I guess since it's all martial arts practice and mind calming that it helps focus the thoughts for the dream?

Though as of late my sleep time has been rather minimal so it's something I'd have to "look" more into when I know I can get at least 5+ hours of uninterrupted sleep time after playing a game and or exercising.

reply to post by MikeboydUS


I wouldnt worry yourself Mike, its only an unstructured opinion.
I too have found the same as you which makes me write this, I'm 38 now and have also been a gamer for many years, from the Atari 2600 all the way up to PC gaming. Also i became interested in dreams and meanings around 15 years ago too, mainly because in one dream i was shot, i died, everythng went black and faded then i woke up. My whole life has changed for the better since that dream.
I do find i can influence my dreams quite well now, but if i try to influence them too much i wake myself up and the dream stops (obviously!) Also my dreams are always in full color and in first person.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, there is definitely something in this and i find it very interesting.
I would like to add its also bizarre that so many of us who are minded in this way have ended up on ATS where new and different posibilities are discussed all the time, much like alternative realities.

reply to post by MikeboydUS


S&F great read

i consider myself a major gamer, but i dont recall my dreams that well to know if it is true or not, i have alot of nonesense random dreams from what i can remember though

Originally posted by Elijio
This is very interesting, it explains a lot for me. Has anyone had a dream that helped them in a real-life situation? A dream I had the other night helped me to avoid getting hit by a car. I just did what I did in my dream and it worked. Of course I had to deal with people looking at me like wtf? right after, heh.

I had the opposite. I had to not do what I'd done in a dream.

I was badly overtired, and that makes me likely to have detailed dreams I can't distinguish from reality. I'm a clinical masseuse, and knew I had to be up early to treat a patient. Well, I heard the knock, and was at the door. He was a big guy wearing jeans, a bogan shirt and cowboy boots.
- A demanding guy, he said he wanted his back worked on hard, and was sceptical a woman could do anything for him.

Well, I'm stronger than most men, and he hurt my pride. So I got him to lie face down and showed him what I could to.

Bad mistake ...
He squealed like a dying pig, started coughing up blood, and died there right on the massage table in my treatment room. I just wanted to die too, I couldn't believe what I'd done.

And then I was awakened by the alarm. I was at the door waiting when the same guy, in the same clothes, came to the door and delivered the same contemptuous spiel. It was too much for me after the shock I was still recovering from, and I just sat on the table and laughed. When he wanted to know what was so funny, I said, "You already demanded I prove I was strong enough an hour ago, and I killed you, you silly bastard."

I explained, and to my surprise he took me seriously, and let me check him over first, then went to casualty at the nearby hospital and had my findings confirmed. Two ribs were broken over his left lung, and hard pressure from the back could have made them pierce the lung.


And that reminds me of another one.
Again, I was too tired, and expecting someone early. This time it was a new gardener.
I woke in the night and decided I might sleep too long, so I jumped up and put on a track suit so I'd be decent If I was awakened by a knock on the door.

Sure enough I did sleep til he knocked, and was glad to be able to show him the garden and arrange what he'd do straight away. He was a lovely young guy, but looked quite nervous.

After he'd gone, feeling chilly, I wondered when I'd taken my tracky top off; I didn't remember doing that. Then I realised my legs were cold too.

It was no wonder the poor guy had been nervous. I'd only dreamed getting dressed, and the T-shirt I'd slept in did not cover much below the belly button.

Originally posted by MikeboydUS
reply to post by Aliensun

 

I'm going off of written material, Hindu, Taoist and Buddhist in origin. Maybe it doesn't conform to your ideas, but I prefer it to any modern New Age/Theosophical concepts.

You know instead of being rather rude, you could be more enlightening. I just don't get why the hostility here.

Funnily enough, having TM experiences generally stops people from being hostile. Perhaps Aliensun's knowledge comes from reading too.

Oblivion is a great game. Isn't there a sequel coming out?
Though I'll be waiting a bit for some of the brilliant, fan-made add-ons.

When I'm playing anything to a significant extent, I find I sleep so soundly I'm refreshed after 6 hours instead of eight ... which makes time for me to play.

I get 2 main types of dreams from playing. One where I'm playing and come up with ideas for the game in my sleep - I've built a few good Magic decks that way, and the other where I'm involved in cataclysmic events and heroically save my friends and whatever the bad guys are attacking.

Pretty juvenile for a grandmother, but it keeps a smile on my face.

not necessarily lucid, but i can still beat mario in MY dreams