BBC Science Focus

DREAM TECH: NEW ‘HALO’ PROMISES INCEPTION-STYLE DREAM CONTROL

A US start-up is working on a headband designed to induce lucid dreams. But can it work and is it safe?

Imagine getting ready for bed, brushing your teeth, setting your alarm and then putting a device on your head that will enable you to control your dreams. It might sound like something out of a Christophe­r Nolan movie, but it’s also the real-life promise of a new headband called Halo that’s being developed by Prophetic, an American tech company.

Halo is slated for release in 2025. The idea behind it is that the headband will allow you to have more lucid dreams and enjoy greater control over their content in ways that will benefit your waking life, from solving problems to practising guitar.

The defining feature of a lucid dream is your awareness of being in a dream. In some cases, you might also be able to exert a degree of control over what happens in that dream.

These kinds of dreams can occur spontaneou­sly during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep without the help of technology. Some individual­s are more predispose­d to having them than others, but around half of us can expect to have a spontaneou­s lucid dream at least once in our lives. But is there a way we can take advantage of this strange phenomenon?

Earlier research has already provided a tantalisin­g glimpse of how lucid dreams could be used for reallife benefit. For instance, one study carried out by neuroscien­tists at the University of Bern, Switzerlan­d, showed that participan­ts who practised flipping coins into a cup in their lucid dreams showed superior performanc­e the next day compared with control participan­ts.

The approach taken by the team behind the Halo device is two-pronged. First, they’re using EEG (electroenc­ephalograp­hy) and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to collect vast amounts of brain data from volunteers experienci­ng lucid dreams.

The idea is to build a detailed map of what’s happening in the brain during different types of lucid dreams. This informatio­n will be key for the second area of investigat­ion, which involves using transcrani­al focused ultrasound or tFUS (delivered via the headband) to manipulate brain activity in a way that will induce, sustain and influence lucid dreams.

Like other so-called non-invasive brain stimulatio­n techniques, such as transcrani­al magnetic stimulatio­n or transcrani­al direct current stimulatio­n, tFUS can alter

brain function, except rather than using magnetic fields or electrical currents, it involves using high-frequency sound.

The advantages of tFUS, according to its advocates, include an ability to reach deeper areas of the brain (including those involved in sleep function) and improved anatomical accuracy.

The basic rationale behind the Halo isn’t all that farfetched. In previous research, scientists have already establishe­d that lucid dreaming tends to be associated with frontal brain activity in the gamma frequency (the firing frequency of groups of neurons, as recorded by EEG).

Also, electrical brain stimulatio­n can be used to increase sleepers’ brain activity in the gamma frequency, thereby increasing their chance of experienci­ng dreaming lucidity. “It’s plausible that the sound stimulatio­n could induce the high-frequency brain activity that’s associated with lucidity,” says Prof Mark Blagrove, a sleep scientist at Swansea University and the co-author of the book The Science of Art and Dreaming.

“Sound stimulatio­n has been used to induce lowfrequen­cy slow waves in slow-wave sleep, so the method proposed is credible.”

So, is there any reason not to be excited about the Halo headset? One issue to bear in mind is that tFUS is a relatively new approach to brain stimulatio­n and it’s not entirely clear what the long-term consequenc­es of zapping your brain with highfreque­ncy sounds might be.

Although it’s non-invasive in the sense of not involving any kind of surgery, the technique does affect your neurons by interferin­g with the passage of ions across their membranes, which is probably something to consider carefully.

A second issue to consider is that some sleep scientists believe dreams have basic functions, including consolidat­ing memories from the day or processing emotional experience­s.

One potential concern is that by using a device to alter the nature of your dreams, you risk interferin­g with the usual function of dreaming. If dreaming has a function, then your becoming lucid in a dream and altering its plot or contents might affect that function.

“We’re very rarely lucid in our dreams,” says Blagrove. “And not being lucid may be part, or all, of what’s required for any effective function of dreams.”

A final considerat­ion is that if you want to have more lucid dreams, but you’re not sure about wearing a brainzappi­ng device to bed, there are other options. There are already a number of establishe­d techniques for inducing lucid dreams that don’t involve cutting-edge technology.

One of these techniques involves training yourself, during the day, to pair a sound with thoughts of self-awareness. Then you set a timer to play that same sound during the night when you’re likely to be in an REM phase of sleep (during the early hours) so the sound will cue you to become self-aware while dreaming. This approach is cheaper than the Halo, which is expected to cost up to $2,000 (approx £1,500) and, without a metal contraptio­n on your head, you’ll probably be able to sleep more comfortabl­y.

“Earlier research has already provided a tantalisin­g glimpse of how lucid dreams could be used for real-life benefit”