Video Game Play as Nightmare Protection: A Preliminary Inquiry with Military Gamers

Jayne Gackenbach*, Evelyn Ellerman, & Christie Hall, *Grant MacEwan University & Athabasca University

Paper presented at the 2011 Games for Health Meeting

We’d like to extend our appreciation to Kris La Marca, John Bown, Katherine Wisniewski, and Mary-Lynn Ferguson for their help with this project.

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

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

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’

• 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

• 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 – recent study published in Mindfulness found an association between 1st person shooter game preference and mindfulness

Gamer Generally Defined in Research Program

Dream Dimensions: Gamers show

• More Lucid and Control Dreams• More Bizarreness and Creativity• Less Nightmares (Threat

Simulation)

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

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

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 – all in healthy use range based on Surgeon Generals Report on gaming in the military

Current Favorite Game GenreGenre 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%

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 2Battlefield 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

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.

Combat Centric Titles Preferred• Indeed in a media story about gaming on the frontlines, • “combat centric titles” might be associated with wanting to be

in the military • “The average military member will never actually live out that

exciting, epic firefight, the moment of a decisive battle, the heat of combat, or the thrill of knowing you just outwitted your mortal enemy and crushed them beneath your strategic might and skill, so gaming definitely offers a way of living out that fantasy. Call it a strange form of escapism?” (Ashcraft, 2011).

Other Gamer Group DifferencesDemographic Variable High Low x2

Sex1. Male2. Female

630

175

P < .0001

Education1. High school2. Some post secondary

other than college/univ3. Some college/bachelors

degree4. Advanced Degree

1314

33

4

12

10

9

P<.001

Marital Status nsRace/ethnic background ns

Military Demographic High Low X2

Country of military servicea. United Statesb. Canadac. Other

391212

1381

ns

Military pay gradea. Enlistedb. Officerc. Otherd. Does not apply

6482

1381

p<.04

Service component nsBranch of service nsOccupational category while in the military

ns

58% 86%

59%86%

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

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.

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 (averaged 2 to 3 out of 9)• Sum of combat experiences (averaged 2 yes’s out of the 6) • Deployment (1 ½ deployments across life span)

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

2009)

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

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)

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)

high threat, military dream, high gamer• i was told by my old Sargent to load up on the humvv in my gunners

spot. he said we were going to roll out to fight some were in Baghdad. we drove down to the combat area where there was a brutal fight me and quite a few men against the insergants. i remember shooting and seeing men fall on both sides. i saw the faces of the dead eyes wide and staring at the sky soulless faces of friends. i walked dazed back to the humvv and woke up subject #115

In reaction to threat, does

self participate?

No

yes

Military Dream

Recent Dream

High Low

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

Sum of all Coding War Motifs

Military Dream

Recent Dream

High Low

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)

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)

Category x dream type and x gamer groupDream

category

Count and Column

Percentage

Recent MilitaryHigh

Gamer Group

Low Gamer Group

Wilmer Viet Nam

Vets

ActualCount 0 4 3 1 189

Column % .0% 12.5% 6.1% 5.6% 53%

PlausibleCount 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

Clinical Implication of Dream Type• Along with Hartmann (1984), Wilmer holds

that movement away from a literal replay of the dream, indicates healing, and integration with other autobiographical memories.

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)

Impactful Dreams Questionnaire (IDQ)

• SELF REPORT Ratings of Military Dreams– spreading warmth (High>Low)– movements vigorous and energetic (High>Low)– movements well balanced and graceful (High>Low)– sudden shift in visual perception (High>Low)

• AND: repeatedly avoid harm (Low>High)

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!

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.

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