After much searching online and countless hours behind my PC trying to find devices to improve/aid LD-ing, I came across quite a nifty piece of kit that, in years to come, could be upgraded to prompt reality checking and thus LD-ing. It's called a sleep phase alarm clock (SPAC), and although the technology has been out there for a while ('SleepTracker' etc...), this is the latest in a new generation of SPAC's. The idea is simple: a device that tracks your sleep phases from REM-sleep down to deep delta-wave sleep and back again, throughout the night, and then wakes you at precisely the right moment during your lightest sleep (REM-sleep) closest to the time you set the alarm to go off (within a window of 30min). It does so using a small sensor hidden in a wrist band (much like a sweat band used by sportsman) that measures your movement and sends data to the main alarm clock via ultra-high frequency radio waves in short bursts (less than 0.01sec/burst). The reason it can track your sleep is that during your dream-phase (REM) your body is completely atonic, ie. completely motionless, and during deeper phases there is always some movement (during very deep delta-wave sleep is when sleepwalkers perform their stuff, heheh).

The alarm clock works like, well er, a dream!!!! But now here's the bit that I reckon could improve LD-ing a lot: If the alarm clock could be upgraded to not only WAKE you at the time of lightest sleep, but also PROMPT a reality check during the REM-phases during the night (for example by a sultry voice whispering: "Is this a dream?"), then I reckon it would vastly improve the LD-ing of so many of us that aren't as lucky as some DreamViews members that can easily LD every night. I'm not much of a techy, but I reckon there's someone out there on DreamViews that would know how to upgrade such a device for this very function. Here's hoping!

This SPAC also allows you to upload your sleep data to your PC to review your sleep phases and compare your different nights' sleep. It's quite easy to see that you have at least 4-5 REM phases each night, so if an LD upgrade were possible, the implications for LD-ing would be amazing!! If you're interested in learning more about this SPAC, then visit www.axbo.com