Wouldn't it be great if you could control your dreams? You'd never have nightmares again, and you could meet all your celebrity crushes. Well, scientists can actually induce lucid dreams—ones you control—by placing electrodes in your brain, but there are easier ways to achieve them. An eye mask released last year claims to do this by shining light through your eyelids, and a new headband called LucidCatcher provides this effect by transmitting electrical signals to your brain.
The device, created by the company Luciding, contains electrodes that stimulate the brain's prefrontal cortex, an area often considered the seat of self-awareness. It detects when the user is experiencing REM sleep, when dreams tend to occur, and then sends electrical currents to the brain at a frequency of around 40 Hz, according to Luciding's website. It memorizes the shape of your head to send the signals to the right places and adjusts as you move around in your sleep.
Tests conducted by Luciding have found that users report more lucid dreaming experiences than average after sleeping with it on.
If you're not looking to invest in a gadget, one cheap way to induce lucid dreams is to set the intention to lucid-dream before you fall asleep, dream researcher Deirdre Barrett told Scientific American. You can also check whether or not you're awake every so often during the day so that you'll start doing that in your dreams as well. One way to do this is to notice something that only occurs when you're awake—like being able to read text and flick a light switch on and off—and testing it out.
Luciding did not immediately return Complex's request for comment.
