Can someone change their dreams?

My project

I chose to see whether someone can influence their dreams positively or negatively.

My main purpose was to give people a tool to be able to combat nightmares.

People have a fear of nightmares in general and I hope to be able to help them with this problem.

How?

By performing activities the night before I have found that people are able to influence their dream pattern.

Examples playing video games, watching television, reading a book, working out, really any of these are valid choices.

Why?

Night Terrors: Feelings of great fear experienced on suddenly waking in the night.

My little brother suffers from these. This is why I am pursuing this research project.

Ways to keep track

I recorded all of this in two ways: First I used a dream journal which I have

pictures of on the next page. Second was the use of my blog to make

sure that I stayed current and my memory refreshed throughout the project.

Support

An article in livescience.com has shown that video gamers have an ability to be able to control their dreams.

I would say that I have always been a video gamer, I spend many hours a week playing games and nights when I play I have the most vivid dreams. The dream depends on the type of game that I play also.

Problems

The main problem that I face is recording my dreams each morning. Even a month into this project I still struggle with this.

The other problem that I have is that trying to do a different thing each night gets pretty difficult just because people are creatures of habit.

This is the only way though to develop some kind of pattern is by doing the same activity sometimes.

Background I became interested in dreams last year in my

English class I felt like now was the best time to pursue this research.

When I was younger I was also always curious why I had dreams and why they turned out the way that they did. I still don’t entirely know why they turn out or begin the way that they do, but now I know how to influence what can occur in my dream.

This isn’t necessarily the same thing as lucid dreaming which is actually controlling the dream, but just to affect whether it is a positive or negative dream.

Outcome

In the end of this project I have come to the conclusion that it is possible to help combat nightmares.

By doing positive activities right before bed like watching a funny movie, playing a non-violent video game someone is able to have more positive dreams.

This does not completely help get rid of nightmares, but it greatly reduces the likelihood of them.

Outcomes con’t I don’t necessarily know that this will help

cure my brothers night terrors, but I hope that I am able to at least decrease the frequency that they happen.

Being a video gamer or someone that immerses themselves in a virtual world often is the easiest way to help make this work.

I hope everyone is able to learn something from my research and that it can at least help a few people.