• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Dream study

Status
Not open for further replies.

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
I saw the other psychology thread on here and it reminded me of something I've been meaning to post for awhile now. A friend of mine who is an avid gamer says that she read a study that researchers are conducting that says that gamers are actually becoming capable of CONTROLLING their dreams. They don't just live out the dreams, as many people do, but they actually control them.

I found this really weird and highly unlikely, but have had a few friends, who are all gamers, tell me that they've had instances like that. Most non-gamers can't do it. I've noticed some recurring dreams, just ones that are cool, but nothin big.

But last night I'm sitting there dreaming. I'm in a dream football game, playing Tight End for Baylor in one of their 'NCAA Classics' that's showcased on NCAA Football 2005. At least I think it's baylor, cuz the uniforms are blue and white, and that's what my 'teammate' told me in the dream, hahha. The strange thing is that, when I was in the dream, it was like I was trying to learn the controls of a new video game or something. When the QB snapped the ball, I looked around and didn't move until I decided to start running my route. We lost the game, but the strangest part yet happened in the locker room. I was telling myself in the locker room that it was just a dream while I was in my dream, and people there acknowledged it. So then I concentrated, closed my eyes in my dream, told myself to wake up, and then I was awake sitting in my bed. This was some seriously freaky shit and has had me thinking all day that maybe those studies are correct.

Anyone else experienced anything like this? You should try it next time you have a dream... it's really crazy. It's just that the study revealed something about greater control of the shit your brain usually does subconsciously by those who constantly use their brain via videogames (because gamers, I guess, use their brain more often and more variantly than most people do).

Weird shit. Thought I'd bring it up and see if anyone else has experienced stuff like this.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
whytemyke said:
I saw the other psychology thread on here and it reminded me of something I've been meaning to post for awhile now. A friend of mine who is an avid gamer says that she read a study that researchers are conducting that says that gamers are actually becoming capable of CONTROLLING their dreams. They don't just live out the dreams, as many people do, but they actually control them.

I found this really weird and highly unlikely, but have had a few friends, who are all gamers, tell me that they've had instances like that. Most non-gamers can't do it. I've noticed some recurring dreams, just ones that are cool, but nothin big.

But last night I'm sitting there dreaming. I'm in a dream football game, playing Tight End for Baylor in one of their 'NCAA Classics' that's showcased on NCAA Football 2005. At least I think it's baylor, cuz the uniforms are blue and white, and that's what my 'teammate' told me in the dream, hahha. The strange thing is that, when I was in the dream, it was like I was trying to learn the controls of a new video game or something. When the QB snapped the ball, I looked around and didn't move until I decided to start running my route. We lost the game, but the strangest part yet happened in the locker room. I was telling myself in the locker room that it was just a dream while I was in my dream, and people there acknowledged it. So then I concentrated, closed my eyes in my dream, told myself to wake up, and then I was awake sitting in my bed. This was some seriously freaky shit and has had me thinking all day that maybe those studies are correct.

Anyone else experienced anything like this? You should try it next time you have a dream... it's really crazy. It's just that the study revealed something about greater control of the shit your brain usually does subconsciously by those who constantly use their brain via videogames (because gamers, I guess, use their brain more often and more variantly than most people do).

Weird shit. Thought I'd bring it up and see if anyone else has experienced stuff like this.

It's called lucid dreaming. Not exclusive to gamers. Been going on for ages. I love it when it happens. ^_^
 
The freakiest thing that happens to me, is I'll realize in a lucid dream that it's just a dream, then I'll go do something crazy like jump off a building, and then on my way down I'll have the thought "oh fuck, what if it really WASN'T a dream?!" and start freaking out.
 
That happens to me all the time. I used to realize i was dreaming, and if the dream was boring, i would jump in front of a car to wake myself up, knowing the nature of dreams and how you tend to wake up when something bad happens. That worked for a while, but then the cars started swerving out of the way, and i had to get more creative to wake up. Then my dreams started to do the 'dream within a dream' thing, where you supposedly wake up but are still asleep.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Mega Man's Electric Sheep said:
That happens to me all the time. I used to realize i was dreaming, and if the dream was boring, i would jump in front of a car to wake myself up, knowing the nature of dreams and how you tend to wake up when something bad happens. That worked for a while, but then the cars started swerving out of the way, and i had to get more creative to wake up. Then my dreams started to do the 'dream within a dream' thing, where you supposedly wake up but are still asleep.

Moral of the post: Dreams are awesome, yet freaky at the same time.
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
This is a semi-related subject I suppose.

Does anybody else, while dreaming, "trip" and have a fucked up spasm, immediately waking up?

It happens rather often with me, about once a month, that I'll have a small fall in a dream. Tripping over a curb, for example. And all of a sudden, I'm awake, frantically regain my balance while laying down.

It's not cool.
 

3phemeral

Member
The best dreams I've had were lucid -- I've been cyclops, wolverine, superman, a dragon slayer... you can do a lot of other things too ^_~, and it feels just as real -- if not... almost too damned intense.

The best ones, though, were the ones where I mostly was awake, but allowed the dream to unfold whatever story was there. You could only do so much with your imagination, but if you find the right balance of lucid dreaming concerning everything you decide to do and act upon, versus letting your dream go crazy, it is like a videogame.
 

Chipopo

Banned
Archaix said:
This is a semi-related subject I suppose.

Does anybody else, while dreaming, "trip" and have a fucked up spasm, immediately waking up?

It happens rather often with me, about once a month, that I'll have a small fall in a dream. Tripping over a curb, for example. And all of a sudden, I'm awake, frantically regain my balance while laying down.

It's not cool.

Is the spasm accompanied by the clenching of a leg muscle and extreme pain? If so, yes.
 

White Man

Member
When I have an episode of lucid dreaming, I'm more likely to have a spasm that wakes me up, or an instance of sleep paralysis. As a matter of fact, my past 3 or 4 lucid dreaming experiences were capped off with sleep paralysis.

Needless to say, I don't aim to lucid dream so much.
 

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
Archaix said:
This is a semi-related subject I suppose.

Does anybody else, while dreaming, "trip" and have a fucked up spasm, immediately waking up?

It happens rather often with me, about once a month, that I'll have a small fall in a dream. Tripping over a curb, for example. And all of a sudden, I'm awake, frantically regain my balance while laying down.

It's not cool.

hahaha, fuck yeah dude.... it's messed up. I even get the feeling where I'm falling, like that feeling in your stomach like "uh oh, gravitys pulling me in a way I don't want to go now."

overall, I was told that this study is discovering that while it's not only gamers that get this, gamers get it more often.
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
Chipopo said:
Is the spasm accompanied by the clenching of a leg muscle and extreme pain? If so, yes.

I've gotten really bad cramps like that only once in a great while during sleep, but this isn't the same.

It's actually scary shit. I can deal with falling. I'm fine making an ass of myself and tripping over a tree root, stumbling, and regaining my bearings. It's that whole part where I wake up right in the stumble portion of the process and am now on my back instead of falling face first towards the ground. I imagine if somebody saw me do it and heard my explanation of "I missed a step in my dream", I'd be immediately ridiculed to no end because of this violent frightened reaction to such a mundane occurance(that didn't technically occur anyway)
 
I don't think I've ever had a lucid dream but I'd like to. I think it'd be neat to unlock that limitless "VR" of the mind and just go to town.
 

kgHavok23

Member
The Shadow said:
I don't think I've ever had a lucid dream but I'd like to. I think it'd be neat to unlock that limitless "VR" of the mind and just go to town.

exactly, why do people always do stuff like jumping off buildings and stepping in front of cars upon realizing that they are in a lucid dream....instead of say, fuck the hottest chick that you see walkin down the street or point at a fat man in small car and laugh at him simply because you can get away with it?
 

TheOMan

Tagged as I see fit
One of the things I love doing when I'm "sorta" lucid dreaming is flying/hovering. Sometimes I'll be walking down the street, realize I'm dreaming and then start hovering and kinda just float along. I haven't had that sort of dream in a while but it is so much fun and feels great :lol
 

BuG

Member
I know a guy who just randomly jumps and starts flapping his arms to check if he's dreaming or not. If he starts flying he knows he's dreaming and apparently goes from there, but if he hits the ground a second later he knows he's awake.
 

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
weirdest lucid dream i've ever had was definitely the one where I got into a knife fight with a Predator in the basement of the Blair Witch Project... winning by remembering how to beat Grey Fox in MGS and looking for the slight blur while the predator was running around me, jumping, and then plunging my knife into its throat against the wall... then watching his body fall as blood poured everywhere.

or the tenchu one in Toronto... just goin around, tossing shurikens and cutting people up.
 

Ash Housewares

The Mountain Jew
IAmtheFMan said:
The freakiest thing that happens to me, is I'll realize in a lucid dream that it's just a dream, then I'll go do something crazy like jump off a building, and then on my way down I'll have the thought "oh fuck, what if it really WASN'T a dream?!" and start freaking out.

cool story, Hansel
 

Papi

Member
I hate when i know i'm dreaming and i try to wake up but i can't. Sometimes i'd concentrate really hard but i can't get myself to open up my eyes. It's a really terrifying experience.

Last week i had a really fucked up dream and i woke up with scissors in my right hand. Then i felt that my neck was wet and i touched it with my left hand and realised that i was bleeding, so i figured that i had cut my neck with a pair of scissors while i was asleep so i was like WTF? and threw the scissors onto the floor.
I felt my neck and the blood started flowing heavily and then started almost gushing and i was in bed freaking out. Then i woke up and my heart was pounding like crazy. So i actually had a fucked up dream and then dreamed about waking up from a fucked up dream. :eek:
 

aoi tsuki

Member
Musashi Wins! said:
I had lucid dreams constantly as a child, but now I don't. Not sure why.
Same here. My level of control isn't as great now. Lately, a lot of times i'll realize it's a dream, but i'm too apathetic to control it, or by time i actually begin to control it, it's almost over.

i did have a pretty good flying dream recently, but again, my control's not what it used to be. i wasn't able to stop at all and crashed into a few buildings. i can't really say it hurt, because i don't remember feeling as if i had really slammed into a building, but it was mildly unpleasant.
 

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
I hardly remember dreams, so I don't have many opportunities.

Usually when it happens, I'll do crazy stuff like fly or use magic and then I'll wake up shortly. :/

I can never keep control without waking myself.
 
I've never wanted to wake during a lucid dream. Too many times I've tried doing things and the more you control your dream the closer you come to waking up (unless I guess you've mastered lucid dreaming or something). I often find it's more fun to make small changes to the dream or go along with it and just make decisions based on the fact that you know it's just a dream instead of forcing it to do exactly what you want. This way you tend to stay in your dream for a lot longer. That's what I did last night and I had a pretty cool dream.
 

Drozmight

Member
White Man said:
When I have an episode of lucid dreaming, I'm more likely to have a spasm that wakes me up, or an instance of sleep paralysis. As a matter of fact, my past 3 or 4 lucid dreaming experiences were capped off with sleep paralysis.

Needless to say, I don't aim to lucid dream so much.

I've grown quite fond of sleep paralysis for some reason. I love the floating sensation that may or may not occur when it happens... sort of an out of body experience. Happened 4 times while trying to get to sleep the other day.
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
I have this annoying problem that when I do lucid dream I wake up way too early before I get to do anything exiting. their have been exceptions, but anytime Im lucky to get a lucid dream, I just wake up.
 

Kuramu

Member
I don't understand people who try to wake up from a dream. As soon as I become lucid in a dream my first 2 thoughts are:

1. Fly
2. Sex

order depends on my mood, although lately my favorite thing to do is walk around touching things and marvel at the fact that it's not really there.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom