What if there was a device that could control dreams? Would you like to be able to go to bed and have your dreams dictated to you? This is the basic concept behind MIT researchers’ new research and a tool they created. The premise here sounds like it was ripped out of Christopher Nolan’s movie Inception, but this isn’t science fiction.
Instead, new research published in the journal Scientific Reports showcases how the team utilized targeted dream incubation and built a device to control dreams that helped drive an increase in post-sleep creative performance. The study is built on the speculation of how connected dreams and creativity are.
That’s why MIT scientists set out to investigate that connection and see if they could build a device that controls dreams. The idea was to see if they could press specific themes into dream content, allowing them to effectively determine what the sleeping person dreams about, at least to some degree. They were able to achieve this with the device they named Dormio.
The goal with the device wasn’t just to control dreams, MIT neuroscientist and study co-author Kathleen Esfahany says. Researchers wanted to test if themes could be introduced that would help with creative tasks in the future. The research was heavily built on a previous study from French sleep researchers that found participants were more likely to solve math problems after waking up from hypnagogic sleep.
This is an interesting study which could provide better ways of utilizing the creative abilities of the brain in the future. It helps to understand the brain’s workings for now. And, if you want to test things out, you can try out an online version of the device that controls dreams.
If your creativity is lacking, you might want to take a nap and then wake up. There are many , ways to get your mind to relax for just a moment.
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