Study: Dream-shaping app ensures restful night
The free iPhone app monitors sleep patterns and plays carefully constructed sounds designed to evoke pleasant dreams.
Results of a new mass- participation experiment show that the “Dream:ON” download really does influence dreaming, helping people to sleep peacefully and wake up happy and refreshed.
One unexpected finding was that a full moon appeared to bring on bizarre dreams. A possible reason is that moonlight streaming through the bedroom curtains creates feelings of unease inherited from our prehistoric past, when predators were a constant threat.
Psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire, said: “People fall asleep later when there’s a full moon, sleep about 20 minutes less, and spend less time in deep sleep. We know that poor sleep is associated with disturbing dreams.”
For the two-year study, Prof Wiseman’s team collected millions of dream reports from volunteers who downloaded the app more than 500,000 times.
The app works by using a motion detector to sense when a sleeper is dreaming and then playing a chosen “soundscape” that conjures up thoughts of a particular scene — for instance, a forest or the seaside.
“If someone chose the nature landscape then they were more likely to dream about greenery and flowers,” Prof Wiseman said. “In contrast, if they selected the beach soundscape then they were more likely to dream about the sun beating down on their skin.
“Having positive dreams helps people wake-up in a good mood, and boosts their productivity. We have now discovered a way of giving people sweet dreams, and this may also form the basis for a new type of therapy to help those suffering from certain psychological problems, such as depression.”
People who are depressed dream about five times more than average, he said.
He describes the findings in his book Night School.
