Bio2Real Time, a free iPhone app coming soon

Ev · 10-16-2011 04:33 AM

I've made a small discovery that may have major implications for dream research, lucid dreaming and the quality of sleep. For this, I created an iPhone 4 iOS 5.0 app that is currently going through the app store approval process.

The Bio2Real Time is the world's first biological to real clock translator.

It is free!

I found this by analyzing sleep data from my alpha iPhone lucid dreaming app. I would consistently go to bed, turn around after 20 minutes, then go to sleep. Upon awakening, I would estimate sleep cycles from the plot and realize that the first sleep cycle that I was having seemed to start at that moment when I turned around in bed.

This puzzled me, as it went against what I expected: sleep cycles starting at Time in Bed +0, advancing in 90 to 110 minute intervals. Luckily I have the code to estimate the twilight times for the current location from GPS on iPhone. So I took the start of my first sleep cycle and counted back by 90 minutes. Sure enough, it aligned with the civil twilight time!
I did additional research into biological clock, and it appears that Melatonin secretion starts 2 sleep cycle lengths after sunset and continues throughout the night, until about 7:30 biological clock time.

With this information, I created an app that positions biological clock against the real local clock(with daylight saving time accounted for). The clock additionally displays 3 ideal times to bed for 6, 7.5 and 9 hours of sleep. The awakening time is kept consistent.

With these times in bed, and a consistent awakening times, you would dream at around the same time every single day!

I already have my dreams narrowed down to a 15-20 minute band at the end of each of my dream cycles. What this means is that with this machinery, the need to set custom timers, estimate REM episodes would disappear from the lucid dreaming app. the app would simply turn on my custom dream detector at a given time and let it do it's magic!

While the app is geared more towards mass market consumer, I'm certain that lucid dreamers would appreciate a tool to help them estimate when they would dream!

More info:
Bio2Real Time » Lucid Dreaming App

if you have any suggestions or questions, please post them and I'll be happy to comment!

**Soraalam1** · 10-16-2011 04:43 AM

Are you gonna put this in your android app as well?

Ev · 10-16-2011 04:53 AM

I won't forget the Android app, and it will receive a major facelift and algorithm improvement after the iPhone app is released. The LD App for Android stayed the same since early June, and my development skill and understanding of the lucid dreaming/actigraphy field has grown considerably since then!

As for whether or not it would look the same, I do not know. iPhone lets me do many magical things that one may expect out of Adobe Photoshop or illustrator. For example animating button and dial rotation is a single function call ! Animation is 3 function calls. I don't know if Android even supports these features, not to mention that there are 15 different image bundles that I'll have to create for different image sizes.

**Arch** · 10-16-2011 05:40 AM

Ev is pro.

**Dark_Merlin** · 10-16-2011 06:36 AM

Holy crap! O__O That's some work of genius right there! Nice!

**Soraalam1** · 10-16-2011 04:35 PM

Originally Posted by Ev

I won't forget the Android app, and it will receive a major facelift and algorithm improvement after the iPhone app is released. The LD App for Android stayed the same since early June, and my development skill and understanding of the lucid dreaming/actigraphy field has grown considerably since then!

As for whether or not it would look the same, I do not know. iPhone lets me do many magical things that one may expect out of Adobe Photoshop or illustrator. For example animating button and dial rotation is a single function call ! Animation is 3 function calls. I don't know if Android even supports these features, not to mention that there are 15 different image bundles that I'll have to create for different image sizes.

I hope you can figure it out somehow. I am an avid user of the android app since May 2011. Can't wait for the update.

**Choi** · 10-16-2011 05:47 PM

Great job

I will definitely use this!

And I will also buy one of those armbands. Looks so epic!

**Mancon** · 10-17-2011 12:50 AM

Awesome! Thanks a ton

Ev · 10-21-2011 05:11 AM

The app is now live! Bio2Real Time for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad on the iTunes App Store

This version has a bug for which I will upload the update tomorrow: the app does not refresh the clock if left open for a long time. An oversight on my part as a developer. To fix this, kill the app and restart it. The next update would refresh the clock each time the app is opened.

I'm interested in seeing how the clock varies for different time zones. I tested in the EST and PDT

By the way, this app may answer your questions about the availability of the lucid dreaming app on devices other than the iPhone 4, because the project settings are identical (iPhone/iOS5).

**Choi** · 10-21-2011 07:02 PM

Sorry, but I just have to ask I really don't understand how to use this app.
When I open the app all I see is a clock showing me when to go to bed and when to get up, depending on what location I am at.

How is this supposed to help me? And I am also considering buying a wristband, but how would that do anything? And where is the graph?

I understand that if this clock works I will remember more dreams and dream at the same time each night. But what happens if I use a WBTB in the middle of it? And so on.

Thanks. Otherwise great idea and cool app, if I only could understand it.

Edit: I found that there was another app called Lucid dreaming app, but that didn't worked on iphones, so maybe that is what I am missing?
Ok I found the app, so I rephrase my question: Is the Lucid Dreaming App going to work on Iphones?

Ev · 10-21-2011 10:16 PM

Good question. The graph is there for comparison. This app does not require a headband, nor does it require contact with the body.

it works under a simple assumption: the functions of the body are the functions of the biological time, which is dependent upon the day length. It's a necessary simplification. The day length changes over the course of the years, and *all* life except for humans are using the sunrise/sunset to control their own biological cycles. This is why the app provides times to go to bed that are supposed to be consistent with what the biological clock .

The real time clock stays more or less consistent (+/- daylight savings time). The major TV shows are shown at the same time. you go to work and get off work at the same times. Well, this does not work with the biological clock, because the biological changes it's phase over the course of the year in response to the daylight cycle shortening or lengthening. This is called entrainment, where one signal follows another one. So one month you may be perfectly in tune with when you are supposed to go to sleep. The next month you may be 30 minutes out of phase, affecting your memory and dream recall.

The lucid dreaming app would take this to a whole new level. Consider Bio2Real time an introduction to the subject. I will try to explain it better.

For example August is a power month for me for lucid dreaming and dream recall, I noticed that over the years. Even if I don't practice, I'm still much better at lucid dreaming. This may be explained in part by the phase difference in minutes between the real time clock and the biological clock. Maybe I can make a plot of this to try to illustrate the concept.

The real issue that I'm running into is that the human circadian cycle, and as a result the wake/dream states during the night are most likely dependent upon the biological clock cycle. It is probably as complex as the picture at the end of this post.

This article explains the clock in more detail: Bio2Real Time » Lucid Dreaming App

he real equation which controls the awareness at night might look something like this: How am I ever going to explain something like this to the general public?

**Choi** · 10-22-2011 09:47 AM

Cool !

Thank you and I understand now. The equation looks like the ying and yang sign

**Erii** · 10-22-2011 09:49 AM

Nice! This looks great ^_^

**Choi** · 10-23-2011 06:44 PM

I looked in my Dream Journal and noticed that I also had a ton of lucid dreams in August and then it slowly decreased.
I hope that this will help, and I can't wait for the Lucid Dreaming App!

**Choi** · 10-24-2011 05:42 AM

First of all sorry for double posting, but I just have to thank Ev!

It might have been a placebo or just a coinidence, but I used the Bio2 Real Time bedtimes last night, but I adjusted it with one sleep cycle to fit my morning routine, like you said I could.
And I remembered 10 dreams!!!!! Not joking, I am not even going to write them down, because I had a lucid too! And that is the goal and what matters.
I also woke up 3 seconds before my alarm started ringin and I was very alert and almost hyper active haha.
I was more aware in my dreams and this was the most vivid lucid dream I have ever had, and befroe this I was almost doubting that I would ever experience a dream this vivid.
So this was very motivating and I finally achieved the goal that I have tried to since I started lucid dreaming, experience a dream as vivid as reality! (I have sort of done it before, but this was even more vivid!) You can read about it in my DJ.

So thank you so much Ev! And I will do this again the next night

This FREE app gave me.

*The best recall I have ever had (10 dreams rembered)
*The best quality of sleep (Woke up alert and refreshed)
*A Lucid Dream! (The most vivid that I have ever experienced)