Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently developed a device that allows a person to maintain a semi-conscious state between wakefulness and sleeping.
Why it matters: There’s now a working “sleep interface,” in the form of a device that allows humans to have a small amount of control over their own consciousness.
The state between awake and asleep is called hypnophagia, and some experts believe that by controlling the amount of time we spend in it, then interrupting the mind before it can completely fall asleep, we may be able to take advantage of certain cognitive associations we’ve never been able to before.
The way it works: A person puts on the glove and then makes a fist, as they begin to fall asleep they naturally loosen their grip. Once Dormio detects the person is moving from hypnophagia into sleep, it interrupts them with by playing a prerecorded reminder.
MIT has only tested the device with a handful of participants, but the outlook is promising. That is, if you’re into hacking the human brain with scientifically created sleep-interrupting techniques.
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