Want to learn how to control your dreams? Well, now there's an app for that. A British psychologist has developed a cell phone application that allows people to create the perfect dream by generating peaceful natural "soundscapes" that evoke pleasant scenarios — such as a walk in the woods or along a quiet beach — as they sleep.
The iPhone app, detailed on the
Medical Xpress Website
, was developed as part of a 2-year study of dream control by psychology professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire.
Wiseman teamed up with software developers YUZA to create the so-called "Dream:ON" iPhone app, which monitors a person during sleep and plays a carefully crafted soundscape when they dream designed to evoke a pleasant scene.
The team hoped that the sounds would influence people's dreams. The app was also programmed to sound a gentle alarm to wake participants in the experiment, and they were asked to submit a description of their dream.
The app was downloaded more than 500,000 times by users and the researchers collected millions of dream reports. The results showed the soundscapes did indeed influence people's dreams, Wiseman said.
"If someone chose the nature landscape then they were more likely to have a dream about greenery and flowers," he said. "In contrast, if they selected the beach soundscape then they were more likely to dream about the sun beating down on their skin."
In addition, the researchers found people's dreams were especially bizarre around the time of a full moon.
"In 2013, neuroscientists from the University of Basel discovered that people experience more disturbed sleeping patterns around the time of a full moon," noted Wiseman. "We have seen a similar pattern, with more bizarre dreams being associated with a full moon."
The results also showed certain soundscapes produced far more pleasant dreams.
"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," said Wiseman.
The findings are described in Wiseman's book on sleep and dreaming, "Night School." The Dream:ON app and all of the soundscapes are available free of charge.
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