A psychologist and the University of Hertfordshire professor Richard Wiseman has designed an app to shape the last vision we have before waking up so that we could have uplifting and thought-provoking dreams while we snooze.
Dream:ON became available on the iTunes App Store in 2012 and has since been downloaded over 500,000 times. Wiseman and the app developers asked users to report its effectiveness, and 13 million positive experiences is surely enough for the app to be declared a success.
Here’s how it works. You let the app know when you want to wake up, setting a volume and your preferred alarm ring. Then, you choose one of the 40 soundscapes, a collection of noises that include birds chirping, horses neighing and a serene garden.
“The first ones were designed to be relaxing, such as the nature soundscape, or somewhat strange, such as the city one,” Professor Wiseman said.
They asked about 1,000 people to describe what they would consider a perfect dream, creating the rest of the soundscapes based on their answers.
The aim of the soundscape is to craft a dream’s overall feel. They found that soundscapes involving nature led to positive dreams while those resembling a bustling city created way more chaotic or mysterious dreams.
These soundscapes can also tuned to its “lucid” mode, which apparently allows users to have more control over the events of their dreams.
Finally, place the phone face down at a corner of the mattress and not under a pillow.
To ensure you don’t wake up, fall back asleep and forget the dream, the app has a “Smart Alarm” that rings if it detects light movement.
If you want sleeping to be fun and productive, we strongly recommend this app!
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