Sweet Dreams Are Made By This

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."

Comments

Flim-flam.

[RyanFenton]

Classic flim-flam. Variations of these flashing-light eye-glasses have been around for decades, claiming to be everything from a headache cure to, in this case a dream machine. The nice thing about claiming things about dreams is that most dreams aren't remembered, so there's nothing to be able to go after when it comes to false advertising.

Yes, I'm a skeptic. I suppose I should want to try this product beforhand to be scientifically valid... but testimonial "evidence" with this sort of product does not give me any motivation to hand out money so I can reward these people to test their wild theory.

Ryan Fenton

Re:Flim-flam.

[OldManAndTheC]

After reading Stephen LaBerge's book "Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming" I bought a NovaDreamer from the Lucidity Institute. The device consists of a sleep mask with a small electronics unit, two LEDs, a REM sensor and a buzzer. To use it, you program it to flash the LEDs and (optionally) give a sound cue when you are in REM. It did work for me on several occasions, producing vivid lucid dreams, although I was disappointed that it did not work as often as I had hoped.

The flashing lights in this case are not an attempt to induce specific brainwave patterns (like you might find in an "entrainment" device), but are merely intended to gain your attention while you are dreaming, and thus allow you to become conscious of your dream state without actually waking up. To recognize the light cues, you must train yourself to react to the sight of flashing lights when you are awake. You go through your day as usual, and when a light flashes, you ask yourself "Am I dreaming?". This is supposed to prepare you to react the same way when you see the LEDs flashing while you are dreaming.

The rig was pretty cool to use, but after I while I gave it up as I wasn't getting the results I wanted, and it was not always comfortable to wear. It did help spark my interest in lucid dreaming, so I wouldn't say it was a complete waste.

Those who want to play around with lucid dreaming don't need these special devices to get started. A simple tape recorder or CD player plugged into a wall socket with a timer switch can produce sound cues at the approximately correct stage of REM sleep. Most people are pretty regular with their sleep patterns, and go into REM at the same time each night. With enough practice you can improve your ability to enter the lucid dream state, or so the theory goes.

You can certainly improve your ability to remember dreams, simply by writing them down or recording them each morning. So it is possible to measure how the effectiveness of your attempts to have a lucid dream.

I doubt that the "Dream Workshop" would work as intended for normal dreams. My own experience with this is that your dreams go in whatever direction they want, script or no script. However, a lucid dream is another animal altogether. When you are conscious in the dream state, you can actively direct it. Your ability to control what happens in a lucid dream may be absolute or minimal - it varies from person to person. But you will certainly be more in control than in a normal dream.

It's great fun to experiment with. The Lucidity Institute website has some excellent suggestions.

This dream brought to you by...

[TyrranzzX]

Coca-cola, happy subconscience suggestion!

Combine this with sound rifles, through-wall sonics and lasers...mmm scarrry.

Great for those tough bugs problems

[G4from128k]

Just stare at the code or architecture diagram and have a recording of your computer reading the code aloud to you. By morning you should have it all debugged.

Operant / Classic / Conditioning?

[secondvertigo]

An idea I had *Due to my health care background*

Could this technique be used to condition aspects of human concious on a negative scale?

We all know the story of volunteers salivating at the image of a fractal *related to ice cream I believe* but this could be triggered without resistance, a subtle but scary thought

Anyone care to expand on the ramifications and / or way to achieve this?

Device not needed...

[LostCluster]

It's been known for quite a while that what you dream about is usually whatever you were thinking about just before you went to sleep. Staring at a photograph is one way to make sure you're thinking about the person you want to dream about... so who needs the gadget?

Dream Instigation

[pipingguy]

Isn't this similar to the phenomenon of waking up and realizing that your dream contained bits and pieces of what was on TV/radio while you slept (eg, your radio or TV is set as a wake-up alarm)? I.E., your subconcious mind picked-up on cues while you were sleeping and inserted them into the dream.

Also...

[Anonymous Coward]

Going through the book and actually reading it out loud probably did more for your long term memory than playing it while you were off in fairyland...

Re:Why not...

[Ralph Wiggam]

I would want the 2001 Christina Aguilera. Is anyone else frightened by the 2004 Christina?

-B

Re:FAG

[TRACK-YOUR-POSITION]

hey, maybe the poster was just gay? Nothing wrong with that.

Re:Lucid Dreaming is Cheaper

[Anonymous Coward]

in case youre not familiar with lucid dreaming techniques, the first step is of course to recognize that youre in a dream. one thing to help you do that is to build up habits that you do in real life and thus hopefully do from time to time in your dreams too.

for example, every so often ask yourself "what was i just doing? do my surroundings really make sense?" etc. and when the answers surprise you then you can recognize that you're in a dream.

my technique is different. every few minutes i just think of pulling my pants down. in real life of course i think thats a dumb idea and i dont do it, but in my dreams theres no inhibitions and its easy enough. plus it leads to the kind of lucid dreams i like. :)

on the other hand, ingraining that as a habit might lead to embarrassment if i ever got really drunk...

Re:Sounds Tempting!

[JPriest]

I retain information in my sleep, I remember times in HS when my teacher would pull "Mr. Priest, what was ... again" and I'd repeat just about everything they said word for word. This is not possible in all stages of sleep, but it seems to work in early stages.
The reason for this I am not sure, maybe because when I am conscious I am so bored with the lecture I find something else to do. I think this is because public education is designed to be taught at a speed that the lowest 5% can keep up with, I never really fell asleep during class in college.

Re:Why not...

[cubicleman]

Britney, Christina Agulerra...ugh...now Naomi Watts, Hallie Berry, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Tori Amos, or Rene Russo---I'd be interested.. :)

mod parent up for poster having balls.

[Artifex]

hey, maybe the poster was just gay? Nothing wrong with that.

I'm surprised you haven't noticed yet just how homophobic many Slashdot readers really are. They'll be open minded when it comes to drugs or violating copyrights, but not when it comes to letting consenting adult males have sex with each other.

(You'd think straight male slashdotters would want as little competition for females as possible, actually)

Re:mod parent up for poster having balls.

[monkeyfinger]

(You'd think straight male slashdotters would want as little competition for females as possible, actually)

That's how I've always looked at it, a gay man is just one less competitor for the ladies. The more men who turn gay the better. I've been chatted up by blokes on numerous occasions and I see it as a compliment not a problem.

I've always seen some truth in the idea that homophobes are often closet homosexuals who are threatened by gayness because they are in denial about their own sexuality. I'm glad that homosexuality isn't as much of a taboo as it was in my parent's or grandparent's time. I hope society continues to become more accepting of peoples preferences.

Re:mod parent up for poster having balls.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm surprised you haven't noticed yet just how homophobic many Slashdot readers really are.

I'm truely surprised you haven't notice how socity in general is homophobic. Maybe you just haven't noticed that it's unnature and goes against the grain of everything that is right in the world. Maybe it's just the fact those homophobics people hold marriage secared and thinks a child should be raised knowing a mother and a father. Maybe they think being gay spread diease at a higher rate. Maybe it's the image of two males having sex which is so vourger that they would rather think about it. Maybe they are homophobic because they would rather live their lives without someone sexuiaty throw in thier face all the fucking time.

Yes, I think the last one is it.

Re:mod parent up for poster having balls.

[seraph93]

Maybe you just haven't noticed that it's unnature and goes against the grain of everything that is right in the world.

Actually, if you do a bit of research, you'll find out that there are plenty of queer animals around. Homosexuality is a perfectly natural occurrence in every sexually reproducing species in the world. If you take nature as an example, the only thing unnatural about human homosexuality is our reaction to it.

Maybe it's just the fact those homophobics people hold marriage secared and thinks a child should be raised knowing a mother and a father.

If marriage is so sacred, then why are there more divorcees than married people? Why are there so many children with only one parent? I think it would be interesting to see how many gay marriages last as opposed to straight marriages, but we'd have to allow homosexuals to marry each other for that.

Maybe they think being gay spread diease at a higher rate.

Yeah, those fucking gays, givin' me the flu all the time. It's even affecting my grammar! Or maybe you're talking about sexually transmitted diseases? Well, if you don't want to catch an STD from one of those gays, then don't fuck any of them. It's as easy as that.

Maybe it's the image of two males having sex which is so vourger that they would rather think about it.

What? What do you mean by "vourger"? Seeing as we're talking about homophobes here, I'm going to venture a guess as to the definition of "vourger": So incredibly erotic that it causes onlookers to question their sexuality. Really, now, if you find images of two males having sex to be so offensive, then why are you looking at them? Wash your hands off before you respond.

Maybe they are homophobic because they would rather live their lives without someone sexuiaty throw in thier face all the fucking time.

Now this one I can agree with. Those homos do seem to be rather aggressive about promoting and defending their sexuality, don't they? Maybe they wouldn't be so defensive about their sexual preferences if they weren't always under attack. You don't see any Straight Pride Parades, do you? That's because being straight isn't taboo; straight folks don't need to clamour and shout for acceptance in society. I've got some sad news for you, Mister AC: These people aren't going away, and they're going to be throwing their sexuality in your face, over and over again, until you grow up and stop treating it like such a big deal.

And why should it be such a big deal? Really, there are countless thousands of guys out there, buggering each other, right now. How does that affect you at all? Why do you care so much about what goes on in other people's bedrooms?

Re:mod parent up for poster having balls.

[jareds]

Going by average number of distinct sexual partners (and presumably there are other objective metrics that would work as well), gays are more promiscuous than heterosexuals and heterosexuals are more promiscuous than lesbians. It is a bit misleading to say that homosexuals are more promiscuous than heterosexuals when it is so easy to split homosexuals into two groups with vastly different levels of promiscuity.

The reason for this should be overwhelmingly obvious: on average, men desire to be much more promiscuous than women do. The promiscuity of gays and lesbians simply reflects the relative desired promiscuity of men and women. Since heterosexual sex requires both a man and a woman, the promiscuity of heterosexuals falls between that of gays and lesbians.

I see no reason to dislike homosexual men more than heterosexual men simply because the latter are unable to be as promiscuous as they would like. If you believe that heterosexual men would not be as promiscuous as homosexual men if women desired promiscuity as much as men, I respectfully suggest that you are delusional.

Re:FAG

[LafinJack]

I think your friend and mine, Carl Sagan, could help you out a lot:

statistics of small numbers -- a close relative of observational selection (e.g., "They say 1 out of every 5 people is Chinese. How is this possible? I know hundreds of people, and none of them is Chinese. Yours truly." Or: "I've thrown three sevens in a row. Tonight I can't lose.");

Embarrassed?

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the five advantages of being dead is not caring what other people think anymore.

dangerous?

[luckyguesser]

As we all know, the subconscious is a powerful thing. Of course, this power is what facilitates stimuli becoming a collective dream. However, the subconscious also directs much of our decision-making process during the day. I'm not suggesting that this company would abuse that power, but it's always possible. Even if it wasn't with malicious intent, but a product of unpredictable circumstances in combination with the "life toy", what happens when a person's mind is altered for the worse?