Live Science reports on the nightmare-killing dreams of the hardcore gamer:
By contrast, soldiers who did not play video games much suffered from more emotional distress and a frozen sense of helplessness in their dreams.
Past research suggests that frequent video game players, known as gamers, may possess greater awareness and control in dreams, and so researchers have theorized that games might act as a virtual reality rehearsal for the threat simulations found in nightmares. The recent study looked at 98 mentally healthy soldiers and classified them into high gaming and low gaming groups to examine the differences in their dreams.
“Within this high-functioning group, [gaming] is clearly adaptive,” said Jayne Gackenbach, a psychologist at Grant MacEwan University in Canada.