Researchers have found a way for interacting directly with an individual’s dreaming brain
and manipulating the actual content of their dreams.
The study of dreams has entered the modern era in exciting ways, and researchers from
MIT and other institutions have created a community dedicated to advancing the field,
lending it legitimacy and expanding further research opportunities.
In a new research paper, researchers from the Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces group introduce
a novel method called “Targeted Dream Incubation” (TDI).
This protocol, implemented through an app in conjunction with a wearable sleep-tracking
sensor device, not only helps record dream reports, but also guides dreams toward particular
themes by repeating targeted information at sleep onset, thereby enabling incorporation
of this information into dream content.
The TDI method and accompanying technology serve as tools for controlled experimentation
in dream study, widening avenues for research into how dreams impact emotion, creativity,
memory, and beyond.
i-e The Targeted Dream Incubation (TDI) method is a technique for guiding dreams towards
specific themes.
Before sleeping, you choose a theme like “rabbits” or “The Rock,” and then, once you begin
sleeping, sounds associated with this theme are used to remind you of the theme at targeted
times and suspend you in early sleep stages, so you can still hear the sound even as you
dream.
Previous neuroscience studies from researchers such as sleep and cognitive sciences expert
Stickgold show that hypnagogia (the earliest sleep stage) is similar to the REM stage in
terms of brainwaves and experience; however, unlike REM, individuals can still hear audio
during hypnagogia while they dream.
To facilitate the TDI protocol, an interdisciplinary team at the Media Lab designed and developed
Dormio, a sleep-tracking device that can alter dreams by tracking hypnagogia and then delivering
audio cues based on incoming physiological data, at precise times in the sleep cycle,
to make dream direction possible.
Upon awakening, a person’s guided dream content can be used to complete tasks such
as creative story writing, and compared experimentally to waking thought content.
Dormio takes dream research to a new level, interacting directly with an individual’s
dreaming brain and manipulating the actual content of their dreams.
The Media Lab team’s first pilot study using Dormio demonstrated dream incubation and creativity
augmentation in six people, and was presented in 2018.
Multiple scientists began reaching out to the team expressing interest in replicating
the dream-control research.
These requests led to the first Dream Engineering workshop, which was held at the Media Lab
in January 2019.
Most sleep and dream studies have so far been limited to university sleep labs and have
been very expensive, as well as cumbersome, for both researchers and participants.
This research group is excited to be pioneering new, compact, and cheap technologies for studying
sleep and interfacing with dreams, thereby opening up opportunities for more studies
to happen and for these experiments to take place in natural settings.
Apart from benefiting scientists, this work has the potential to lead to new commercial
technologies that go beyond sleep tracking to issue interventions that affect sleep onset,
sleep quality, sleep-based memory consolidation, and learning.
An enhanced Dormio device has now also been built, as well as an analysis platform, streaming
platform, an iOS app for audio capture and streaming, and a web app for audio capture,
storage, and streaming.
These mobile and online platforms allow the TDI method to be shared through a variety
of open source technologies.
The Media Lab research team is also leading collaborations with artists, using dreams
to create new artwork and augment artistic creativity.