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For those whose nightmares are accompanied by sleep paralysis (usually teenagers), this pillow would let them sleep easier. Sensors built into the pillow would monitor the sleeper's brain waves. Whenever the characteristic pattern of a nightmare showed up along with a complete absence of movement on
the part of the sleeper an alarm would sound to wake the sleeper up. It wouldn't completely get rid of the nightmares but it would make them considerably shorter. This fact alone might make it easier for people with this problem to fall asleep.
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where are you getting your sleep info? this sounds completely upside down - umop apisdn |
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I still have sleep paralysis, almost every time I take a nap. It is the most helpless fear I have felt.
I don't care how unrealistic, this would be great. |
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"the characteristic pattern of a nightmare" - brain wave magic, looks like. |
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add a sensor for teeth clenching during the dreams and you've got my dollar. |
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po - After reading your anno I decided to do a little more research. Included in the source material was some research published by Harvard. That said, here's some more information regarding the other annos. |
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DrCurry - We might have to deduce "the characteristic pattern" pattern from both brainwaves and anxiety levels. One of the symptoms of sleep paralysis (a form of narcolepsy) is the sudden transition from REM sleep to full consciousness, a transition we can measure. One of the symptoms of a nightmare is stress, which we can also measure. If the halfbaked device was designed similar to a hearing aid with the piece that holds it in place between the ear and scalp responsible for measuring brainwaves (like electrodes do now), it could relay that information via a small receiver embedded in the pillow to a box on a night stand that would determine what to do. If it decides a nightmare is taking place during an episode of sleep paralysis it can transmit a standard tone to the earpiece part of the device that will let the sleeper know what's happening. This might sound impossible but they've already been able to train patients with sleep terrors to recognize a pattern of light so when they see it during a terror episode they know what's going on and the terror goes away. |
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dentworth - I don't see any reason why we couldn't design this device so it can also sense teeth clenching - it would be close enough to the jawbone to do it. If it determined that the teeth were clenching it could start vibrating for a little while, relaxing the muscles in that area. |
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In both cases the box on the night stand is required to do the heavy diagnostic work. The earpiece has to stay small enough to be worn comfortably or else the patient will never be able to fall asleep (which would be another way to solve nightmare, sleep paralysi, and jaw clenching problems but the adverse health costs would be unacceptable). |
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looks like I need to reread this subject. my problem was with the fact that our muscles become immobile (or whatever) during dreamstate to prevent us acting out our dreams. |
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I suffer from this occasionally, but I've trained myself to recognise that it's a dream, and that I'll wake up in a minute. It makes the terror go away. |
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How does one train themselves to realize it's a dream, [eggy]? |
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