Comparing the Effects of Real Versus Simulated Violence on Dream Imagery

Abstract

Participants in the current study were 75 males, including 25 Canadian soldiers, 25 heavy gamers who play military based video games such as "Call of Duty," and a control group comprised of 25 males. One dream per participant was analyzed using Hall and Van de Castle content analysis guidelines, including aggression, threat, and previously established scales for intensity of aggression and emotion. The dreams of soldiers had a higher frequency of both aggression and threat, and were also more intense in aggression and emotion than both the heavy gamers and the controls. These findings suggest that exposure to real life violence and threat (as well as the emotional significance of the experience) is more frequently incorporated into dream imagery than simulated or virtual threat. Limitations and directions for future studies are discussed.

Dissociated Effects of Age and Recent Troubling Experiences on Nightmares, Threats and Negative Emotions in Dreams

“…This allowed the assessment of the dream threats severity regardless of its qualitative nature. A similar scale was used in a previous study investigating aggressions in dreams of soldiers, gamers, and control participants ( 69 ). Given the relationship between the frequency of dream components and the reports length ( 64 , 65 ), the frequency of dream threats were divided by the word count for the purpose of the analyses.…”