Isaac Peterson

December 5, 2016
Introduction to Psychology:
Professor Weaver
Video Games and Lucid Dreaming
Lucid dreams can be defined as dreams where the person is aware that he or she is
dreaming while the dream is occurring. Lucid dreamers are able to control and steer the action of
their dreams, creating a sort of alternate reality. When lucid dreaming, the body shuts down, but
the mind is still awake. In order to achieve dream lucidity, one usually must go through sleep
paralysis. During REM sleep, the brain shuts off stimulation to the major muscle groups in what
is known as REM atonia, or sleep paralysis. This is a natural occurrence that keeps us from
acting out our dreams. However, there are times when this state can turn into Aware Sleep
Paralysis (ASP), a condition in which a person becomes conscious while their body is
immobilized. During this state, the mind creates both visual and mental hallucinations, most of
which tend to be unpleasant. However, if one can remain calm and come to the realization that
what they sense during sleep paralysis is simply a dream, this can be turned into a lucid dream.
Since I learned about the phenomenon of lucid dreaming, I have been fascinated by the
thought of being able to control my dreams. Most nights, I am fortunate if I can remember any of
the dreams that I experience. However, my friend has described instances where she is able to
lucid dream with ease. She is also an avid gamer. I have recently toyed with the idea of lucid
dreams being influenced by video game play. Since what is experienced in video games is a sort
of virtual reality, it is easy to see how long periods of exposure to them can cause someone to

picture associated images in their sleep and experience lucidity. If I play more video games, am I
more likely to experience a lucid dream? I consider myself to be an avid gamer as well; however,
I do not experience lucid dreams like my friend. For these reasons, I would like to study the
relationship between video gaming and lucid dreaming to answer this question and determine if
long hours of gameplay make one more prone to experience lucid dreams, or if there are other
factors involved.
The study I considered for this task is a study by Jayne Gackenbach titled Electronic
media and lucid-control dreams: Morning after reports. The objective of this study was to
determine if an increased use of electronically mediated communication devices, especially
virtual immersion/interactivity experiences, would be associated with more lucid/control
dreaming. The study was conducted over the course of a year using 890 college students who
each filled out a questionnaire. In this questionnaire, participants were asked to recall their most
recent dream. Most of the participants were women, with 249 men and 10 with no sex identifier.
Forty-two percent were 19 years of age or younger, and 45% were 20 to 25 years of age. All of
them were undergraduate students enrolled in psychology and sociology courses at a western
Canadian college.
The study focused specifically on collecting information about the participants dream
from the night just previous to filling out the questionnaire. Questionnaires were only used if the
dream occurred last night and the participant had been well rested. Out of 890 submissions,
only 152 met these criteria. The findings show that engagement with technologically
constructed realities, as found in today's electronic media, offers experience with different
realities that may be generalized to another daily alternative reality, nighttime dreams
(Gackenbach, 2009). This study suggests that lucid and control dreams were associated with all

media use as well as gaming history, but especially with interactive media use experiences. Thus,
this study further supports the hypothesis that daytime exposure to virtual reality through
electronic media is associated with important dream structure variables, lucidity, and control.
Gackenbach does point out, however, that more work is needed to determine if electronic media
immersion and interactivity causes these dreams or if there is something else accounting for this
affect.
Introduction to the Study
I would like to look at the same topic with a slightly different focus. My question is this:
are high-end gamers more likely to experience lucid dreams than low-end gamers? This will be a
difficult area to test because there are many confounding variables, as there are many factors that
can cause a lucid dream. However, I think it is possible if I look solely at the comparison in the
dream lucidity of heavy gamers and light gamers. I believe that the more video games a person
plays, the more likely they are to experience lucid dreams. While I would like to look at all
factors that play into lucid dreaming, the number is too great and would require several studies.
Methods
In order to run this study, I will collect data from a large, random sample size of around
8,000 people, aged anywhere from 10 to 20, over the course of a full calendar year. The reason
for this large group of teenagers is because children and teenagers are more likely to have lucid
dreams, and many teenagers immerse themselves daily in some form of video gaming.
Participants will be asked to complete a small questionnaire in which they report their average
hours spent playing video games each day. Participants will also be asked to recall their most
recent dream. In addition, the questionnaire will ask for other general information such as age,

gender, lifestyle, and the average amount of sleep the respondent gets each night. The reason I
have chosen these questions is in case confounds arise; for example, someone may have a lucid
dream as a result of an impactful experience rather than excessive video gaming. From here, I
would have a control group, those who do not play video games, and an experimental group,
those who play video games.
The independent variable in this experiment is the number of hours the participant spends
playing video games on a daily basis, and the dependent variable is whether the participant
experiences a lucid dream. I will measure the number of hours the participant spends gaming
through their response to the questionnaire, which will also ask the participant to recall their
most recent dream. I will then run P and T tests to determine if the numbers are statistically
significant.
Discussion/Conclusion
I have hypothesized that those who play more video games are more likely to experience
a lucid dream than those who play less. While I believe this to be a well-designed study, there are
definitely confounding variables that could cause problems with the data. One of these is what I
previously mentioned, which is an impactful experience. For instance, someone may experience
a lucid dream not from long hours of video game play, but from some experience that made an
impression on their mind, such as a first day of school. There is also the impact that other forms
of electronic media could have on dream lucidity. Another confound that is important to
recognize is the ability to induce a lucid dream by forcing oneself into sleep paralysis. Perhaps
the most obvious confound that could occur is inaccurate reporting. While I could try to
eliminate many of these through the questions in the survey, it is difficult to completely get rid of
all confounds. Finally, I cannot prove why lucid dreams might be induced by video game play,

only that there is a correlation. For this reason, additional studies and research would have to be
done on this topic.

References
Gackenbach, J. (2009, March). Electronic media and lucid-control dreams: Morning after
reports. Retrieved December 6, 2016, from http://0search.proquest.com.library.svsu.edu/psycinfo/docview/614497103/fulltext/342B96D154
FE461FPQ/1?accountid=960