Machines can not only help people record dreams, they can also guide dreams to specific topics.
Dream research has entered the modern era in an exciting way. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other institutions have created a community dedicated to advancing the field, naming this research, and opening up opportunities for further research.
Recently, the Media Lab fluid interface group introduced a new protocol called “Directed Dream Incubation” (TDI) in one of its papers. People only need to wear a sleep tracking sensor and connect it to the mobile app to communicate.
TDI can not only record dreams, but also guide the development of dreams—just repeat specific information at the beginning of sleep. TDI methods and related technologies, as control experiment tools in dream research, have opened up a new way for humans to study how dreams affect emotion, creativity, and memory.
This paper, titled “Dormio: A Targeted Dream Incubator,” was co-authored by lead researcher Adam Haar Horowitz and media arts and science professor Pattie Maes, who is also the head of the fluid interface group. Other authors of this paper include Tony J. Cunningham, a postdoctoral fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, and Robert Stickgold, director of the Sleep and Cognition Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Previous neuroscience research by researchers such as Stickgold, an expert in sleep and cognitive sciences, has shown that light sleep (the earliest stage of sleep) is similar to rapid eye movement sleep (REM) in terms of brain waves and sensations; however, it differs from REM. , People can still hear the sound when dreaming in light sleep.
Horowitz explained: “This state of mind is vague and loose, flexible and free. It is like letting the mind roam and indulge in it, let the body float and fall from time to time, and new feelings will be generated at any time. Thinking is in a clear and dreamy state. Quickly switch between.”
In order to implement the TDI protocol, an interdisciplinary team in Media Lab designed and developed a sleep tracking device Dormio, which can deliver appropriate music at the precise time of the sleep cycle by tracking the physiological data generated by a person during light sleep Thus leading the dream. After waking up, people can use guided dreams to complete tasks, such as creative story writing, or experimentally comparing dreams with waking thoughts.
Stickgold said: “Dormio takes the research of dreams to a new level. It directly interacts with the brain in the dream and even manipulates the actual content of the dream. The potential value of Dormio in improving learning and creativity is incredible.”
Robert Stickgold, director of the Sleep and Cognitive Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said: “Dormio takes the study of dreams to a new level, interacting directly with the brain in the dream and manipulating the actual content of the dream.”
In the first pilot study of the Media Lab research team, Dormio incubated the dreams of six subjects and increased their creativity.
The Media Lab team published this research result at the 2018 Human-Computer Interaction Conference (alt.CHI). Several scientists started contacting the Media Lab research team, expressing interest in replicating dream control research. These needs led to the first Dreamland Engineering seminar, held at Media Lab in January 2019, by Maes, Haar Horowitz and Judith Amores of the Fluid Interface Group and Michelle, a visiting researcher at the Sleep and Neurophysiology Laboratory at the University of Rochester Carr organization. This seminar brought together many of the world’s leading dream researchers, including pioneers such as Deirdre Barrett, Bjorn Rasch, Ken Paller, and Stephen LaBerge. The big guys gathered together to study and discuss new dream technologies.
Maes said: “So far, most sleep and dream research is limited to sleep laboratories in universities, which is expensive and cumbersome for researchers and participants. Our research team is very happy to be able to create novel, concise, Cheap technology to study sleep and even dream interactions provides opportunities for more research and routine experiments. In addition to benefiting scientists, this technology has the potential to brew new commercial technologies that will not only be simple Sleep tracking, and it can also interfere or influence the triggering sleep process, sleep quality, sleep-based memory integration ability and learning ability.”
This technology is the focus of Haar Horowitz’s research in Media Arts and Science. In the past year, he conducted a larger dream study on 50 subjects, which replicated and expanded on previous findings.
Haar Horowitz said: “In the three creativity tests, both subjective and objective indicators show that dream incubation is linked to ability gains. Dreaming of a specific theme seems to bring benefits after waking up, such as related to this theme. This is not uncommon. Historical figures such as Mary Shelley or Salvador Dali have all been inspired by dreams. The difference is that we have induced these beneficial effects in a purposeful and targeted manner. Dreams of creativity.”
Now the research team has built an enhanced version of the Dormio device, including an analysis platform, a streaming platform, an iOS application for audio capture and streaming, and a web application for audio capture, storage and streaming program. These mobile and online platforms allow the sharing of TDI methods through various open source technologies.
Some other universities have also started related Dormio research, including Duke University, Boston College, Harvard University, University of Rochester, and University of Chicago.
Media Lab’s research team also cooperates with artists to use dreams to create new works of art, and is also a leader in the field of enhancing artistic creativity. This work combines sleep science and media art, and works have been exhibited at the Beijing International Art Biennale and the Austrian Electronic Arts Festival. Media Lab’s research team may also collaborate with installation artist Carsten Holler to create one New artwork.
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