Lucid dreaming, a state in which a person becomes aware they are dreaming and can sometimes control the dream, is both rare and hard to study because the state is unstable. New developments in wearable brain-monitoring devices, large research partnerships, citizen science projects, and artificial intelligence are making it easier to decode what happens in the brain during lucid dreams.
Dreamento is an open-source Python package for dream engineering using sleep electroencephalography wearables. It provides real-time functions including data visualization, power-spectrum analysis, automatic sleep scoring, sensory stimulation (visual, auditory, tactile), text-to-speech communication, and event annotation. Offline functions support post-processing and integration with other modalities like electromyography. Developed primarily for lucid dreaming studies, Dreamento can also be applied to other sleep research areas such as closed-loop auditory stimulation and targeted memory reactivation for memory consolidation.
Lucid dreaming, a state in which dreamers are consciously aware and can control their dreams, is rare and unstable, making it difficult to study in the lab. New developments in wearable brain-sensing devices, large-scale research partnerships, citizen science projects, and artificial intelligence are now making it easier to decode and investigate this phenomenon.