Video Games Decrease Ability To Become Lucid?

[Woah]

I've been thinking lately that playing video games would probably diminish your ability to become lucid in dreams. I think this because if you played them a lot, you'd be used to being a different person in a different place at a different time, and often the events in the game are impossible to occur in real life. So, you would be in a dream and your mind wouldn't notice anything different happening than 'usual', because it's so used to those situations.

Thoughts?

[EqualThoughts]

sometimes ive had dreams where i am just playing a videogame... shooting stuff at every second doesnt really give you alot of time to think about how aware you are at the moment. i think it is amazing at how little we need to occupy our minds for long periods of time.

-Thoughts

[Woah]

Yeah I remember when Halo 2 first came out my friend and I played it all night, and  when we stopped I saw the red crosshair, heard the gunfire and that blinking sound when your health regenerates.

I used to play video games a lot, especially Runescape (massive regrets there), and would dream about playing it, finding lots of items, getting my stats up, then waking up, logging on and realizing.

P.S. Video games waste your life.

[cainam_nazier]

I however am an avide video game player.  And yes I have had many dreams where elements of the game I am playing are in the dream.  However I do not feel that this dimishes my ablility to lucid dream since the majority of the dreams I remember are the lucid ones.  One of the things that I have noticed at least for me is that when these elements do show up in my dreams I find it very easy to point them out as being from a game.  It is one of the things that I attribute to these dreams going lucid.  There is a lot of, "Hey this reminds me of xxx." and I go lucid as a result.

Now every so often I will have a dream where I am still playing a game.  But that usually only happens when I fall asleep in front of the computer.  Then I wake up and say, "damn I am still back there".  This is usually when I turn everything off and go to bed.  After that though I don't seem to dream about specific games.

I do have more moments of interest while sitting at the computer half asleep playing a game.  My brain becomes so focused on the one thing a trance like state can be achieved which allows for more fun things to happen than just dreaming about a game.

Anyway, I'll debate the point further later.  But I think that it really all boils down to the same thing as everything else.  How you feel about it.  As is with all things your opinion will effect how things effect you.

[Enoch]

I agree. If you live on a game system or computer of course its going to affect you. It leaves no time for good meditation which does help dreaming. The time you could be solitary is spent gaming. But its no differant than a television addict.
Its all about the here and now. If you are not living in the moment than you are not helping yourself to dream better. The trance state you reach while gameing is not a good one. Its like opening your mind for the influence of the game to flow in. But dont get me wrong i love to game on pc (dawn of war addict) . I just make sure i leave time for meditation and for real life.
I also agree that the trance state you achieve while gameing can be most interesting.   

[Stookie]

I find that if I play a game for longer than an hour, my concentration after that will be greatly reduced (I guess I use it all on the game). If I plan on meditating later, I'll keep it short. I'm sure there are many gamers who feel zoned-out after a long session. Like anything, it's good to find a balance.

I believe that video games can be beneficial in many ways and that super-realisitic simulations of the future are going to be new ways to learn a myriad of things.

[cainam_nazier]

Oh, don't get me wrong I do believe that there can be adverse effects from over gaming.  But I also believe that many of these thing stem from a pre-existing condition.  As is the case with people who become overly dependant on the "character" they are playing in the game.  Eventually substituting the game for real life.  They will do this with anything that catches their fancy.  It's just that more people are turning to gaming because of its availability.

I go out when ever I get the chance.  But for me gaming is my meditation time.  I find that it is one of the few times I can get my mind to focus on just one thing.  I find it very helpfull to play for a little bit before bed as a means by which to calm my brain down so I can sleep.  It is kinda tough to explain with out sounding like I am an addict.

As far as the trance state that can happen while gaming.  I would argue some on it being good or bad.  I don't think that it is all that bad.  Or I should at least say I don't think it is all that bad for me.  My thought patterns are often chaotic at best.  I tend to think about too many things at too many times.  There is also the over thinking of things.  Gaming helps me slow that down, more so after one of those days.  I find it is better for me to go home a game for an hour or two and then meditate or sleep rather then just going home and going straight to meditating or sleep.

Ultimately it is just a distraction.  I feel it is no different than any other distraction that people use every day and always have.  Either computers, games, TV, reading, card games, any thing where you are not learning and you are doing some thing.  I think  that most people don't consider many of he other things that people do as being "bad" distractions because they have lived with them their whole life.  But ultimately it is all the same.  I could give a long list of things people do by themselves instead of engaging with others that could ultimately be bad when done it excess.  It's just that people don't look at them the same because they are older forms and tend not to offend their moral upbringings.

[leaf]

Funny. I have dreamt about playing computer games, and I rarely play. But I've never dreamt about being on the internet or the computer. It's a different level of concentration.

[PuRpLe]

I've always had a personal opinion that dreams are subconcious occurances that revolve, or evolve, primarily around your daily events... that includes day dreams, thoughts, little ticks that go un-noticed.  Your dreams play off those occurances as a theme and then your beliefs and desires alter the situations.  If you play a hell of a lot of games, or one game, all day, then your brain will have little to go on for creativity and you will find your subconcious focusing on the game.  Also note that while playing lots of games I'm sure you day dream and drift off from time to time, so when you're brain recalls that little day dream it also recalls the situation during the day dream, and the gaming world comes into the dreams.  As far as affecting lucid dreaming, I could see how this fits in.  If thinking about and playing games takes a large portion of the day, then it will also probably take up a large portion of the night... but it won't be as a shift.  You will go from concsious awareness of Halo, into unconcious awareness of Halo, and because the dream doesn't really deviate from reality, you might not think you've left it.  But that is probably only known some of the time with hardcore gamers.