# Lucid Dreaming > Dream Control >  >  Video Gamers Can Control Dreams

## Goldy

> Playing video games before bedtime may give people an unusual level of awareness and control in their dreams, LiveScience has learned.



I saw this study in the news today, looks like I'l be gaming allot harder before bed.

http://www.livescience.com/culture/v...ms-100525.html

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## XeL

Very interesting! Thanks for the link.

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## ClearView

Now I have an excuse to tell my mom that I'm getting clips for a montage before going to bed.. MUAHHAHAAHAHHA

-CV

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## Lucid-Balloon

Maybe i should start playing on my Xbox 360 before going to bed.

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## Cochise

videogames had a strange effect on my dreams... i had lots of non lucids were i would roam around, controlling my movements by thinking in videogame terms (i could feel a xbox controller in my hands actually, and would use the buttons as if im gaming...) To some point, i think my mind thinks its playing the game because i usually realise its a dream when I realise that "this thing cant happen in this game"

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## NeoDreamer

Wow, this is really interesting! I will try it, thanks for the link!  ::D:

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## VincentNex

Well I did one have a dream that I was in a game of mine after having played it for most of a day.

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## Maria92

I have been playing a lot of video games (mostly Halo 2 and Prototype for the computer), and I've noticed I've had more detailed dreams and better recall.  ::teeth::

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## uberyoshi

The more excuses to play videogames, the better  ::D: 

In a slightly less related note...





> (mostly Halo 2 and Prototype for the computer)



Did I just find a fellow halo 2 PC player? Wanna play some time?  ::D:

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## Maria92

> Did I just find a fellow halo 2 PC player? Wanna play some time?



I'd love to, but there's just one problem...I'm kind of a pirate, and at the moment, the haxxing technology isn't great enough to work around Windows LIVE, so I'm kinda stuck with a local profile.  :Sad:

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## uberyoshi

> I'd love to, but there's just one problem...I'm kind of a pirate, and at the moment, the haxxing technology isn't great enough to work around Windows LIVE, so I'm kinda stuck with a local profile.



That's unfortunate... Well, at least you can still enjoy the campaign  :smiley:

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## Maria92

> That's unfortunate... Well, at least you can still enjoy the campaign



Aye. The campaign is pretty epic. And the first Halo game has working multiplayer...which I suck at, but is still fun. And the Custom Edition lets you do just about anything you can think of. ^_^

Also, epic avatar. TARDIS, right?

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## uberyoshi

> Also, epic avatar. TARDIS, right?



Yep  ::D: 

Yours is awesome too, I'm assuming you made it?

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## Baron Samedi

Video games mirror lucid dreams.

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## Maria92

> Yep 
> 
> Yours is awesome too, I'm assuming you made it?



Aye. Photoshop CS4. Just cracked CS5 and haven't played around with it much...it may be time for a new one, methinks.  :Thinking:

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## LiveInTheDream

I sure can testify that video games improve dream control! I don't know how many times I've initially had trouble controlling a dream in some way, then remembering a similar thing done in a video game, and just trying to do that thing from the game, which always results in instant success.

It seems to me it's a matter of conditioning your mind to accept that you can do unnatural things, actually. Maybe the article already said that...I didn't get a chance to read the whole thing :\

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## Jamal

It's funny... I was playing a modded version of Half life 2 called "Garry's Mod" and it carried on into the dream. In this mod you can do a bunch of science experiments and exercise a lot of control over your surroundings. I have a feeling this particular game and other games like it would be excellent for aiding dream control. A high lvl of interactivity is what makes it so close to a dream.

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## LiveInTheDream

I agree. The other night I was dreaming that I was doing one of those physics demo things...and everything had proper physical properties, because I've done physics demos on my PC/Wii before.

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## LedZeppelin68

I agree, there's a certain video game I play on the computer, used to be almost obsessed with it, not as much lately.  Back when I was really heavy into it, I would have about 2 dreams a week involving things from that exact video game, all kinds of things from the dream incorporated into it, because I was playing about 4-5 hours a day, and most of my thoughts were about the game.

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## tommo

The article says that gamers are more likely to have dreams from a third person perspective.  I'm assuming not people that play FPS's.  I can attest to that, whenever I'm playing third person perspective games I dream viewing myself from outside my body a lot.
Or maybe it's all games.  Not really sure.  Haven't played games for a while but I just got bioshock 2 so maybe tonight I can test this lol

Also I think it would be easy to WILD after playing games a lot too because if I play for hours straight I close my eyes and am basically playing the game again.  I've only tried to make this in to a dream once, but it was at night, not through WBTB.  So it didn't work.

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## rifyraina

Yes this is fact think because some gaming crazy people fell this very well, it,s like fall in dream with games and you can controls it with your own, and most of my thoughts were about the game. and I am Playing 2to 3 time in a day.

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## Maria92

If regular gamers can control lucid dreams better, how about game modders? The people who custom-build game levels and bend them to their will?  :Thinking:

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## no_limits

I sometimes dream as if I'm playing CoD or Halo. Like I'm walking around but I have a HUD in my vision. Either that or I'm half sitting down with the controller in my hands and half INSIDE the actually game. As if I'm controlling myself :S

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## slash112

Hm.
I have had the impression that games have been fucking my lucid dreams up.

Like, if I turn into Iron Man, I automatically see it as if it is just a game. It really is shit. 3rd person, and it feels like I am controlling it remotely, rather than moving my body and the suit responds.
Basically, what I was wanting was for it to feel like I was in the suit, and I had the point of view of being inside the suit. And have it controlled the way it should be.

I know I can improve it, but if it wasn't for games, it wouldn't be my "default" thing.


I'm not saying that games aren't a good thing for LDing in general. I'm just saying that they are mind fucking me. (I don't care though, lol. I'll still play them  :tongue2: )

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## Reinhardt

This sounds awesome, cuz I play Battlefield Bad company 2 online and experience alot of real warfare dreams very vivdly! Can i do reality checks every 10 minutes while playing games before bed and maybe it will help me get lucid??? awaiting reply thx

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## maddietreays

ahaha, yeah, video gaming before bed really does mess your mind up. my psychiatrist told me video gaming and watching movies, or any kind of video stimulation can mess your dreams up. x3

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## HumanNoMore

Interesting... I game quite a bit, although recently not as much as I used to... Maybe I should more  :smiley:

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## kevojy

Hmm I've kind of stopped gaming, just haven't had time recently. But I've been thinking of starting a new one, I think I will after reading this  ::D: 

I can remember a few months ago when I was really into Mass Effect 2 I had a couple dreams were I was commander Shepherd lol.. So fun :bravo:

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## jimmychoo

While you play, the rest of your mind can be a blissful blank.

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## SurrealReality

this is actually true, back in the days when i played cod 2 on a professional level and we trained strategies for 6-8 hours per day I remember me gliding into lucid dreams very easily. I would usually imagine the map we were practicing and just walk around remembering every detail, every move, every position. The next day I would wake up and know the map a lot better and my movement within the map would be incredible. Imagine knowing a place like your own room. Every little edge, crack, hole and so on.... Maybe that was the reason I was able to compete on such a high level...

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## Theme

This is a pretty dubious study guys. I mean it says so itself it only suggests. At one point it says "whether honed through lucidity-training activities, such as meditation, or through hours spent fighting virtual enemies to reach the next level in a game." Must be the games. And on top of all that, a second study found the opposite "A second study tried to narrow down the uncertainties by examining dreams that participants experienced from the night before, and focused more on gamers. It found that lucid dreams were common, but that the gamers never had dream control over anything beyond their dream selves." Even if we disreguard all of this, lucid dreaming didnt become a global phenomenon overnight when gaming was created. If we look at how the study was done aswell, it was all feedback from the participants. This is highly unreliable on top of that fact it's dreams they are remembering. 

Let's just say I'm sceptical of this study.

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## tommo

Yes that would work reinhardt.

Also I found out that in my dreams I would have an item menu lol and I was contorlling in third person sort of thing.  This is after playing Dragon Age Origins.  Even after the first day playing I had these dreams.  Strange.  I think first person games might be a bit better.

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## tommo

Theme - You're missing the point entirely.  You could easily use your gaming dreams to become lucid through persistent reality checking when playing games IRL.

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## Theme

Perhaps you could do that, but it is nothing ike what this article is saying.

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## tommo

Yeah maybe technically this article could be misunderstood.  I don't think games = lucid dreams.  But games does definitely = control over dreams.  Even though you may not know you are dreaming, hence not a lucid dream.

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## Wristblade56

Awesome! I'm completely addicted to videogames, and it started when i was a little kid. I don't remember having a nightmare in at least a year. Now I know why. Also I've noticed I get angry very easily in dreams, cuss people out, and other stuff I try very hard not to do in RL. I wonder if it's different depending on what games you play, like if you play non-violent games then maybe you won't act violent in dreams. Something to think about.

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## TheOneirologist

This sounds great to me!  I've noticed that a ton of my dreams involve characters from games or TV.  Hmm...I wonder what would happen if you designed a game online that somehow related to lucidity, then played it at least once a day?  If anyone has actually bothered to do this, could I play the game?

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## tommo

Ah I know!  I want someone to make a lucid dreaming game too.  I find watching movies/tv shows to do with dreaming does help.  House is a good one, there's at least 4 episodes that have something to do with lucidity, although sometimes it involves hallucinations and not actual dreams but still it gets you in that mind state.

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## TheOneirologist

I know a site where I could create a lucid level.  In fact, I'll start working on one today.  I'll post a link when it's finished!  ::biggrin::

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## TheOneirologist

Well, that was quick.  Please try the level, reading the signs and penguins (don't ask, you'll see) as you go.  Go to this site and click on the level called "Lucidity Assist."  Tell me if anyone has success with it!
http://runouw.com/viewprofile.php?name=ManBoy

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## Zellpheo

> Well, that was quick.  Please try the level, reading the signs and penguins (don't ask, you'll see) as you go.  Go to this site and click on the level called "Lucidity Assist."  Tell me if anyone has success with it!
> Runouw's Website - Flash games by Runouw



Yea, it works, Its very cool, i somehow got stuck inside the letter D =p
Im going to bed now, seeing that ive been up for 30 hours, Going to possibly try to lucid, If I end up Dreaming about this level I'm pretty sure I'll laugh out loud.

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## TheOneirologist

Yeah... the penguins bump you around because they were meant to be obstacles.  Try not to touch them or you might not make it to the end of the level.  If you get a running start and press down, you can duck under them.

...WHOA!  You stayed up for 30 hours?!?

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## tommo

INCEPTION: MIND CRIME

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## Muloc7253

I used to have a Superman game for N64. It sucked.

BUT one night I awoke during a phase of sleep paralysis and whilst trying to dissasosiate myself (actually for astral projection, but some people here might consider astral projections as lucid dreams) I imagined flying round in the same way as that game. You could flip upside down and whip under bridges and stuff and due to being used to playing the game it made the mental simulation really easily.

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## goodkat

Interesting but I'm not entirely sure how much of it is accurate. I've been playing video games for nearly my entire life and I put many hours of my day into playing video games, I'd like to think that I actually play more then your average gamer, I haven't noticed any gain in lucid dreaming from playing games, infact I've noticed quite the opposite. I've had so many chances of becoming lucid in many dreams which I did not because I took silly things as reality because silly things as such actually happen in my waking life of playing video games.

With that being said, maybe its just my problem. If so, I suppose I should rather get into believing it does help with all the gaming I do, rather then the opposite. Perhaps that alone would give me more chances of becoming lucid.

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## ooflendoodle

I stayed up all night with my friend one time so we went to church and they started playing a really soft song and we had been playing video games all that night so I started nodding off then when my head started falling I would wake up (it's really funny to watch my friend was doing it too). When I would wake up I found my left finger twitching like I was hitting R2 on the playstation lol

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## Wonderbread

This is *very* interesting, as I pretty much end every night with playing Modern Warfare 2 with my friends. And I have looked through my DJ and found that I tend to see Call of Duty or something to do with it in most of my dreams. Also Starcraft 2 since I have been playing that  :wink2:

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## Reinhardt

> This is *very* interesting, as I pretty much end every night with playing Modern Warfare 2 with my friends. And I have looked through my DJ and found that I tend to see Call of Duty or something to do with it in most of my dreams. Also Starcraft 2 since I have been playing that



Haha yea, i had a dream last night where I can use the "Blink" teleportation ability of the stalker in real life but it was obviously a dream  :tongue2:  Wasn't lucid but it was pretty cool though.

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## L33tsaber

Huh.  I game a heck of a lot, yet I still fail at gaining lucidity and control.  Though I suppose I mostly play for story, so the whole suspension-of-disbelief thing might factor into it.  Especially when Hideo Kojima's involved.

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## Spectrum

Well this is interesting.  Perhaps i can channel my street fighter addiction into something useful after all.

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## TheOneirologist

> I know a site where I could create a lucid level.  In fact, I'll start working on one today.  I'll post a link when it's finished!



I rechecked the website... it seems that the moderator deleted the level.  However, I still have the code if anyone wants it.

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## ultimatedood

Damn. I don't game though.

My friend, a complete xbox360 addict, once had a dream he was playing halo reach. He wasn't IN the game, he was sitting on his bed where he normally plays, and was PLAYING halo reach with a controller.

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## jmanjohn

Its true about games causeing better control. But i keep dreaming about mw2. I have got to stop playing that game. Every night this week i've had some part of mw2 in my dreams. Its annoying. Freaking favela keeps coming up. GO AWAY MW2 YOU KEEP INTERFERING

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## Lucid-Balloon

Last night while i was playing GTA 4 before i was to go to sleep, i played it in my dream.

It was virtually the same, although the camera angle on the cars were quite different.

Unfortunately it did not help me become lucid  :Sad:

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## Maria92

I've noticed that, as of late, I've been using a keyboard/mouse combo in some of my nonlucids to control things. Also a huge spike in Halo-related dreams, which are usually fun or at least interesting.

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## heroleon

My first realization of being in control of my dream involved counterstrike which suddenly turned lucid. gamers do have more control.

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## Raspberry

*Go plays on ps3*

 ::D:

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## J.D.

I was thinking about this article earlier and it occurred to me that this could very easily have been presented in a very different light!  I mean, violent video games get enough bad press as it is, but imagine if the headline read: "Video-gamers act out gruesome fantasy murders in their dreams"  :Oh noes:  There's a very positive spin on it in the article, and I'm glad!

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## Specter117

I haven't been very successful with LDing yet, but I can say I am quite an avid gamer and do have a good dream recall.  I only started keeping a dream journal last night, but even before then I could remember at least a small part of a dream (or at least remember I had a dream) just about every single night.

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## matthew123

i tried playing video games right before bed in a dream i did an RC and Bam lucid but sadly i closed my eyes after and it went into a false awakening in fact i had 3 of them after playing video games before bed and only caught one of them

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## Waterknight

In one dream once I did a Kingdom hearts 2 reaction command to get into a hole has a vampire from michigan crashed the table I was under thus creating my escape hole at the same time.

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## thomas79

This makes total sense!!! I've tried LD for years and wasn't able to. For the last 2 weeks I've been playing Starcraft 2 everynight before I went to bed, and last night, I had my first LD!!! It started with me being on the battlefield of Starcraft 2.Thanks for the link!

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