Gackenbach, J.I. (2011, Feb.). Video Game Play as Nightmare Protection. Paper presented at the annual Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, CA.

1. Video Game Play as Nightmare Protection
Jayne Gackenbach, Ph.D.
Grant MacEwan University &
Athabasca University
Thanks to Evelyn Ellerman, Christie Hall, Katherine Wisniewski,
& Mary-Lynn Ferguson for their help on this project
Gackenbach, J.I. (2011, Feb.). Video Game
Play as Nightmare Protection. Paper
presented at the annual Game Developers
Conference, San Francisco, CA.

2. Why are dreams important?
• Rich history across most cultures
• Royal road to the unconscious – Freud
– While opened up dreams as important, he also pathologized them
• With discovery of REM sleep and the sleep laboratory, dreams
entered science
• While not local only to REM, those that are most recalled and
most often puzzled about are typically REM dreams

3. Dreams are Brain at Work While “Off-line”
• Like a computer which is not in use thus no
input (i.e., keyboard, scan, etc) yet CPU still at
work
• During sleep the brain is off line, no sensory
input, but lots of processing of information
ongoing

4. Why are dreams important?
• Function of dreams increasingly clear
– Evolutionary threat/play (Revonsuo; Humphrey)
– Emotional Regulation, especially negative emotions (Kramer; Nielsen;
Zadra)
– Memory integration & consolidation (Stickgold)
– Problem-solving, creative inspiration (Barrett)
– Metacognition (LaBerge; Kahan; Kahn)
• All this serves personal and interpersonal needs if shared and
processed but need not be as dreams still do their ‘job’

5. • Media saturated society
– Video game play represents the most immersive and
interactive media experience
• Isn’t it all just incorporation?
– Yes gamers dream about games
– And no,
Why study gamers dreams?
Gamers dreams may show fundamental
structural differences in their dreams

6. Presence in Games and Dreams
• Dreams have been called the “gold standard” for
presence (sense of being there) in VR and games
(Revonsuo; Moller & Barbera)
• Never measured until now (Gackenbach & Rosie, 2010)
– Presence sum scores from game and dream resulted in FEW
DIFFERENCES between sense of being there while playing a
video game and being there in a dream – High End Gamers

7. Gamer Generally Defined in Research Program
• Play video games on average several times a week
• Typical playing session more than 1 or 2 hours
• Played 50 or more video games over your lifetime
• Been playing video games since early grade school
Type of Game Preferred only considered in latest studies,
seemed to make no difference 5 years ago

8. Dream Dimensions Examined
• Lucid and Control Dreams
• Bizarreness and Creativity
• Nightmares (Threat Simulation)

9. Control Dreaming
In Class Data Collection
2.05
2.1
2.15
2.2
2.25
2.3
2.35
2.4
2.45
2.5
Low Video
Game Play
Medium Video
Game Play
High Video
Game Play
ControlDreaming
2=
rarely
3=
sometimes

10. In Class Data Collection
2.3
2.35
2.4
2.45
2.5
2.55
2.6
2.65
2.7
2.75
Low Video
Game Play
Medium Video
Game Play
High Video
Game Play
LucidDreamingFrequency
Lucid Dreaming
2=
rarely
3=
sometimes

11. Gamer Sample Lucid/Control Dream
• Subject #014: Lucidity triggered by an event
Well, once Jean Grey (a marvel comic and video
game character) 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.
Gackenbach, 2006, 2009a, b; & Kurvilla, 2008;
Gackenbach, et al. (2009).

12. Original Dream Content Analysis
• Hall &Van de Castle Coding System
• Frequency equals intensity
• High inter-rater reliability
• Well developed norms
• Categories pertinent to waking concerns
• Those that lead to further research were:
• characters, aggression and misfortune.
27 gamers
56 dreams
male norms

13. Key Differences from Male Norms
• More dead or
imaginary
characters appearing
in dream reports
(21% vs 0%).
• Fewer Misfortunes
(7% vs 36%)
• Smaller number of
dreams with aggression
(32% vs 47%)
• Yet more intense
aggression (namely
physical aggression, 86%
vs 50%) when it
happened

14. Nightmares vs Bad Dreams Norms
Dream Content Norms Nightmares (N=170) Bad Dreams (N=276)
Physical Aggression 30.6% 15.8%
Interpersonal Conflict 18.8% 35%
• Nightmares are more intensified versions of bad dreams
• The main distinction is that nightmares cause the dreamer
to awaken (Zadra)

15. Threat Simulation Theory
• Dreaming is an adaptive process with an evolutionary
foundation (Revonsuo, 2000).
• Dreaming allows us to simulate threatening situations in the
safety of a virtual environment of dreams.
• Continued practice would allow an individual to better
prepare for these possibly dangerous instances, were they to
arise in the waking world
• Could waking practice (video game play) also serve the same
evolutionary function?

16. Nightmares & Threat Simulation
• Online Questionnaires
• night before dreams only
• 98 participants/dreams
• Threatening content NOT associated with
gaming but rather with TV/movies watched
prior to sleep

17. Dreams of Gamers in the Military
• 377 individuals entered
the survey
• First set of questions
were screening: (Yes)
– Play video games
– In the military (1/3 lost)
– 18 years or older
– High School education
• Reply No to these
questions (in last 6
months):
– been diagnosed with a
mental disorder
– tried to commit suicide
– perform risky behaviors
without particular concern for
your mortality
– addicted to alcohol or drugs

18. Demographics (98 got through screening)
• 92% male
• Average age 32 years
• 80% some post
secondary education
• 53% single
• 75% Caucasian
• 59% US military
• 76% enlisted
• 70% on active duty
• 60% Army
• 64% had been deployed

19. Video Game Group Definition Based on Frequency of Play
(High=daily/weekly; Low=monthly/yearly/rarely)
All questions significantly different
as a function of gamer group
video game
groups* N Mean/label
Std.
Dev.
How long is your typical playing
session?
High 64 4.03/2-4 hours 1.140
Low 21 2.90/1-2 hours .831
How many different video games
in any format have you played to
date?
High 64 3.97/50-100 games 1.380
Low 22 2.86/20-50 games 1.457
How old were you when you
played your first video game?
High 64 7.95/grade 4-6 1.463
Low 22 6.95/grade 7-9 2.360
* all significantly different

20. Current Favorite Game Genre
Genre High End Gamers Low End Gamers
FPS 23/39% 10/48%
MMORPG 19/32% 0/0%
Other “hard core” Genre
(i.e., strategy, simulation,
adventure, fighting)
15/25% 4/19%
Driving/Sport 2/3% 1/5%
Casual 0/0% 6/29%
96% 67%

21. Just Played a Video Game Prior to Filling Out the Survey
Were you playing a video game
in the six hours prior to filling
out this questionnaire?
High
Gamers
Low
Gamers
Yes 33 1
No 30 19
Games Playing Most:
World Of Warcraft
tourchlight
Red Dead Redemption
Prototype
Perpetuum
Modern Warfare 2
mass effect
Madden 2011
Games Playing Second Most:
The Arena
Starfleet Commander
Star Trek Online
Red Dead Redemtion
NCAA Football 2011
marvel ultimate alliance 2
Mafia Wars
Ink Ball
Halo 3
fear 2
Combat Arms
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Baseball 2k10
Arma2 OA
All points bulletin
Age of Conan
ACE2 Modern Warfare Mod
Across genre
67% of games
were of
war/battle
type

22. Soldiers Comment About Games
Played while Deployed
• comment on an article he had read about our
research:
– I would see many Soldiers, in combat, with PSPs or anything we could
hook up to 220v electricity. When Soldiers weren't on patrol, we often
had violent war games on our systems. It was weird. Like we didn't get
enough violence.

23. Other Gamer Group Differences
Demographic Variable High Low x2
Sex
1. Male
2. Female
63
0
17
5
P < .0001
Education
1. High school
2. Some post secondary
other than college/univ
3. Some college/bachelors
degree
4. Advanced Degree
13
14
33
4
1
2
10
9
P<.001
Marital Status ns
Race/ethnic background ns
Military Demographic High Low X2
Country of military service
a. United States
b. Canada
c. Other
39
12
12
13
8
1
ns
Military pay grade
a. Enlisted
b. Officer
c. Other
d. Does not apply
64
8
2
13
8
1
p<.04
Service component ns
Branch of service ns
Occupational category while in
the military
ns
58% 86%
59%86%

24. Military Deployment/Combat
• There were no gamer group differences in
– Were you, or are you, deployed while serving in the
military?
– Any combat experience
– Witnessed others being wounded or killed
– Discharged a weapon
– Felt in great danger of being wounded
– Was wounded
– Felt in great danger of being killed

25. Review and Theoretical Conceptualization
of the Nightmare Literature
• Levin and Nielsen (2007; 2009) point out in their model that
nightmares occur due to:
– affect load, that is situational events like interpersonal
conflict, trauma, etc. (both long term and recent)
– affect distress, dispositional traits which may be genetic or
due to life history like attachments issues or unresolved
trauma
– interact to result in the experience of a nightmare.

26. To determine if gaming effects nightmares
have to control for affect load and distress
• Covariates for those that reported dreams
– Affect Distress: Emotional Reactivity and Numbing Scale
(ERNS) (Gamer group differences)
• 5 subscale scores (positive, sad*, general, anger*, fear*)
• * low gamers were higher on these scales than high gamers
– Affect Load (no Gamer group differences)
• Sum of Traumas from lifetime
• Sum of combat experiences
• Deployment

27. Three Dream Content Analysis
• Threat Simulation (Revonsuo & Valli, 2000)
• War Content (Wilmer, 1996)
• Lucid/Control Content (Gackenbach, et al.,
2009)

28. Statistical Analysis
• Gamer Group (high/low) x Dream Type
(recent/military) ANCOVA’s with 5
emotionality (ERNS) subscales and 3 trauma
experience covariates on:
– Threat Simulation Scales
– War dream content Subscales
– Lucidity/control Subscales

29. Nature of Threat
(1= no harm, 2= nonagg harm, 3= agg harm)
Military Dream
Recent Dream
High Low
Same
interaction for
Severity of
Threat
(1=none, 2=trivial,
3=social/psychological,
4=life threatening)

30. Low threat, military dream, high gamer
• I occasionally have dreams (maybe once ever one to
two months) wherein I dream about re-enlisting in
the military. It typically involves personal reflection
on me wearing the uniform again. Sometimes I'm in
a unit I was actually in, other times I'm in a new unit.
Generally, the dreams aren't very stressful, other
than feelings of...I guess regret over abandoning the
current career path I'm on. (Subject #125)

31. high threat, military dream, low gamer
• I couldn't find my rifle and something was
chasing me. I searched the entire forest until I
did find my weapon. As i turned around to
shoot what was hunting me - the trigger felt
like it was a 1,000 lbs trigger pull. The rounds I
was shooting were delayed and where not
hitting where I was aiming. (Subject #21)

32. high threat, military dream, high gamer
• This was an actual incident that happened in 2003 but a dream I have very often.
• I am always going from being myself in the dream to watching it like a movie and it bounces like that
trough out the dream.
• im on a knee outside of a building in the middle of a road watching a truck burn and Marines looking
for cover or running for the entrance to the building gate. My friend is on a knee at the gate entrance
pushing guys through the gate and into the building complex. He is wounded on the right side of his
face ....
• There are men shooting at me from the end of the hall of pillars and i am trying to use the pillars as
cover to get closer to them.
• Then i am outside in a different court yard and looking out at building roof tops as rounds hit the
ground in front of me ...
• Then i was back in the building with several prisoners and Marines we are trying to keep them still
and yelling for them to stop talking there are 2 children there crying and yelling
• I remember getting the chills and then woke up. (Subject # 89)

33. In reaction to
threat, does
self
participate?
no
yes
Military Dream
Recent Dream
High Low

34. Wilmer’s War Content
• describes the dreams of
[316] Vietnam veterans
about war
• Categories
– Actual war dreams
– Plausible war dreams
– Ordinary Nightmares
• Coding Motif’s
• Under attack, War/battle, The
dead, Firefights, Killing women
and children*, Killing enemy,
Killing Buddies, Captured,
Somewhere in war/battle, Being
wounded, Chase and running,
Home, Being killed, Animals,
Decapitation, Looming danger,
Shot down, Atrocities/ mutilation,
Return to war/battle

35. Sum of all Coding War Motifs
Military Dream
Recent Dream
High Low

36. High War Content; Military Dream, Low Gamer
• I was in a near a huge concrete bunker (like one I had seen in
Iraq) and someone began firing a rifle at me from above. I
couldn't see exactly where it was coming from, so I ran for
cover. It followed me, though, and I was afraid it was going to
catch up with me and kill me. But I felt like I was being slowed
down, like I couldn't run as fast as I should have been able to.
As I tried to find cover, I don't think I got hit, but it was very
close a few times. Then I woke up. (Subject #76)

37. Types of Nightmares
• “Actual” catastrophic dreams: Characteristically these are
terrifying vivid nightmares of the actual event
• “Variable” catastrophic dreams: Are plausible sequences of
war event that could realistically have happened, but as far as
we know did not actually happened
• ‘hallucinatory” catastrophic dreams: Are ordinary nightmares,
but there is a constant relation to specific impactful event
(e.g. War)

38. Category x dream type and x gamer group
Dream
category
Count and
Column
Percentage
Recent Military
High
Gamer
Group
Low Gamer
Group
Wilmer
Viet Nam
Vets
Actual
Count 0 4 3 1 189
Column % .0% 12.5% 6.1% 5.6% 53%
Plausible
Count 19 23 27 15 76
Column % 55.9% 71.9% 55.1% 83.3% 21%
Ordinary
Nightmares
Count 15 5 19 2 94
Column % 44.1% 15.6% 38.8% 11.1% 26%
Wilmer: With therapy nightmare dream types moved from Actual to Ordinary

39. Plausible, Low Gamer, Military Dream
• My military dream occurs when im on
deployment. i am securing an airport trying to
get forgien nationalist out when a group of
militia comes up and wants to get in. When
they figure out they cant get by they get mad
and be head a civilian and all i can do is watch.
(Subject #210)

40. Lucid/Control Content
• No difference in gamer group or dream type
• High Gamer, recent dream:
– my laptop and computer had been stolen, and I couldn't locate them. I
talked to the police and did a search, but nothing came up. I was
starting to feel panicky and scared about losing my computers and the
data on them, and then I remember thinking "Wait, its ok, I'll just wake
up since this is a dream"

41. Is this typical?
• I am currently in Iraq. I just read an article on
video games and dream. I'm a huge
videogamer, and I've always wondered why I
never have nightmares... they all ways seem
so fun to me!

42. But then there is this……
• My name is ……, 30 army vet who has served
in Iraq, I’m an avid gamer, meditate heavily
and have experienced vivid dreaming most of
my life, I do suffer mild PTSD and wonder if I
can contribute in any way with this study.

43. Comments on Gaming in the Military from a soldier
who games and counsels other soldiers
• I was involved with solving or counseling my soldiers on their stress, personal issues, family,
peers, and even their level of professionalism.
• the soldiers that did game (both male and female) were quicker to task and also faster at
pointing out things to make more efficient.
– I had one soldier that played World of Warcraft with his fiance and it was during this period he is able to talk and
connect with her, they were participating with each other which helped their relationship a great deal.
• I have so many soldiers that went over seas and became videogame players due to the work
tempo and stress. Meaning that by the end of the tour there were more videogame players
• in many cases that was the only way they could 'escape' from each other and the worries of
home.
• From what I've seen gaming just First Person Shooters didn't make my soldiers shoot better,
it made them better at identifying potential dangers and where to look at for snipers.

44. Take Away Points
• Gaming may act as an inoculation against some of
the negative experiences of nightmares
– This could be a result of habituation or numbing due to
exposure to violence in games
• Nightmares can re-traumatize the dreamer thus
minimizing their effect is important.
• Dreams reflect a unconscious level so waking ego
defence of Macho posturing does not intrude