Dormio

Abstract

Current HCI research overlooks an opportunity to create human-machine interaction within the unique cognition ongoing during dreams and drowsiness. During sleep onset, a window of opportunity arises in the form of Hypnagogia, a semi-lucid sleep state where we begin dreaming before we fall fully unconscious. To access this state, we developed Dormio, the first interactive interface for sleep, designed for use across levels of consciousness. Here we present evidence for a first use case, directing dream content to augment human creativity. The system enables future HCI research into Hypnagogia, extending interactive technology across levels of consciousness.

Dormio: A targeted dream incubation device

“…Each of these signals are normalized over a calibration period each time a user starts a Dormio session and are used to identify subsequent Dormio-defined sleep onsets. While the use of serial awakenings may sound strenuous, participants have reported such serial awakenings at sleep onset as positive and relaxing (Hayashi, Motoyoshi, and Hori 2005;Horowitz et al 2018).…”