Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 10

Lucid Dreaming Mask

Timed LEDs prompt your brain to direct your dreams.

By Nathan True

YOU’RE SITTING IN YOUR CAR, DRIVING to work. At a stoplight, the car across the way starts flashing its lights at you. Squinting, you think: What’s this guy’s problem? Lazily, you recall something about bright lights ... and then you remember. Flashing lights mean I’m dreaming! You take a moment to confirm it (yes, your glove compartment is filled with goldfish, as expected), then step calmly out of your car and decide to fly through the air.

This is the “lucid dreaming” state, which lets you interact consciously with your dream worlds and break the rules of reality. Lucid dreaming is fun, and enthusiasts have developed many ways of trying to induce the phenomenon, ...