LUCID TECHNOLOGY PAGE

Dreaming is a phenomenon experienced by virtually all humans, and possibly by other animals as well. It is generally thought of as delusional hallucinated experiences during sleep, although research differs dramatically on exactly which of these nightly experiences should be labeled dreams. The relationship of dream content to waking life experiences is unresolved, although since the time of Freud, it has been thought to relate to events from the prior day (“day residue”) as well as older, often related, memories. The mechanism of construction and function of dreams remain essentially unknown.

Studies using auditory, somatosensory, vestibular and olfactory input during sleep demonstrate that sensory processing continues during sleep. This can be seen through the impact of such stimulation on brain event related potentials, the formation of new memories, enhancement of prior learning and dream content.

Information processing during sleep is active, ongoing and accessible to engineering. Protocols such as targeted memory reactivation use sensory stimuli during sleep to reactivate memories and demonstrate subsequent, specific enhancement of their consolidation. These protocols rely on physiological, as opposed to phenomenological, evidence of their reactivation. While dream content can predict post-sleep memory enhancement, dreaming itself remains a black box.

The Dormio system, consisting of a hand-worn sleep tracker and an associated app is used to communicate with users and record dream reports via bluetooth to a laptop or cellphone. The user interaction with the Dormio system occurs across multiple stages of consciousness including wake, sleep onset, sleep, and hypnopompic wake.

Dormio takes advantage of the window of altered hypnopompic brain function by suggesting a dream theme during each of a series of hypnopompic awakenings, creating a serial dream incubation paradigm. This dream-report system is an adaptive, automated version of the serial awakenings paradigm described earlier that has been used to collect hypnagogic dream reports with repeated awakenings during sleep onset, using either polysomnography (PSG) or the Nightcap

In its most autonomous mode, the user decides what they want to dream about. This can range from a creative problem they are working on to an experience they want to reflect on or an emotional issue they want a new perspective on. The user launches the Dormio app and records a personalized dream prompt message (R1) using their voice, such as 'Remember to think of a tree'. The dream prompt is then played as the user prepares for sleep onset. After falling asleep—an event detected by Dormio— and being allowed to sleep for a predetermined time, Dormio wakes the user and plays the recording to guide their thoughts during subsequent hypnagogia. After receiving the prompt, the user returns to sleep and then, again after a predetermined period of sleep, is awakened and prompted for a dream report message. Their response is recorded, the dream prompt repeated, and they return to sleep.

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As a dreamer descends into sleep, Cocoon tracks three sleep-stages using brain activity, muscle tension, heart rate, and movement data that are revealed through its dome. External stimuli in the form of scent, audio, and muscle stimulation direct the content of the dreams. Crossing boundaries both disciplinary and experiential, Cocoon offers an embodied investigation of one's own consciousness, a philosophy in the flesh; with it users can observe and engage the torsion of their senses, see and shape dreams which are otherwise entirely uncontrollable, unlinked, and unseen.
We hope this speculative vision, and the conversations it inspires, help us reflect on how we develop our existing dream engineering technologies going forward, and how we combine them.

Cocoon has been shown at Ars Electronica 2018, the Beijing Media Arts Biennale 2018, and the Han Shan Art Museum.

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