Study: Videogames Don’t Lead to Nightmares

Here’s an article out of Canada by Shannon Proudfoot on new German research concerning children and media. Michael Schredl, over at the Sleep Laboratory at Germany’s Central Institute of Mental Health, led the study. The researchers found no correlation between subjects’ amount of videogame play and television watching with frequency of nightmares.

He and his team asked 250 students aged nine to 13 to log the number of hours they spent every day for a week on activities such as watching TV, playing computer games, reading or playing sports, and to list the programs they watched. They were also asked whether they remembered a dream from the previous night and what it was about.

The researchers were surprised to find there was no connection between nightmares and computer games or TV shows – including the police and crime shows that 14 per cent of the children said they watched regularly.

The paper was published in the journal Dreaming where the abstract is freely available. My take: this paper offers empirical weight against arguments critical of educational videogaming where opponents state videogames lead to negative consequences such as nightmares.

References:
Proudfoot, S. (2008, July 26). TV, video games not related to nightmares: study. The Vancouver Sun. [Online]. Retrieved July 29, 2008 from http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?
id=41fafa28-ddf9-4c95-9215-c7e08094a9a0

Schredl, M., Anders, A., Hellriegel, S., & Rehm, A. (2008). TV viewing, computer game playing and nightmares in school children. Dreaming, 18(2). 69-76. [Online]. Available: http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord
&uid=2008-07366-001