“Bleed the mind. Inexpensive. Is there any sense of a mask for lucid dreams?

Adam good

Paul McCartney heard the motive of the future super hit Yesterday in a dream, and Salvador Dali clearly saw his picture “The Constancy of Memory” during the afternoon nap. The subconscious of each person keeps countless treasures, but only geniuses are usually able to pull them to the surface. The rest of the people, fortunately, can also learn this - with the competent practice of lucid dreaming, since now special gadgets have appeared for their training.

Creative insights, bright ideas and deep insights are a new thing. In order to give them out more or less regularly, the brain needs persistent training, no less than the body needs in sports. There are several dozens of techniques, how to realize yourself in a dream. They are based on exercises to increase concentration and attention. True, a modern person who is burdened with the consumption of fatty fast food information, to succeed in this field is more difficult than ever.
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What does a person do when he wants to get in shape? He goes to the fitness room, where he is waiting for treadmills, dumbbells and exercise equipment.

Attempts to create a simulator that would facilitate entry into a state of conscious sleep, in the twentieth century, were made more than once. But until the appearance of Remee, all developments remained in scientific institutes and laboratories, not reaching the broad user.

When the budget mask for lucid dream Remee appeared on Kikstater , Becker money poured in on the river. For several weeks, the project scored more than 570 thousand dollars, although initially inventors Steve McGuigan and Duncan Fraser wanted to collect a modest 35 thousand.

Flashes of light

Steve and Duncan are connected by an old acquaintance - they studied together in high school in one of the suburbs of Philadelphia. Later, Steve started programming and web design in the US, and Duncan traveled the world for a couple of years working as a freelance photographer. Again, they were brought together by a fluke - both moved to Brooklyn about the same time and settled down on the same street without saying a word.

“We have been friends for twenty years now, but lucid dreams are not a topic that is usually discussed in society — all this is too strange and eccentric. Somehow, during a joint raid on nature, I just let slip, not attaching special importance to the question: “Duncan, do you know what a mask for lucid dreams is?” ”Recalls Steve.

The conversation fascinated friends, and they climbed into the Internet to study the subject further. Friends found on the network a powerful community of people practicing lucid dreams. On the forums, users shared their successes and failures, and the leitmotif sounded a complaint about the almost total absence of any auxiliary devices.

There is a demand, but the product that fully satisfies this demand is not there yet - this is the ideal situation for an entrepreneur. Find a vacant niche - success for any startup. Not postponing the case to a great box, my friends registered the inventor company Bitbanger Labs.

Electrodes and LEDs

If we put aside esoteric and stick to a scientific point of view, then we can say that lucid dream is an altered state of consciousness (along with hypnosis and trance), in which the dormant realizes himself in a dream and can more or less control its content. That is, in fact, to form reality by the power of one’s own thought.

The sleep of any person is divided into five phases. Vivid, memorable visions, including lucid dreams occur only during the fast sleep phase - at this time the brain activity increases dramatically, and in the sleeper, under the closed eyelids, the eyeballs rotate (rapid eyeball movement occurs, abbreviated as REM) hence the name of the mask ).

Lucid dreams became the object of scientific research in the nineties at Stanford University. The psychophysiologist Steven LaBerge (later the main modern guru of lucid dreams) attached electrodes to the heads of sleepers that monitor the frequency of brain impulses. This helped to reveal the phase of fast sleep - after the subject entered it, the LEDs on the inner surface of the device attached to his face turned on.

The flashes of light became the impetus for the subject to wake up halfway and realize himself in a dream. The NovaDreamer mask has become a commercial version of this device, but the high price, about $ 600, made it inaccessible to the mass user.

"And even ordinary dreams have not seen!"

The principle of operation of Remee is a lot like NovaDreamer. At first glance, Remee is a banal mask of dense fabric, but in fact it is a gadget stuffed with electronics. Inside the mask, in the area that comes into contact with the eyes, small LEDs are hidden. The gadget can be configured so that they light up at a certain time with a certain frequency. The sleeper must feel this winking through closed eyelids and be able to realize himself without waking up.

In 2012, the device went on sale in the United States. “Decreasing to the size of an atom. Teleport to Mars. Fly "- this was the slogan of BitbangerLabs. It seemed that now any person will be able to form reality in a dream by the power of thought. But soon after the start of sales, the forums began to fill up with disappointed reviews: “I put on a mask for the night and didn’t even see ordinary dreams!”

Unlike NovaDreamer, Remee does not have sensors that monitor brain activity. In this, in general, lies the secret of its availability and a stumbling block for many buyers - the sleeper will not notice a faint flashing light at any other time than the fast sleep phase. And if “missed” with the settings - you're in the span.

Track the period of fast sleep on their own, however, you can. Most of the sleep, any person, as a rule, turns around - turns over from side to side and moves his legs and arms, and only during the phase of deep sleep does everyone embrace complete immobility.

“For about two months every night, I monitored my sleeping position using the Sleep Cycle app,” writes the Digital Trends journalist. - It uses an accelerometer built into the smartphone. After about 40 days, I had enough statistical information to figure out how long after I lay down, I enter the deep sleep phase. ”

Armed with this knowledge, he managed to set up his Remee mask so that the light would light up strictly at the right time and quickly learn how to enter a lucid dream.

Training and training again

Perhaps many people will be disappointed to learn that in order to fully use the mask they will have to tinker badly, and even that result is not guaranteed.

But the purpose of such a mask is to help enter a state of conscious sleep, and not just to give a person control over his dream. In fact, between the time to enter a state of conscious sleep, and in order to fully manage it - hours of training.

You can not pump up the muscles of a wonderful patch, lying on the couch. You can not lose weight by removing from the diet just one food.

Similarly, the practice of lucid dreams necessarily requires considerable commitment and willpower.

Remee is not a magic door to other worlds, but just a simulator that allows you to speed up the pumping of consciousness, without which it is better to forget about lucid dreams.

But these efforts, apparently, are worth it.

“I was sitting at my desk, but the work was not going, my thoughts were moving in a different direction. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed off. Before my eyes appeared atoms, frolicking and gathering in small groups. Chains of atoms, crawling and wriggling snakes in space. But what is it! Suddenly, one of the snakes grabbed themselves by the tail like Ouroboros and mockingly spun before my eyes, ”- so the German chemist Augustus Kekule describes the lucid dream that gave him a great scientific discovery.

He spent the rest of the night working out a hypothesis about the cyclic structure of benzene, which was later brilliantly confirmed.