Video games and lucid dreaming?

moved from lab -Q

I read an article for my psychology class that noted some surprising parallels between lucid dreamers and… gamers! That’s right! It seems that we have some things in common, including better spatial awareness, less motion sickness, and more intense focus. It also seems that people who play a lot of video games are more likely to have lucid dreams. :happy:

So, here’s my question… how many of you fellow lucid dreamers out there are also video game fans? I count myself as a part of both groups, but I’m curious to see what other people have to say about it.

Any other thoughts about this? :content:

Well, It’s been a while since I last played a videogame (the last I beat was Assassin’s Creed II), but this is an interesting article. Is there a chance you can find it online?

Anyway, I only had 2 “probably lucid” moments, but they never lasted more than seconds. However, in a different thread here I’ve read that there’s a connection between videogames and 3rd-person-dreams, which are nothing new to me.

I guess I’ll re-install some good, classic videogames in summer, when I have time to play and pracice LDing!^^

Here I’m a lucid dreamer and a video gamer. Now I’m just playing Red Dead Redemption. :content:

I’m a lucid dreamer and a gamer. Though I really don’t like how all of today’s games are pretty much the same… I liked the good old days when instead of talking about Fallout 3 all day people would talk about rumors of Luigi in Super Mario 64.

Anyways, I’ve only had four very small lucid moments in my 2 years of LD’ing but whatever.
Though I’m a (unofficial of course) game developer nowadays.

That’s really interesting! I’m a huge Nintendo fan, and always have been. :content:

Maybe gamers are attracted to LDs because…well, the first time you read about it, you think “hey, this sounds like a virtual reality video game, in your head!” XD You can run, jump, fly…do all the kinds of stuff you love doing in videogames. Dunno. Of course, even for a gamer, there are other reasons. I also think it’s an incredibly deep way of getting to know yourself.

And what you said about spatial awareness and that…it’s really interesting also.

Well the Internet makes it a lot harder for rumors. Well I hope you mean with the same the FPSes, because there are some original games. I doesn’t like however that there are as good as no Platformers.

What games have you made? Would like to know! :smile:

None yet. XD
I’m making my first game right now.
Then I’ll be making a one about Dreaming. Yeah, it’s going to be awesome.

I put that bit in just to get on topic a little.

I wonder if those few years of WoW help me with my quest for Lucidity ;o

Wow, I never expected such a huge surge of replies! This is amazing! :happy:

Absolutely. :content: Here’s the article for anyone who’s interested:
msnbc.msn.com/id/37342086/ns … nce-games/

Exactly! :smile: I’m really into games like Zelda and Okami that give you this huge world to explore, because the dream worlds in my head are so vivid… plus playing the role of the “God” in Okami is pretty cool. You control the world much like you might control elements of a dream.

But like you said, there are so many other reasons, too. I lucid dream to find out more about myself, to exercise creativity, find out how far I can go manipulating my own consciousness, and (believe it or not) to actually get myself to sleep at night. But part of its appeal for me is, like you said, that you can do all these cool video game type things in your own head. And it feels so real!

I guess video games and lucid dreams are both alternate realities… maybe that has something to do with the advanced spatial intelligence, too. Maybe we’re more used to moving things around in our heads, tweaking things without having to hold them in our hands.

Thirded! :content:

I’m a gamer, but not a very avid one: I haven’t felt the need to upgrade consoles since the PS2, and the DS that I used, to play The World Ends With You, Professor Layton, Scribblenauts, and Phoenix Wright, is borrowed.

Lucid dreams are becoming very few and far between for me. I might have video game dreams where I both feel “in” the game doing game-y stuff, and “out” of the game holding the controller, but somehow I’m still in first person (and have never clued in to why my point of view is split like that.)

In the string of video-game themed ND’s I’ve had lately, no matter how pixellated or 2D the original medium was, my dreams tend to smooth them over and flesh them out. I don’t know if that’s a step cloesr to lucidity because of heightened vividness, or a step away because maybe if they remained shoddily rendered, I’d be able to wonder, “Why is he so blurred and boxy? :rc:

Actually, I have that, too! :tongue: I was so surprised the first time I looked at some people’s dream journals online and realized that they don’t usually see themselves in their dreams. I had always been disconnected somehow from my dream self. Kind of like seeing your player in a game, like you said.

i am a huge gamer but i have yet to have a lucid dream last more then a minute, and i have only had 3 of thoese so far

right now i am playing Alan Wake, and i had an “Alan Wake”-ish dream last night and about 10 seconds before i woke up i relizied it was a dream, so im hoping for another tonight, i might be able to get one finally

It’d be interesting to know if this affects different kinds of gamers in different ways. For example, maybe people who mostly play platformers and adventure kind of games have a better grasp on dream exploration, whereas shooter gamers are faster and more focused, and RPG players have this, puzzlers that or the other…

I am definitely a Lucid Gamer! :content:

I find this topic quite interesting. I myself have totally considered what it would be like to venture off into a video game world during a lucid dream. Maybe since lucid dreaming and playing video games have to with exploring, we can see the connection between them? I don’t know if that makes sense but, there you go. :tongue:

(I’m currently playing Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories.)

I play video games every once in while, and i can definitely agree with the fact that dreams are like videos, same action, adventure, and as someone mentioned you usually see yourself in your dream like you see your character in a video game. It wasnt what i was thinking when i found LD4ALL, but i definitely based some LDs on video games.

This is actually really interesting, I just had my 3rd lucid dream last night and had recently moved in with my brother, my bros house is the only place where I had my 3 lucid dreams and is also the only place where I play xbox because I had lent him it, when I went back home and before I moved in I never had any lucid dreams.

When I first heard about lucid dreaming, I had compared it as a mix of Grand Theft Auto along with Prototype when I was explaining it to my friends, in GTA you can go anywhere you want and just about do anything you want but in the game the physics are similar to reality, and in prototype you can jump buildings etc…

Actually, that’s a really interesting point :happy:

I know that sometimes elements of games end up in my dreams… two nights ago in a dream, I explored the world of Okami with a friend of mine. :smile: Exploration and adventure is definitely a big theme for me. And come to think of it, a lot of the games I play are open-ended adventuring ones, too!

What about you guys? Do you think the types of games you play might influence the way you dream?

I’m the same. For me, one of the biggest attractives of LDs is just to explore. Just walk around (or fly I guess XD) and see things, go to places…it’s inside your head, so there’s no end to it! You can constantly see new amazing places. I love Zelda games, or games where you do this kind of “walking around” stuff, apart from fighting or solving puzzles. There’s something very beautiful about exploring your own head while you dream.

I’m a hell of a heavy gamer to day :tongue: spanning the whole range of games. But mostly Nintendo.
I had a lot of 3rd person dreams for a while, until I decided for them to stop. :tongue:
And yes, part of the LD appeal resides in the “game-like virtual personal world” kind of possibility. :colgate:
And I’ve been wanting to visit the world of Okami while lucid for a while now. I’ve already used the paintbrush as a dream power though. ^^