Gamer Dreams Content Relevant to Consciousness in Sleep Alexis Zederayko University 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

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”

Chi-Squared Test

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

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

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

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

Chi-Squared Test *not significant

Chi-Squared Test

Factor Analysis - varimax rotation Variables1234 words in dream (hi is lot) palpable recoded (hi is lot) balance emotions (hi is lot) video game dreams (hi is lot) media dreams (hi is lot) lucid dreams (hi is lot) sense of self location in dream (hi is watcher & lo is self in body) emotions of watcher in dream (hi neutral) mean of control variables ((hi is lot)

References Gackenbach, J. (1988). The Psychological Content of Lucid versus Nonlucid Dreams. In Psychological Content, (pp ). 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),