Video games change the way you dream

[Still Waters]

Maybe you're meandering, alone and lost, through an abandoned castle surrounded by a crocodile-filled moat. Suddenly, a flame-breathing dragon hurls towards you, snarling and gnashing its teeth, coming in for the kill. Do you wake up from this bizarro nightmare, covered in sweat and close to tears? Or do you stay in the dream, grab your imaginary sword, and walk boldly into battle?

If your answer is the latter, then Jayne Gackenbach would suspect you're also a hardcore gamer.

http://www.theverge....ffect-on-dreams

[Mr Walker]

Well I' ve done the latter since I was a few years old, but later I became a hard core gamer, writing and playing dungeon and dragon modeules before computer games were invented.

For me, reading and later television, helped me formulate dreamscapes and my interaction with them. I consciously became certain characters like robin hood, Ivanhoe, biggles, captain kirk or superman, Sinbad or the samurai.

Earlier I inhabited realms filled with scenarios from books like the faraway tree, pookie, and the wishing chair; plus comic books.

First the written form of dungeons and dragons (Late 70s/ early eighties), and much later the worlds of azeroth in world of warcraft ,replicated my own creative imagination. To write modules for others to play, I used my knowledge from many sources to recreate realms in which I had lived as a child and an adolescent, but maintained real world realities of rainfall, topography, vegetation and population patterns in an primitive non civilized society.

IN WOW I could recognise how the writers and developers had done the same thing. They included portals between realms which I had used in my dreams from the 1950s onwards and had many other similarities to those dreams. When I rode a Pegasi, cast a spell, or engaged in a sword fight in wow, it was not a new experience. I had been doing these things in my dreams for fifty years, along with many other esoteric forms of entertainment.

So it works both ways. We can feed these things into our imagination, or we can create them from our imagination.

For me my dreamscapes which I had been designing and living in for decades lead me into the world of computer games as they were developed, as did my penchant for reading and writing stories. A good game is an interactive novel A good dream is this, as well as a gaming experience. You can pause, rewind, save etc. In my dreamscape I would chat to that dragon, negotiate a dea,l and have some fun riding him from place to place.

After all he is a denizen of MY dreamscape and thus my creature, despite his desire to act with a will of his own created by my subconscious in him. Personally I like green dragons because they have the nicest personalities, but the red and gold ones make the best "war horses".

I can assure gackenbach that in my case at least, that i was as I am, long before computers and games were invented. I had these characteristics she sees in gamers such as the abilty to create and control lucid dreaming and to be adaptive and creative in real life. I learned how to apply lessons from dreams into real life and over come real life fears and psychological concerns using creative dreaming as a child. I haven't been scared in a dream for fifty years because I always know I am dreaming and that no harm can come to me in a dream. Usually I can alter any dream scenario by an exercise of will, but sometimes it is fun to play a scenario out even if you die in it ,while knowing this is a dream.

Thus I did become very interested and involved in gaming but no more so than in reading, dreaming, and creative imagination Some of the correlation may work the other way. That those of us with certian qualities are drawn to dream to read, to imagine, to create, and also ,in modern times, to play games on computers.

Edited January 25, 2014 by Mr Walker

[DKO]

I remember having many lucid dreams when I was younger, never thought about the video game angle.

[White Crane Feather]

I stopped being anything like a gamer at about 19 thought have had relapses for short times during brake. I was also like MW a role player for a while. The article sort of makes sense to me, but i was experiencing vivid visions long before gameing. I suspect its the gamer not the game. It's the person attracted to the game.

I have allowed games back into my house so that I can train my sons how to be responsible with them and observe their particular tendencies. My two year old has picked up on How to kill the innocent looking monsters on mincraft pocket addition on my boys tablets. I have to say have waffered back and forth on not letting him watch them play, to just letting him do it recognizing these tablet world will be the future, or I have contemplating deleting the whole mess and only aliasing educational games.

My wife and became concerned when my little one was talking about some of this in his sleep. Particularly, in a dream he encountered a spider. I could follow the dream from his mixed up 2.5 year old words. He was calling to his brother to get him a wooden sword, then he defeats the spider and was quite pleased with himself.

The article touched on a note and reality going on in my house currently. I'm not sure what or how I feel about it. It's near impossible to keep my kids away from it, it's everywhere, I don't even know if I should. I'm cautiously moveing forward with this developing new rule for moderation as I go, but I'm still confused as to what course of action to take. I suppose that's why I let it start up anyway, so we can work it out now rather than leaving them to try to integrate when they are older and alone in their own heads. Wish me luck.

Edited January 25, 2014 by White Crane Feather

[spartan max2]

I stopped being anything like a gamer at about 19 thought have had relapses for short times during brake. I was also like MW a role player for a while. The article sort of makes sense to me, but i was experiencing vivid visions long before gameing. I suspect its the gamer not the game. It's the person attracted to the game.

I have allowed games back into my house so that I can train my sons how to be responsible with them and observe their particular tendencies. My two year old has picked up on How to kill the innocent looking monsters on mincraft pocket addition on my boys tablets. I have to say have waffered back and forth on not letting him watch them play, to just letting him do it recognizing these tablet world will be the future, or I have contemplating deleting the whole mess and only aliasing educational games.

My wife and became concerned when my little one was talking about some of this in his sleep. Particularly, in a dream he encountered a spider. I could follow the dream from his mixed up 2.5 year old words. He was calling to his brother to get him a wooden sword, then he defeats the spider and was quite pleased with himself.

The article touched on a note and reality going on in my house currently. I'm not sure what or how I feel about it. It's near impossible to keep my kids away from it, it's everywhere, I don't even know if I should. I'm cautiously moveing forward with this developing new rule for moderation as I go, but I'm still confused as to what course of action to take. I suppose that's why I let it start up anyway, so we can work it out now rather than leaving them to try to integrate when they are older and alone in their own heads. Wish me luck.

I by no means have any kids so my opinion on this might not be the most creditable.

But from my experiences parents shelter kids from things thinking that they are protecting them when in reality it only makes them more vulnerable in the future.

So I just wanted to say that I think your doing the right path with integrating it now rather then sheltering.

[Kazahel]

I've always been a gamer. I'd say if I didn't fit into the 'hardcore gamer' category then I don't know how many more hours I'd have to waste errr train!, in order to. One thing for me though is that pretty much all games I play are FPS games(First Person Shooter). So I've had many strange/lucid dreams of fantastic places with good dream control but I don't think those dreams are coming from any games I've played.

So like Mr Walker was saying in regards to him playing WOW and how we can use those types of games to feed into dreams but they also still come from the imagination. With me I never really played those games much. I remember playing Warcraft 3 but I've never played WOW for example. If you google my name though you'll find a Kazahel that has played WOW but that isn't me nor is it me on twitter and instagram. Any games I'm linked with online are UT2003,UT2004,BF2,BF2142,Quakewars. I use a different gaming name now for BF3 and BF4. But basically I only really play FPS style games with the odd space sim and pinball old school style game thrown in. I don't enjoy RPG/fantasy(role playing) style games. I get bored very quickly unless I am death matching(DM/TDM)online with many players.

One thing I did noticed that transferred over from gaming into dreaming is the chance to respawn after death. I've had dreams where I've died and I've just respawned at a save point slightly before it. I've only done that a couple of times though but its weird when it happens. I agree that it probably helps with nightmares. I rarely have nightmares and if I do they are pretty much along the lines of me losing my son somewhere and I'm trying to find him. To me that is my nightmare and not really anything else. Anything else I try to conquer whatever the fear is and I push my limits. So I don't like the deep dark ocean in real life for example but in lucid dreams I'll swim there to push my limits and over time I am not as unsettled from it.

Anyway coming from a more FPS style gamer for many years, I can see how the games can give you a hunted becomes the hunter style change.

Edited January 26, 2014 by Kazahel

[Crabby Kitten]

I've often been dreaming of taking part in a game.

[McFakename]

I play Grand Theft Auto 5 all the time but I don't dream ever. Well I don't dream or I can't remember if I did dream that night... to me it's the same.

[Mr Walker]

I stopped being anything like a gamer at about 19 thought have had relapses for short times during brake. I was also like MW a role player for a while. The article sort of makes sense to me, but i was experiencing vivid visions long before gameing. I suspect its the gamer not the game. It's the person attracted to the game.

I have allowed games back into my house so that I can train my sons how to be responsible with them and observe their particular tendencies. My two year old has picked up on How to kill the innocent looking monsters on mincraft pocket addition on my boys tablets. I have to say have waffered back and forth on not letting him watch them play, to just letting him do it recognizing these tablet world will be the future, or I have contemplating deleting the whole mess and only aliasing educational games.

My wife and became concerned when my little one was talking about some of this in his sleep. Particularly, in a dream he encountered a spider. I could follow the dream from his mixed up 2.5 year old words. He was calling to his brother to get him a wooden sword, then he defeats the spider and was quite pleased with himself.

The article touched on a note and reality going on in my house currently. I'm not sure what or how I feel about it. It's near impossible to keep my kids away from it, it's everywhere, I don't even know if I should. I'm cautiously moveing forward with this developing new rule for moderation as I go, but I'm still confused as to what course of action to take. I suppose that's why I let it start up anyway, so we can work it out now rather than leaving them to try to integrate when they are older and alone in their own heads. Wish me luck.

If you are going to let them read books or watch tv you might as well let them play games with same caveats. Books and television have exactly the same effect, as you and I probably discovered as kids before internet games were invented; or am I making you too old?

[Mr Walker]

I play Grand Theft Auto 5 all the time but I don't dream ever. Well I don't dream or I can't remember if I did dream that night... to me it's the same.

That's because you are staying up too late playing GTA5 and not getting any sleep its easier to remember dreams if you get a lot of sleep, wake up slowly, and sort of doze in that half dream half awake state. if you aren't getting enough sleep this won't happen.

[White Crane Feather]

If you are going to let them read books or watch tv you might as well let them play games with same caveats. Books and television have exactly the same effect, as you and I probably discovered as kids before internet games were invented; or am I making you too old?

Not at all. That's part of the rules. if they want to earn more time for games, they must read to earn it. My oldest has just started Tom Brown Jr's. "the tracker. "

Edited January 26, 2014 by White Crane Feather

[White Crane Feather]

I by no means have any kids so my opinion on this might not be the most creditable.

But from my experiences parents shelter kids from things thinking that they are protecting them when in reality it only makes them more vulnerable in the future.

So I just wanted to say that I think your doing the right path with integrating it now rather then sheltering.

Thanks. Yes I work with families and have had the benefit of witnessing many many strategies and watching kids grow up with different kinds of parents. I have learned a lot, but I have also learned how easy it is the mess your kids up. It's rough. Every word you say to a child can impact them for life. They are resilient, yet vulnerable, powerful in ways and weak in others. It's a briar patch. I suppose I'm more sensitive to it because I work with kids. Sort of like everything is always wrong with the nurse's kid I suppose.

Edited January 26, 2014 by White Crane Feather