Sweet Dreams Are Made By This 438
schnoz writes "From Takara, the folks who brought you Bow-Lingual the dog translator, comes the Dream Workshop. Before going to sleep, all you have to do is stare at a photograph of what you want to dream of (Natalie Portman maybe) and record the dream plot. When you fall asleep, this gadget waits for REM and then uses your voice recording, lights, music and aroma to help direct your dream."
dreaming (Score:5, Interesting)
Hacking dreams???
Sounds Tempting! (Score:5, Interesting)
My dreams could use a bit of spicing up, but I think I'll opt for Johnny Depp instead of Natalie Portman. Anyone know how much 14,800 yen is in US Dollars?
I'm dreaming of... (Score:5, Interesting)
Dammit... (Score:2, Interesting)
and how many dreams can u actually remember after you wake up anyway, i always remember for about half an hour before the memories start to fade... i think ive lost some good ones, altho i may have been dreaming
Re:copyrighted dreams (Score:2, Interesting)
Until the End of the World (Score:2, Interesting)
Lucid Dreaming is Cheaper (Score:5, Interesting)
Although lucid dreaming [lucidity.com] is not exactly the same as dream control [lucidity.com], it does give you the ability to control your OWN ACTIONS in a dream. The advantage of lucid dreaming is that you don't have to buy any gizmos to make it work (although some people do sell things to help you achieve lucidity). The disadvantages are, as I mentioned, the fact that you only control yourself and not necessarily your surroundings and it takes some time to learn the skill of becoming lucid in a dream.
Lucid dreaming is basically a technique for becoming conscious that you are in a dream without actually waking from that dream. It takes some work, believe me. We're talking months here. But it is kinda cool. Once I realize that I'm dreaming, I usually take advantage of that fact by blasting any enemies around me with a Godzilla [godzilla.co.jp]-like breath weapon! While this is admittedly pretty geeky, I can say that here without being laughed at (right?) because we're all geeks. Plus, it's pretty neat to see Bill Gates go up in flames!
Another advantage of lucid dreaming is that it's a proven technique whereas this new gizmo is just something that someone is trying to sell you.
GMD
Re:I'm dreaming of... (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't know about you, but I can't seem to get even the most basic shell scripts right when I dream about computers. I can't verify the truth of the statement, but I've heard it said that the right side of your brain is the side most active during dreams, and it is also the less logical side of your brain. If that's true my first assumption is that dream learning would be mostly worthless for highly logical things like math or programming, but might be useful for art.
Re:Flim-flam. (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, I do lucidly fairly often - presuming you mean being in control of and aware of the dream as a dream state. I haven't found it to be a magical thing that needs a trigger, just a simple exploration of thought. Flashing lights haven't had anything to do with my experiences, as I have always slept in darkness. I also haven't experied any special therapudic effects from such dreams either. If anything, it's just an open-ended mental game, like a daydream, and definetly not something to obsess over, or waste time on instead of sleeping. This is just another testimonial of course, and an oppinionated one at that. I encourage scientific exploration for those in the field - but distrust those with something to sell, so to speak.
Ryan Fenton
Re:Lucid Dreaming is Cheaper (Score:5, Interesting)
One interesting thing about your point is that this device could assist lucid dreaming. In fact, the Lucidity Institute that you link to sells a similar device called the NovaDreamer. [lucidity.com] The NovaDreamer detects REM sleep, then uses flashing lights to hopefully introduce dream signs into your dream. At $138 USD, this device is much cheaper than the NovaDreamer, which costs $395 USD. [128.121.104.103]
I've been experimenting with a home-brew solution (a web page that flashes and talks at random intervals throughout the night,) but I've had very limited success with it.
While we're on the topic, I wrote a very long piece [geocities.com] about Lucid Dreaming in 1996 -- many people have put it on their own sites
Re:dreaming (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Also... (Score:3, Interesting)
Reading the manual probably provided enough information to remember and dissect the info in your dreams, but the tape probably prompted your brain to chew on it (as well as providing cues for sections you might not have remembered.)
I think you should take it for granted that your brain is going to do something productive while your sleeping - doing a bit of suggestion, and slipping in some audio cues to act as a cheat sheet can help as well. A full night's worth of sleep is a crucial ingredient, of course - no way you can speed cram material, take in an hour or two of sleep, and be able to remember much of anything past what's in your short-term buffer the next day.
Interrogation/torture device? (Score:5, Interesting)
A sleep-depraved Saddam is forced to stare at a photo of his dead son's bodies. After he's finally allowed to sleep and REM kicks in, a voice-over script explains to him that its all his fault and guides him on how he should cooperate fully.
After steering his dream through freedom, a comfortable exile, and a harem of virgins he is conveniently woken up for his next round of questioning.
Re:Lucid Dreaming is Cheaper (Score:2, Interesting)
It's a rather interesting exercise.
Monroe Institute (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Great for those tough bugs problems (Score:4, Interesting)
Of the many times I have solved The Problem, only once was it actually a solution, and even then it was more like a thought that actually put me on the right track when I awoke, more out of coincidence I think then anything else.
Many times I have awoken with the semantic equivalent of "My code will be fixed if I just pick a purple lilac and feed it to my dog.", only much, much wierder in a way that I can not just summon up while awake to provide a good example for. And it all makes such sense at the time.
I'm sure some people really do solve problems in their dreams, and goodness knows a good night's sleep always does help me. But I wonder how many people really solve problems in their dream, and how many people just think they've solved problems. I've managed to drag several ideas from my dreams back into the waking world, including quite a few semi-interesting sci-fi plots, but none of them are worth anything when examined in the light of the sun, except perhaps some entertainment value.
One of the things I remember dragging back was a music melody that was going to make me famous... I don't recall the specifics but I do recall it only involved two notes a whole step apart in some entirely uninspired rhythm; in the waking world it was terminally dull, as you might imagine a two-note melody would be. (I have on the other hand written some music I rather enjoyed based on the wierd feeling I sometimes get after having wierd dreams, but the music did not come to me in my sleep.)
Cheaper alternative - Do it yourself project (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Lucid Dreaming (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the methods used to treat the condition is a form of lucid dreaming in which you train yourself to recognize, in your nightmare, that you are in control of the situation. By moving a finger or something similar to "break" the paralysis, you can then wake up fully.
For a long time sleep paralysis was treated with SSRI's, usually tricyclic antidepressants that, in light doses, would keep REM light enough to fully emerge from the paralysis stage. But if you've ever been on an SSRI, the side effects can be pretty miserable.
It's an interesting subject that has a study all its own here. [uwaterloo.ca]
Re:dreaming (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Interrogation/torture device? (Score:3, Interesting)
I would imagine people's suceptibility to it would vary greatly though.
Used to (Score:1, Interesting)
Sure dream control is a cool thing, but I enjoy feeling rested in the morning more.
Re:Lucid Dreaming (Score:3, Interesting)
Researchers theorize the people continue to see images of this alien representation on television and in print, and that it is incorporated into their stories. Their tales of being paralyzed by "rays" are really nothing more than being stuck in episodic sleep paralysis or hypnogogic/hypnopompic sleep states (those states right before you fall asleep or wake up).
Re:I'm dreaming of... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's interesting that after having to lucid dream for 3 months straight, you no longer can dream any other way.
I call it a benefit with only one side effect, the more active the dream, the less rested I feel the next morning.
Re:Lucid Dreaming (Score:2, Interesting)
Ironically, in all my episodes of SP, the way I was able to break out was by imagining someone taking an axe and cutting off my head. It's successfully worked more than once, although I really wish I could think of a better, less gruesome way to wake up.
Re:Lucid Dreaming (Score:3, Interesting)
For a long time sleep paralysis was treated with SSRI's, usually tricyclic antidepressants that, in light doses, would keep REM light enough to fully emerge from the paralysis stage. But if you've ever been on an SSRI, the side effects can be pretty miserable.
Um, SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors -- the new generation of antidepressants, of which Prozac [nih.gov] is the most famous) are a completely different beast from the older generation of tricyclic antidepressants [nih.gov]. I've previously been on Paxil [nih.gov] before for social anxiety and depression, and the only noteworthy side-effect was decreased sex drive (and my experience was pretty typical).
Toaster in the Dishwasher (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sure some people really do solve problems in their dreams, and goodness knows a good night's sleep always does help me. But I wonder how many people really solve problems in their dream, and how many people just think they've solved problems. I've managed to drag several ideas from my dreams back into the waking world, including quite a few semi-interesting sci-fi plots, but none of them are worth anything when examined in the light of the sun, except perhaps some entertainment value.
I was irritated by all the crumbs in my toaster. It was really starting to look gross.
Then, one night, I had a dream about sticking my toaster into the dishwasher [glowingplate.com].
In the light of day, it didn't seem so silly. After all, the dishwasher merely sprays hot water.
Now, the toaster can take heat - that's what it's designed to do.
The water was something else. The cord and plug are sealed, and even if they weren't, they'd be fine when they dried out. The nichrome heating elements are very corrosion-resistant, and the mica sheet which supports the nichrome isn't water soluble.
I was worried about the release mechanism. A close look revealed a solenoid, made of about 10 turns of fairly thick enamelled copper wire. When the bimetallic switch warps at the end of the toasting, the contacts open and the full load of the heating element is placed across the solenoid, causing it to release. Worst case, if the dishwasher were to take all the enamel off the solenoid, the toaster wouldn't release, and I'd rewind the solenoid with some old wire kicking around.
Then, detergent - it's quite corrosive and its deposits might be conductive. I decided to skip it, since crumbs are, by and large, going to disappear simply from the water spray.
So into the dishwasher it went, bottom rack. I tied the cord to the rack so it wouldn't get sucked into the pump. Full cycle, pots and pans mode, in my 1970 Maytag WU600.
A sidenote. The WU600 was Maytag's first automatic dishwasher. It has a 1/2hp motor direct driving a two stage centrifugal pump. It will take fried eggs off a poorly-seasoned cast iron frying pan, and it's extraordinarily loud. When it's running, it sounds like the world is coming to an end. When it's draining, the house rumbles like a freight train loaded with lead blocks is speeding by.
(A sidenote)^2. A quiet dishwasher is not a good thing. Since you cannot predict the shapes of the dishes people will stuff into it, nor can you predict *how* they'll stuff dishes into it, you cannot predict the flow of water after it leaves the spray arms. Therefore, you cannot predict the noise the water will make. To counter the noise, you could use insulation for a broad-spectrum white-noise deadening approach - but the dishwasher has to fit in a standard size hole, and 6" of sound deadening all around would massively eat into the dishwasher's capacity for dishes. The other option is to make the water leave the spray arms with less velocity - which will inherently reduce the cleaning power of the dishwasher. Shopping Tactic: Buy the loudest dishwasher you can find, it's the only one which won't require pre-rinsing your dishes.
Waited until the cycle was done. Opened the door, waited for the fog to clear off my glasses, and surveyed the damage... damage to the crumbs, that is. My toaster looked brand new. Even the carmelized brown stains at the edges of the slots were gone.
So, I let the toaster dry for a few hours, clicked down the handle, and plugged it in - briefly. There was a crackle and some smoke. And again... more crackle, more smoke. Seems that water would get between the layers of mica and would boil off when the nichrome heated up. The smoke was coming from fine bits of crumbs which had become wedged between the nichrome elements and the mica. Quick bit of power - more heat, more steam, more smoke, small crackle. Gently, gently tapping it on and off until there was no more crackling sound as water esca
Wouldn't use one of this (Score:3, Interesting)
And I dont know about you but I find strange chaotic dreams way funnier then dreaming about a girl I can dream of while awake. That is if you like to find the meaning of your dreams (or are in therapy).
Just do lucid dreaming (Score:3, Interesting)
You CAN conjure these images, but you have to work up to it, and you need to be a bit more subtle about it so that you don't get the overexcitement that wakes you.
I did a lot of this in high school and my first two years of college. I began simply by waking up at 3:00am every morning and recording my dreams, then going back to sleep and then recording them again when I woke up again.
After a while, you'll begin becoming more aware of your dreams. At that point, you need to start thinking about taking control. This is usually a few weeks after you've started recording the dreams.
I wish I could still do it. It was a lot of fun. It takes a lot of work to get there, though.
Better yet... save your money (Score:3, Interesting)