Is their any way to induce REM sleep?

[idreamsum]

Hi everyone. I am trying to write a web application and I need some idea's. I am trying to find a way for a normal computer to be able to know exactly when someone is in REM sleep. This would be best if you guys could find a way of putting someone in REM sleep using the screen or audio from a computer. I thought of an idea along the lines of play a loud noise while they are asleep wait a few minutes and they will be in REM sleep. Comments on how you would accomplish this would be very helpful and much appreciated. Thank you for your time and help!

[Raen]

I've never heard of anything being able to "induce" REM sleep other then just going to sleep. REM sleep happens in cycles so you can time when you wake up to enter directly into REM sleep the next time you fall asleep, which is a technique for aiding lucid dreaming, but there's no audio or visual imagery that can just send you into REM sleep. What you're asking is impossible to my knowledge.

[TravisE]

Sleep cycles and REM times also vary from cycle to cycle as well as from night to night. There might be a typical set of times that someone will enter REM, but they aren't guaranteed to be exactly the same every night. I've found that the times in sleep I have dreams and wake up, for instance, follow a general trend, but can start off as much as 30–45 or more minutes off (and usually become even more irregular as sleep continues), and there are nights where they are just completely oddball. It's a very dynamic process subject to all sorts of variables, and it takes fairly sophisticated equipment to actually determine when someone is in REM.