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How many of us have found ourselves stuck in a dream, wishing we could control what was happening? How many of us have found we could? The concept of lucid dreaming is an old one, but so is the idea that what happens during our day often finds its way into our REM state. When the two mesh, lucid dreaming can actually be sort of induced by daily experiences, and that is the playing of video games.
With the increase of quality and complexity of popular mainstream video games, players are given options to control first as well as third-player point of views. More realistic settings and longer, plot-filled obstacles are serving as a way to stimulate the brain, even after it goes to sleep. The more often a person plays and shorter time it is between playing and going to sleep makes it more likely to affect the person’s consciousness inside the dream.
This could occur because your mind is opening up to more possibilities. It is one thing to contemplate multiple universes intellectually, but by playing it out, you come to accept the idea of an alternate reality. When placed in a foreign situation, instead of freaking out and reacting, you start taking initiative and asserting control on your surroundings. By taking away the initial confusion, people can learn to work with the dreams and expect whatever is thrown at them.
To a certain degree, this has happened to me. Frequently, I will end up in a battle tower with instant knowledge that somehow, I am tasked with the large responsibility of saving the world. Instead of panicking, I focus on believing I can cast spells to become invisible as well as soundless. With enough concentration, I can keep my fear down and escape the clutches of any villains. This works sporadically; sometimes I take a dive when I try flying, but never have I actually gone splat either. In some cases, I am actually able to direct a third party member that despite clearly representing me, looks and acts very different from myself. I attribute this to level of video games I play. Whereas I enjoy a bit of action, at the same time I never play purely shooters or any genre that would empower me to physically take down the villain. There might be small sparks of recognition that a dream is occurring, but I never let that slow me down from enjoying what could have easily been a nightmare.
Now not just are strategy games posing a mental exercise, but a widespread of science-fiction and fantasy games as well. They come with them a bending of logic, and simply understanding of the way different worlds could operate fuels countless new paths of thought to explore.
Open-mindedness is the first step to getting people with the actual means to invent things to solve things creatively as well. Scientific discoveries need to be envisioned before they are dared. Rather than getting hedged in by a restricting amount of preexisting rules, people need to be imaginative before they can wrap their minds around original approaches to logic, such as the string theory and beyond. Well-written video games can begin to kindle just that kind of adaptability.
