This inquiry is a replication and extension of a recent study with military gamers examining the thesis that playing video games might act as a type of nightmare protection. This hypothesis is based on the idea of a well-rehearsed defense due to game play, a numbing against violence, and the idea that memories in the 6 hours posttrauma are best interrupted with a visual cognitive task, like video game play. This replication was done using university students who had experienced a trauma in the past and had reported a dream associated with that trauma along with a recent dream. Controls were emotional reactivity and trauma history. We conclude that male high-end gamers seemed to be less troubled by nightmares while female high-end gamers were the most troubled by nightmares. So what differs between these two types of gamers? Three suggestions are considered: game genre, game sociability, and sex-role conflict. It seems that the nightmare protection hypothesis of video game play should be qualified to apply to male high-end gamers who play few casual games, play socially, and do not seem to experience sex-role conflict due to type of game play.
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