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Just a few short weeks ago I experimented with some pills that would allow me to experience lucid dreaming, and I documented the deatils.  It was called the Alpha Brain Experiment, and it was awesome.

Did you miss it?  Check out the links below to see what crazy stuff I dreamed.

Alpha Brain Intro

Alpha Brain 1

Alpha Brain 2

Alpha Brain 3

Alpha Brain 4

But for 30 of the Alpha Brain pills, I had to shell out $35 bucks!  Oh, and on top of that, I had to take upwards of 3 pills a night to receive the desired effects.  I can’t do math, but that’s a lot of money if I want to use these pills to continue lucid dreaming.  Which I do.

So there has to be a better way right?  YES!

Enter Remee, the REM enhancing Lucid Dream Mask.

Swing over to their Kickstarter page to watch their video.

How awesome does that look?!  I want one so badly.

OK sure, this all sounds great, and they have a super flashy video…but why should I buy this?

There’s a lot more to Lucid Dreaming than simply acknowledging that it’s real and crossing your fingers. It’s tough! Your body has a been dreaming one way for your entire life, so teaching it to dream a new way requires some effort. Dozens of websites have cropped up where lucid dreamers, novice and expert alike, flock to swap stories and tips. Some of these techniques include Reality Checks – a quick “lucid test” that requires forming simple habits during waking life that you then perform during dreams. Other methods, like WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming) involve taking a very active role in the process of falling asleep, which can lead to entering directly into a dream from wakefulness. Remee aims to make all of this a lot easier by providing recognizable external input into your dreams. You may find that you don’t have to remember to ask “am I dreaming?” and count your fingers – with its customizable light patterns, Remee is doing the reminding for you. You may find yourself sitting at an outdoor bistro with Ellen Page and suddenly a soft pattern of red lights appears in your field of vision. Back and forth. Back and forth. “That looks familiar.” you think. Wait. Remee! That’s Remee! I’m dreaming! This is a dream!

Boom. Congratulations. You’re lucid. With luck, and a little help from Remee, you can stay that way!

Why red lights?

We spent a lot of time making sure that Remee’s lights were configured in such a way that it would work well for all face shapes and head sizes. Six lights creates a much larger effective signal area so that even if the mask shifts during sleep you’ll still most likely have at least a few lights over your eyes.  Even cooler, by having six lights we make it possible to create much more unique signals that can strobe, sweep and blink in ways that are not only recognizable, but that stimulate your visual field in a more tangible way.  In addition,  red light penetrates skin much more readily than other wavelengths.  Remember when you were a kid and you put a flashlight in your mouth to make your cheeks glow red? That happens because red light is able to pass through your skin, and in the case of Remee, your eyelids, much more easily.  On a side note, red LEDs also use much less power than other colors so we were able to keep you from strapping a 9v battery to your head.

Why am I still asking questions?  Where can I donate?

Remee Kickstarter Page 

Oh and for all you soldering nerds out there (like Doc Oz and I):

Remee is built around an atmega168 running on the internal oscillator.  Which means its fully compatible with the Arduino IDE.  If you’re inclined, you’ll be able to load whatever code you like on Remee and we’ll be sure to create a tutorial to show you how. We are working on a simple way to hook an ISP to the board with no soldering or messy wires too. The light sensor bit-banging is pretty cool and we can’t wait to share that with the world with a forthcoming tutorial, including part numbers and settings so you can use it in your own projects.  We will update as things move along.

Do you have your wallet out yet?  Why the hell not?!

Oh, you want rewards?  They give you rewards.  Swing over to their Kickstarter page to see what you’ll get with your donations!