Hi, I'm Alex Kitson from Simon Fraser University and today I'm presenting Lucid Loop.
Have you ever had a dream where suddenly you realize that you're dreaming?
This is called Lucid Dreaming or knowing that you're in a dream
while dreaming and potentially having the ability to control your dreams and do whatever you want.
Sounds pretty good, right? To learn lucid dreaming,
there are two techniques that we looked at. First is Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams or MILD.
This is visualizing becoming lucid or rehearsing your dreams. There's also focused attention so
that you notice the dream elements in order to become lucid. Lucid dreaming has a lot of benefits
like increased positive mood, greater life satisfaction, and increased self-esteem.
But, learning to lucid dream can be really challenging and kind of inconsistent. So, how
could we make this experience more accessible to people and get all those benefits in waking life.
One way is through immersive experiences, like virtual reality. There are many parallels
between the two. Dream generation echoes illusory perception of VR. In both, you know you're in
a non-ordinary reality but you also feel like you're really there. Both support the ability to
do whatever you want. And both experiences have impact on your waking behaviour and thinking.
Neurofeedback is another tool we can use to simulate aspects of lucid dreaming by looking at
focused attention--which is, simply put, looking at the higher band wave frequency in an EEG.
We wanted to combine the two, immersive experiences and neurofeedback,
and see if this could be like lucid dreaming or not. And we wanted to explore what design
features and considerations should we have if we wanted to simulate lucid dreaming.
So, we set out to design Lucid Loop.
We looked at a wide range of previous literature
and interviews with lucid dreamers describing their experiences.
We came up with ten design elements to put in Lucid Loop: painterly aesthetic, vivid colours,
particles, forest environment, scarf dancers, whispering, affirmation, looping, non-embodied
self, and levels of abstraction. We took all these and we wanted to create an immersive experience.
So, we used a 360 video and then used computer graphics overlaid on top.
For the visuals, we went through many iterations to get the feeling of a lucid dream just right.
We wanted it to evoke a sense of bizarreness but also we wanted it to feel a bit realistic too.
Here are some examples before narrowing down on what our final product was.
Here's the result.
whispering: Next time I'm dreaming, I'll remember I'm dreaming.
Next time I'm
dreaming, I'll remember I'm dreaming. Next time I'm dreaming, I'll remember I'm dreaming.
So, this is how it all works. First, we get data from the EEG headset. Then,
over Bluetooth, an app called Muse Monitor that relays the data through OSC to our VR headset,
which then displays the visuals and audio, which we rendered beforehand in Unity.
As focused attention increases, the visuals become more clear, vibrant and loud. And,
as it decreases, the visuals and audio become less clear, dull, and quiet.
After we developed Lucid Loop, we wanted to test it to see if
lucid dreamers actually had an experience like this.
So, we recruited nine active and proficient lucid dreamers. First, through screening questionnaires.
Then we showed them Lucid Loop where they experienced it for 10 minutes.
We recorded their experiences and then played that back to them while asking them questions
like what features were like their lucid dreams and what weren't?
We used thematic analysis to derive three major themes.
Relating, discovering, and being there.
In relating, people would relate their experience in Lucid Loop to their own life experiences. For
example, it might have reminded them of a person they know, a place they've been,
an object they've seen. This participant thought it looked like a psychedelic experience to them,
where it felt at times out of control and really blurred.
But, if they gave in to the experience, somehow it made it ok.
In discovering, people wanted to push the boundaries of the system, explore the
interactions, see what they couldn't and could do, just like in a lucid dream. This participant saw
the landscape went from very defined to then completely out of focus. And, they thought
that was cool because they actually tried to do that. They saw a change in their mental state.
Participants felt like they were an active observer in this experience. And, while they
couldn't directly interact with the object through their body, they felt like they were present
with people and with objects. This participant said that the forest environment did something
for their agency in the scene, which is ultimately what gets you into lucid dreaming.
When comparing Lucid Loop to lucid dreams, our participants
found many similarities. They felt like it evoked an emotional reaction.
There was a fluidity between self and environment that was very much like a lucid dream.
They also felt like there was this tension between noticing what's going on and wanting to control
it, much like their lucid dreams. There were some differences that were maybe a limitation of the
technology at the time. But, we're looking at ways we can look at this in the future.
In terms of design considerations, here are four that we thought are important for trying
to simulate aspects of lucid dreaming. First, alluding to experiences of lucid dreaming.
We did this through our design elements like levels of abstraction, painterly aesthetic,
and forest environment. We also recommend reality checks. For example, we did looping or the
non-embodied self. Points of focus and also people in the scene help to make it feel like a dream.
In terms of neurofeedback, we found that the gamma brainwave band seemed to work for most
participants, but we are curious if there are better ways to look at this data. And, we are
kind of skeptical of any consumer EEG devices that are looking to correlate with mental states.
In terms of the immersive experience in an HMD, this seemed to work really well in generating a
sense of presence with objects and people in the experience, and creating a fantastical
world in which you wouldn't otherwise be able to experience in waking life, much like a dream.
Experiential learning theory says that we can use immersive experiences to develop skills.
So, we wonder, could immersive experiences like Lucid Loop help teach people to lucid dream?
That's something we're looking at in the future.
Our three key insights from our whole process in this research were one: that Lucid Loop did
seem to simulate a lot of aspects of lucid dreaming, but there is work to be done.
And, we're curious about validating Lucid Loop and comparing it to lucid dreams directly.
Second: immersive experiences, like VR, seemed to have an impact on our perceptions, behaviours,
and sense of self, much like other states of consciousness. And, we wonder how immersive tech
could help us better understand ourselves
and give us optimal experience. Finally, situated in the field of Dream Engineering,
this work challenges the idea that technology and sleep are negative. Works like these are important
in steering the sleep and dream - technology relationship towards a more positive future.
Thank you to my co-authors and collaborators.