I recently bought the REM Dreamer, and I have found very little information on the internet about it so I figured I would help by contributing my experiences. The REM Dreamer is a cheaper, Polish alternative to the Nova Dreamer which you can order on the internet. It has two red LED lights and a motion sensor for REM sleep, as well as a "chime" (to accompany the lights) and an alarm (if you want to be woken up after REM). It costs around $160 US right now, but I would imagine the price would fluctuate depending on the polish/ american exchange rate. .

I've read that it often takes them a while to send it, and it certainly did. After 21 days of having purchased it and not receiving it I emailed them and got an email shortly saying sorry for the delay and that it was shipped that day. I believe they either make them per order and it took 20 days to make it or that they simply forgot to send it. Still, they were very cooperative and I would just recommend being patient and kind, and since it's always scary purchasing something from an unknown source, I think it's worth noting that they are not trying to scam you. The site says expect 3-8 business days for delivery, and since they sent it in the mail I did indeed get it 8 business days later. I've had it for about a week now.

The directions are translated funny and a bit hard to decipher, something I guess you would call Polglish. It has a lot of options, and is very customizable. The options are navigated using four switches and a button. You can customize the duration, the frequency, and the intensity of both light flashes and chiming noises, among other things. You set a kind of "snooze" mode so that it won't activate for as long as you set it (in segments of ten minutes), so that you can fall asleep without it blinking at you because you happened to move your eyes or rolled over or took it off for a moment or something. 30 seconds before this snooze period is over, it will give you a warning flash telling you that it's about to end, and if you need more time then you can just press the button again.

It's very comfortable, but it does take some getting used to sleeping with something on your head. You can sleep on your side or on your back, and it stays pretty snug on your head without falling off. I would recommend turning the air conditioning just a few degrees lower than normal just so you don't get too hot. It applies maybe a little too much pressure on your forehead, but once you habituate to it you don't notice it anymore. I'm actually considering removing the padding/ cushion on the mask and replacing it with some memory foam. It wouldn't take much, just like the sample you get from stores trying to sell you memory foam beds and stuff. It would be easy, so I'll keep you posted on how this works.

Once I got it I over estimated how deep a sleeper I am, and set it immediately for the "deep sleeper" preset. This involves the brightest light settings for 10 seconds and a few seconds of chimes. I put the mask on and pressed the test button to see what it was like, and it was waaaaaaay too bright! I tinkered with the brightness settings, 1-6, and found that 1 is barely bright enough to see through my eyelids and 6 burns a hole through my head. 2 is a huge leap from 1, and is barely dimmer than 6. My eyes were literally numb for hours after trying each of the settings, so I really wouldn't recommend tinkering with it for too lengthy time without a break or two. At first, I could actually feel the heat of the little LED lights on 6 and it hurt to look at them even with my eyes open. However, my girlfriend turned on the highest settings and put on the mask and didn't think it was painful at all, and while I use the 2 setting, she can barely see it through her eyelids. We concluded that I must have thin eyelids, and I've always been sensitive to light so this may or may not be a problem for others. I would very much suggest trying one of the lighter sleeper presets first, and turning the chiming off completely. My first night sleeping with it I had 10 seconds of soft chiming and bright blinking, which woke me up every time. Since then I turned the intensity down, turned off the chiming, and set it for just 5 seconds. It hasn't woken me up since.

It detects REM pretty well. I have a few concerns, but I'm not very knowledgable of the technology so I'm not sure how valid they are. For one, there's only one motion sensor. I kinda feel like there should be one for each eye and not just the right eye. It seems to detect up-and-down movement alot better than side-to-side. To optimize detection, you can adjust the mask's "threshold," but the directions do a very poor job of explaining what this is and what the optimal option would be. Last night I had a concern in that I woke up with it on my head, and tested it out by moving my eyes to see if anything would happen, and nothing happened. So I set it to test mode where it clicks when it detects movement to test it out. Then I opened my eyes and nothing, and finally I took it off and waved it at light and nothing. I turned it off and back on again and tested it out and it was spot-on with detection. Although I have no real way of knowing cuz I'm asleep, I kinda feel like this happens alot. This could mean the batteries are low, or maybe in my sleepy drunkeness I had turned it off, or maybe it was a false awakening even! In fact, even in the directions it says that the mask can be used as a RC in that most LD are accompanied by a false awakening and that the mask rarely works in dreams, so that if you press the button and it doesn't work then you're dreaming. So take it for what you will, I dunno.

So the big question, does it work? Unfortunately, I have not had any experience even close to a LD with it yet. The irony is that in the month that I was waiting for it in the mail, I had gotten really good at LD without it. I actually feel that wearing the mask makes my mind dependent on the mask, and thus too lazy to become lucid on it's own. I haven't noticed any flashing in my dreams, and in fact I've had pretty poor dream recall since I've used it. I really want to say it was a miracle device, and it may still be because it requires a lot of tinkering to get the settings just right for you. You want it not so intense that it wakes you up, but not so much that it doesn't do anything. If you wear it at night it's easier to sleep with because you're in such a deep sleep, but you want to wear it during the morning or naps for your most lucid experiences and dream recall. My experiences have two faults that make me a little unreliable, and I'm going to fix them for the future so I can report if anything has changed (but I did want to go ahead to post my early impressions while they're fresh in my mind and also cuz I was excited to share my experiences). #1. I have kept the mask on for a full night maybe once since I've gotten it. The other nights I have either worn it at night, gotten up to use the bathroom, and too asleep to put it back on and adjust the settings once more; or I have worn it at night, bathroom thing, forgot to put it back on, and then put it back on about an hour before officially waking up for the day. By doing this I'm skipping the most important REM cycles for LD. #2. Partly related to problem 1, I haven't been keeping log of how many generated series of eye movement the mask has been detecting. The first night I wore it, in which I woke up and took it off, it had detected 9 generated series. The directions say in 6 hours of sleep it should detect 20-25. Until I actually start checking the log, which the directions suggest you do every day, I'm not going to be able to customize the settings so that it detects REM at its best and so that it will induce LD at my level.

So I'm going to start sleeping with it in the mornings or during naps, and keep track of the log, and post my experiences. Once I've gotten these two things down I'll be able to customize it more so it'll work better. It does require a lot of tinkering, and you have to get it just right for you so that it'll work. I'll post what changes, and be happy to answer any questions anyone wants to shoot my way. Happy dreaming 8)