Gackenbach received her Ph.D.in 1978 in Experimental Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is retired as Emeritus Professor in Psychology from MacEwan University. In retirement she continues to teach online for Athabasca University.
As well as being a past-president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, she has numerous professional publications on dreams and in the last half of her career on video game play. Gackenbach is editor of “Sleep and Dreams: A Sourcebook” (1986) for Garland Publishers. She co-edited “Conscious Mind, Sleeping Brain: Perspectives on Lucid Dreaming” (1988) for Plenum Publishers; “Dream Imagery: A Call to Mental Arms” (1991) for Baywood Publishers. Her first authored book is “Control Your Dreams” (1989; 2012) for Harper-Collins. She was invited in 1992 to present her work on lucid dreaming to the Dalai Lama at a conference on sleeping, dreaming, and dying.
Gackenbach’s interests shifted to computer-mediated communications. In this regard she has edited a book from Academic Press (1998; 2007), “Psychology and the Internet: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Transpersonal Implications” and co-wrote a book called “cyber.rules” for Norton publishers (2007) with examines healthy and unhealthy internet use. Her most recent book (2017) is edited called “Boundaries of Self and Reality Online” for Elsevier/Academic Press.
Gackenbach’s recent research interest combines her dream and technology interests examining the dreams of video game players. She has released two related books. One was co-written with her gamer son, Teace Snyder, on the effects of video game play, “Play Reality”. She also has an edited book “Video Game Play and Consciousness” from NOVA publishers. Both books came out in 2012.
Jayne Gackenbach 