MIT scientists can 'hack' your dreams with sound and scent

Have you ever thought of someone who might interfere with your dream, or dreams that could be 'programmed' at will? This may sound like only appearing in fantasy movies, but in fact has become a reality with new experiments performed successfully by a group of scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA). .

The team at the MIT Dream Lab believes that it is possible to use sounds and scents to interfere with the dream, thereby improving the quality of sleep in a healthy way. This work focuses on hypnosis, the dream-like state between our conscious and subconscious minds, which often takes place as people gradually move from being awake to sleeping.

'We spend a third of our lives sleeping, and it's great to be able to intervene, turning this time into a' tonic 'that complements your real life when you wake up, it's really important. ', said Dr. Adam Horowitz, member of MIT Dream Lab.

Many previous studies have shown that dreams can contribute to memory consolidation, emotional regulation and overall mental health. Instead of simply exploring the role of dreams in our lives, researchers want to see what happens when we interfere with dreams.

The MIT Dream Lab believes that it is possible to use technology to harness the subconscious, proving the value of dreams, through a scientific experiment.

At the heart of the experiment is Dormio, a glove-like device that is equipped with sensors that monitor muscle movement, heart rate and conductivity of the skin to monitor the entire state of the body in real time. thereby identifying different stages of sleep. It can help us fall into a state of hypnosis - a half-hearted state between alertness and sleep where thoughts separate from reality and begin to dream. When the tester wears the device and enters the hypnotic stage, Dormio will emit audible signals, then record any feedback from the tester as well as the slightest changes from their body.

Dormio

In an experiment involving 50 people, the team found that the content of the sound appeared successfully in everyone's dreams - for example, if volunteers uttered the word 'tiger' while Being 'hypnotized' means that they are seeing a tiger in their dreams.

Not stopping there, volunteers will have to wear a device called BioEssence that can monitor heart rate and brain waves to monitor the stages of sleep, and especially the ability to emit scents - the type of The aroma is associated with a specific memory. Researchers believe this can help soothe traumatic memories by releasing positive scents while people enter a state of hypnosis and start dreaming.

'The sense of smell is particularly interesting because it is directly linked to memory and emotional areas of the brain.'

Instead of creating technology that can control dreams, MIT Dream Lab researchers want to use technology to have open access to dreams and make them 'more useful'.