Gamer Dreams Content Relevant to Consciousness in

Sleep

Alexis ZederaykoUniversity of Alberta

The Interviews

• Content analysis of 56 dreams collected from 27 high-end video game players

• Interview contained questions such as:

Do video games come up in your dreams? If so how?

Tell me your most recent dream. a. When did you have this dream? Were

video games in some way part of the dream? Was it lucid? Could you control it? Were you watching the action?

Tell me your most recent dream which in some way included video games.

a. When did you have this dream? Was it lucid? Could you control it? Were you watching the

action?

• Prompts: an advantage of interviews

Expected results

• Higher control of dreams (Gackenbach, 2006)

• Greater physical sensation (Gackenbach, 1988)

The Scale

• Coding was based on interview questions and further elaborated, drawing upon the literature of dream lucidity and control

• Content analysis included scales for:

- palpable sensations

- balance

- video game or media content

- lucidity

- control

- observer perspective

Employing the Scale

• Only the descriptions of the dream itself were scored

• Lucidity was not assumed

Scale Dimensions

• Subject #028: Simultaneously participating and watching the action

Daniel: It was like there was a camera in my house and I was watching it from the camera.

Jayne: Were you also in your body?Daniel: Yeah, kind of both. When I woke up I knew it was

supposed to be a dream like I knew it should be a dream but while I was dreaming it I guess I didn’t know I just thought that was the normal way that you see things because you’re asleep and you really don’t know…The person watching has no real feelings, like holy crap he’s dead kind of feelings but sort of laughing. The person watching would have the feelings of my friend if I told my friend, those feelings like kinda laughing and you’re screwed kind of thing. But the person inside: really mad

Coded as “3” on variable “SELFLO”

Chi-Squared Test

Self Location (Point of View)

05

1015202530354045

primarily in thedream ego

flipped back andforth betweenthe dream egoand watcher

both in thedream ego and

in the watcher atonce

primarily in thewatcher

# o

f D

ream

s

Scale Dimensions

• Subject #017: Video game reference

Craig: I had played a game called Bomber Man where you just run around and put bombs down and explode areas so that you can leap past and there’s like monsters running around that can kill you or you have to blow them up and I remember in the dream I was down like in 3D I was the bomber man type guy and there were these monsters on these blocks and I was running around and my whole family was there actually and we were running away from them as fast as we could.

Coded as “1” on variable “VIDEO”

Video Game Content

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

yes unsure no

# of obse

rvat

ions

Chi-Squared Test

Chi-Squared Test

Media Content

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

yes unsure no

# o

f D

ream

s

Scale Dimensions

• Subject #014: Lucidity triggered by an event

Michael: Well, once Jean Grey got loose and started killing people, I was like this is really weird this is

probably a dream and it was like right after that she showed up and I told myself that I need to wake up. I thought that something bad was supposed to happen and I didn’t want it to happen so I should wake up.

Coded as “1” on variable “LUCID” and as “1” on variable LUEMER1

Chi-Squared Test

Lucidity

0

10

20

30

40

50

yes unsure no

# o

f D

ream

s

Scale Dimensions

• Subject #030: Emotional involvement in dream action

Tom: I remember this one time I was in the river valley in the trees and it’s kind of similar to Edmonton but it’s not like the mountains there’s not pine trees or whatever and five guys kind of came up on me and I got freaked out because they were going to jump me or whatever and I was punching them and killing them and then I was like oh what did I do and I was trying to bury the bodies and stuff

Coded as “1” on variable “WATCHEMO”

Scale Dimensions

• Subject #027: Emotional involvement in dream action

Jayne: Okay, were you afraid in the dream?

Jacob: No no I was just kinda like oh that’s kind of interesting but nothing really… not really afraid of it I was kinda just like oh okay

Coded as “2” on variable “WATCHEMO”

Chi-Squared Test

Watcher Emotions

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Emotionally involved inthe dream action

Neutral or uninvolved inthe dream action

No reference

# o

f D

ream

s

Scale Dimensions

• Subject #007: Palpable sensations

James: “one dream I was running away from I don’t even know what it was but then Donkey Kong just appears with a mallet and hits me with it over the head.”

Coded as “1” on variable “Palpa”

Chi-Squared Test

Palpable Sensations

05

101520253035404550

Present Unsure Absent (no reference)

# o

f D

ream

s

Scale Dimensions

• Subject # 002: Control

Steve: I’m back in high school and I can’t open my locker, I can’t remember the combination and I’m not sure where I’m supposed to be.

Coded as “2” on variable “CONSEL”, “1” on variable “CONEV”, and “1” on variable “CONSCE”

Chi-Squared Test

Control of Self

05

1015202530354045

no mention low medium high

# o

f D

ream

s

Chi-Squared Test *not significant

Control of Events

0

5

10

15

20

no mention none low medium high

# o

f D

ream

s

Chi-Squared Test

Control of Characters

0

5

10

15

20

25

no mention none low medium high

# o

f D

ream

s

Chi-Squared Test

Control of Scenery

0

5

10

15

20

25

no mention none low medium high

# o

f D

ream

s

Chi-Squared Test

Balance of Emotions

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

present (calm) unsure absent (any kind ofemotion even

mixed)

no reference Total

# o

bs

erv

ati

on

s

Factor Analysis - varimax rotation

Variables 1 2 3 4

words in dream (hi is lot) .071 .789 .283 .095

palpable recoded (hi is lot) .187 .669 -.115 -.517

balance emotions (hi is lot) .889 .045 .213 .096

video game dreams (hi is lot) -.454 .306 .517 -.121

media dreams (hi is lot) .203 -.124 .785 .003

lucid dreams (hi is lot) -.079 .714 .027 .262

sense of self location in dream (hi is watcher & lo is self in body)

.026 .206 -.131 .869

emotions of watcher in dream (hi neutral) .945 .076 -.048 -.156

mean of control variables ((hi is lot) -.016 .377 .659 -.096

References

• Gackenbach, J. (1988). The Psychological Content of Lucid versus Nonlucid Dreams. In Psychological Content, (pp. 181-219). New York: Plenum.

• Gackenbach, J.I. (2006). Video game play and lucid dreams: Implications for the development of consciousness. Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams, 16(2), 96-110.