Dreams

Four independent experiments across the globe have found that it's possible to establish two-way communications with people in the weird, hallucinatory state of lucid dreaming, opening up a new field of real-time "interactive dreaming" research.

New research has identified a dramatic change to the nature and purpose of sleep in babies, occurring around the age of two. The discovery suggests sleep initially aides brain building and neurodevelopment before rapidly switching to a reparative role.

A new study has, for the first time, homed in on a novel EEG signature that can identify when a subject is in an REM sleep stage. Prior to this, scientists were unable to differentiate between dreaming and waking states using EEG brainwave data alone.

A new study from researchers at the University of Adelaide suggests that taking vitamin B6 supplements before sleep may help a person better remember their dreams the next day. It is hoped that the specific vitamin could be recruited in the future to aid the process of lucid dreaming.

New research into what is occurring inside our brains when we dream points towards an entirely new understanding of the complex neurological processes involved in dreaming. As a result, the researchers are keen to define dreaming as a form of consciousness that occurs during sleep.

iWinks aims to make lucid dreaming easier and more fun with the dream-enhancing Aurora headband, using EEG sensors and other hardware to detect when a sleeper has entered REM sleep. Using LEDs and sounds, it signals the beginning of REM sleep and sets a mood.

Volunteers are being sought to try out the Dream:ON iPhone app, which may allow users to determine what sort of dreams they have.

The Yumemiru app detects when you enter REM sleep and plays a soundtrack aimed to influence your dreams.

A Japanese research team has created a technology that could eventually display images from people’s dreams on a computer screen by capturing the electrical signals that are sent from the eye’s retina to the brain’s visual cortex.

Takara, the company which invented the bowlingual dog and meowlingual cat translation devices, is not afraid of unusual concepts and the odd bit of artistic lic