Oscar Roselló
audio — private.
If you want to, you can plot your biosignals to
see changes as you slip into sleep. Figure
T
shows what a typical descent into hypnagogia
with wakeups and dream reports looks like.
DREAM ON!
You now have a basic interface that will let you
change your dream content! We suggest you use
this device during a nap, and that you make sure to
set a clear intention to dream about your chosen
dream theme before you lie down, even saying out
loud why you want to dream of that theme.
You may have to tweak things to get this whole
hypnagogic incubation practice right — from
your bedtime to the volume of your audio —
because this is not an exact science. But though
it is inexact, it is an ancient, important, human
practice; dream incubation has been used for
at least 4,000 years to seek answers to life’s
questions, to find creative inspiration, and to heal.
These are your dreams, and this is your
dreamscape, so explore what you will! Maybe you
want to have dreams of Batman, and Beyoncé,
and more power to you. Maybe you want to travel
inside your favorite video game, or to your favorite
planet, all in your own imagination. Please, do tell
us how it goes.
GOING FURTHER
Dormio V3 is only built for tracking and changing
sleep onset, a tiny slice of the overall experience
of sleep and dreams. Want to go further?
• Try and build something that tracks a different
sleep stage (maybe an eye tracker that can
capture REM sleep) and see if you can change
your dreams in a later stage. We built a
different device aimed at REM that looks like a
sleep mask (media.mit.edu/projects/masca), if
you want inspiration, and wrote a paper about
it for a class project (ethanweber.me/sleep/
Human_2_0_Paper.pdf).
• Think more about the comfort and attachment
of the Dormio device on the hand. Build a better
housing or a better PCB fixture than velcro.
We’d love to see your ideas and inspirations, let
T
MORE ON DORMIO AND LUCID DREAMING
• The Dormio team, ongoing work, and published
papers: media.mit.edu/projects/sleep-creativity
• How to build Dormio V2 (previous version, with
lots of overlap). Click on “Input Device”: fab.cba.
mit.edu/classes/863.17/CBA/people/tomasero/
index.html
• How the sleep data streaming interface was made:
same page, click on “Interface and Application”
• Demystifying Medicine video on how Dormio works
and what it’s used for: youtu.be/9dGuxNb9mCY
• News report on Dormio’s potential for dream
incubation: news.mit.edu/2020/targeted-dream-
incubation-dormio-mit-media-lab-0721
• Ethics of incubating dreams with devices:
aeon.co/essays/dreams-are-a-precious-
resource-dont-let-advertisers-hack-them
• Lucid dreaming and dream incubation:
dreamscience.ca/en/dreamfaq.html
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