Thread: Using random number generation to catch false awakenings

Most of you have probably already seen some threads on the idea of having audio files playing during sleep to induce lucidity.

Well, my interest has come back to that idea, after thinking of some modifications to it that I'd like to try:
1) Instead of having a preset audio track, put together a large collection of varied phrases, and have it randomized each time to make it more interesting to listen to. This should hopefully reduce the amount your brain ignores the messages.

For example, you could have entries added for each of your friends and family members, and people from dream-views. Perhaps hearing their names mixed in with lucid dreaming keywords will break the phrases out of the "ignore" pile, to have you actually think about them more while in-dream. Especially if the names used are for people that appear commonly in your dreams.

What's nice is that a text-to-speech engine is used to speak the phrases, so you don't need to find and record a human voice actor for each phrase. (we could also try having it randomly change the pitch, speed, and volume of the text-to-speech voice, to make it more interesting to your dreaming self)

2) Find a way to embed reality-checks within the messages that doesn't require any movement or heavy mental focus. The idea is to have you still fall asleep, but just lightly monitoring the messages for if the passive reality-check ever starts failing, and revealing itself as just a dream replica. This will help you catch false awakenings without having to break your deepened state by doing nose-plug tests or the like.

Now some might be wondering what a passive, audio-based reality check would look like.

I think there are a few different candidates, but this one currently seems most promising:
* Every minute or so, have the app generate a random number, and use the text-to-speech engine to speak it. Not just any random number, however: it has to be a four digit number, and either all four digits have to be even, or all four digits have to be odd. So 1539 is valid, as is 2044, but not 1948.

Now what this does is it forces your brain to try to replicate the random number generation every minute--else it wouldn't match your sleep conditions, and you'd know you were in a false awakening. If it does replicate the random number generation, then it has to generate those numbers very carefully. It can't just spew random nonsense, like it normally does, else 90% (technically 87.5%) of the time it would give a number that's a mix of evens and odds, and you'd be tipped off to the number's source. It also can't just give the same number each time, as the numbers are supposed to be random each time. (if it becomes a problem, we can modify the app's random number generator to ensure that the same number is never given twice in the same session)

I'm honestly very curious whether the subconscious mind is capable of playing the game above, and generating consistently valid matches to the "either all even or all odd" challenge. If it is, then well-played, subconscious. If not, then we've gotcha.

What's nice is it's pretty easy to evaluate whether a number matches (I've tried it the last two sleep sessions, and could do it fine for as long as my memory recorded), but at the same time, it's something that you have to evaluate after-the-fact, so your subconscious mind can't just generate whatever you're thinking of consciously. It's forced to do the generation itself, and you just act as a lazy evaluator of that number a couple seconds afterward.

Anyway, I'll be trying it the next couple weeks and recording my results here. I've tried it in two sleep sessions so far, and while it hasn't triggered lucidity either of those times, I do have shadowed memories from both times of hearing numbers generated while in-dream, or at least on the verge of ones (one was in-bed, another with me floating above a video game space station). I was probably just too brain-dead/dream-focused to pay attention in those moments, but I'm hoping that with enough nights of having random numbers playing continually, I'll grow to have some persistent knowledge of what those numbers mean (i.e. as dream signs/tests) and remember to evaluate them out of habit.

Then, lucidity every night! : P (as if... )

Let me know if any of you want to join me. I don't currently have the app uploaded to Google Play, but I can if others have interest in it. (I'll be uploading it soon anyway, but this would prompt me to do it a bit sooner)