Singularity Experience, a professional iPhone app for Lucid Dreamers

Ev · 12-12-2011 07:02 PM

Connecting to the iTunes Store.

Singularity Experience is my 2nd attempt at smartphone based lucid dreaming aid. The first one was the original Lucid Dreaming App for Android. The speed at which I was able to develop this app makes me a believer in Singularity.

In 2004, along with a handful of other dreamers I found the Dream Exit Initiated Lucid Dreaming technique. The idea itself has been implanted in my mind by Dr. Stephen LaBerge's track "Trance induction of lucid dreaming -bedtime". In that track, Stephen says:

And you will find that you can re-enter any dream that you wish or create any new dream

This single phrase really works. Back in 2004, I called it Dream Reentry, because this is the essence of the technique.

The technique is a form of WILD, which is performed at the moment of sudden awakening from a dream. There's no need to lay in bed for 45 minutes, no need to get out of bed at all. The most dim realization that you are awake in bed may be turned into a lucid dream with a simple visualization exercise.

Over the years, there have been multiple dreamers both on DreamViews and LD4All who have discovered the same technique, completely independently! All of them report similar experiences with the same theme: A dream may be re-entered upon a certain kind of awakening. You might've heard about Dream Chaining, DEILD, WILD Chaining or Dream Re-Entry.

Normally, people wake up to report dreams in the light sleep stage that follows REM. This is when the brain chemistry has changed, the sleep paralysis is gone, and it is possible to recall and write down fragments of a dream. But such state makes it difficult to re-enter dreams consciously, unless you are in one of the later sleep cycles when it is still dark outside.

Dream reentry requires the dreamer to be awakened earlier - in REM. This does not happen naturally and requires an external cue, or a feat of willpower.

For example: You are frustrated with having a dream about being in a classroom after going to classes for 7 hours a day. You are fed up with the dream and wake up. This is a prime kind of awakening for dream reentry. (For more info, see this video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=750x-JGcNzs)

For me, in August 2004, the external cue was most likely provided by cars driving by my window (I was sleeping on a porch with windows open due to heat). This little impulse of light and sound awakened my mind just a little bit to be able to re-enter a dream at will. At that point, I've been a hardcore lucid dreamer for over 8 months. I've had multiple WILDs, a couple OOBEs, experimented with recurring dreamsigns and repeatedly caught myself dreaming in my house by doing reality checks. All of these methods combined produced no more than 4 lucid dreams a week with a ton of effort: daily practice, daily posting, daily supplements and countless affirmations.

Then, at the beginning of August 2004, I discovered dream re-enty and I was able to relax. I went to bed knowing that I will dream consciously sometime between the end of the 2nd and 5th sleep cycle.

This is when I got the first taste of on-demand, at will, almost every day lucid dreaming. Using the dream reentry technique I was able to re-enter the same dream up to 5 times. The anxiety about awakenings disappeared. I was able to continue my adventures at will, perform fantastic experiments with matter and all sorts of dream powers.

Then I entered college, and my sleep schedule changed, the external cue disappeared. The diet changed. Ever since I've been looking for a way to re-capture the same experiences that I had all those years ago.

I've tried most of the lucid dreaming techniques out there. They all take too much effort to learn AND practice! After getting a taste of an almost instant transition from wakefulness to a dream, without hallucinations, almost without failure, it is hard to start practicing "sub-optimal" techniques again. Why lay in bed for 90 minutes trying to WILD, when I can re-enter a dream in 50 seconds upon awakening from a dream?

The idea of creating an app to help with Dream Reentry has guided my life since 2006. 3 out of 4 of my jobs have been working in industries that I hoped would help me create such an aid. They didn't. The industry seems asleep and pursuing long term strategies, unwilling to experiment with new ideas. I'm an electrical engineering student by education, and over the last 3-4 years have taught myself enough programming languages to be able to finally realize my vision of the lucid dreaming aid:

An inexpensive, portable, wireless tool to help with dream reentry. Not 200$, not 99$, but 5$. That's a galon of apple juice, 20-40 miles of driving a car, half a bottle of B6 at a local pharmacy, half a bottle of 5-HTP, or a coffee and a pastry at Starbucks. It's really affordable

I do not know if it works yet. The Android app has been in development for 3 months and in testing since April 20011. I do not hear any spectacular tales of lucidity from my Android app, which makes me believe that the traditional "External cue gets integrated into a dream" approach is finicky at best.

This is why this app, an evolution of the lucid dreaming app does not claim that cues will get integrated into a dream. They may, but the results of my experiments were unpredictable:
Experiments with orange light:

I've been painting orange racing stripes on a car after seeing orange light
I've heard programmers discuss my app's interface within a dream
I've done powerpoint presentations on my app within a dream
I've seen cars drive by with really orange headlights.
I've seen dream characters fire guns (orange flash).
I've had dream characters exchange phone calls
I've been acting on text messages that I received in a dream.

All of these cues are really, really random, they caused 1 realization of dreaming in close to 3 weeks of testing. They are recognized as cues after the fact, but not in a dream. Both audio and light cues integrate into the dream in the most random, unpredictable way, making it difficult to understand, even with months of LD training.

On the bright side, I had multiple episodes of my recurring dreamsign - my middle school. I found myself drawn to the object, in some dreams literally hanging off it's side trying to peer in. Such occurrences indicate that my awareness in a dream is elevated.

This is why I'm abandoning the efforts of DILD in favor of DEILD and dream reentry. This technique focuses on entering a particular lucid dreaming scene - the last scene of a faded dream. There's no doubt when scene materializes that you are in a dream. It is the best technique. It dramatically raises your confidence in your LD ability, reduces anxiety about awakening, requires virtually no preparation, can be combined with Non-Induction, etc.

Singularity Experience is the first step towards realization of this project. The current (December 2011) version of the app is still dumb. It is really, really basic, it works through the mattress, while the app should really be mounted on your wrist.

What I'm hoping to accomplish with this project are 2 things:
1) Bring lucid dreaming into the mainstream
2) Arise interest within the scientific community regarding the potential applications of lucid dreaming in physics, study of brain and consciousness. I find that the majority of scientists who write papers on the subject have 0 mystical experience. No experience of existing within the mind whatsoever. How can they possibly postulate theories of consciousness without seeing the limitations of their own thinking?

Lucid Dreaming is an amazing tool. I'm sure we would all agree on this topic, otherwise we would not be on this forum. Futurists like Ray Kurzweil predict that the brain uploading will happen some time after 2045. That's lucid dreaming like experience on-demand. We will be able to swap bodies, merge our knowledge together, etc. But we, as lucid dreamers have already experienced these things in our lucid dreams!

I'm hoping that by attracting scientific attention to the subject (with the catchy app name), the lucid dream induction devices would be able to improve exponentially - at the same pace as the technology around us. The engineering techniques that boggle my mind, the statistical analysis that makes me want to bash my head against the wall are fluently understood by many engineers and statisticians around the world. The multi-threading issues that cause my app to crash can be resolved in a matter of minutes by a professional programmer.

It wouldn't take a single lucid dreamer 8 years to create a lucid dreaming aid. It would take a collective of scientists, programmers and engineers 3 months to put a world class product on the market. A product that would finally work. Currently I'm working on making this happen.

I ask for your support in helping realize this dream. Let's make lucid dreaming a more mainstream activity. Let's inform sleep scientists, doctors and programmers that we want a lucid dreaming aid that works. Unless there's a market, we will keep seeing hundreds of "Smart Alarm" clocks, but little to none professional quality lucid dreaming apps.

Let's start the Lucid Dreaming Evolution.
Connecting to the iTunes Store.

Additional materials:
App store promotion: Singularity Experience » Lucid Dreaming App
User manual and help Singularity iPhone Help » Lucid Dreaming App

Ev · 12-12-2011 07:02 PM

This post is reserved as I describe some of the features of the app

Beginner Mode:

The app itself has a lot of features, and most of them have been hidden for the beginner mode, what remains:

4 Presets:

Silent - the app will not play reminders, use it as a sleep tracker,
Gentle - always the same preset: blue light, 60 seconds of light, 12 seconds of audio
DEILD - Always the same preset, you can pick the color of light, light duration and audio duration
Custom - the app will play up to 3 reminders in order, each one may have different light and audio duration

Beginner mode is really simple:

Pick the preset that you want, beginners should start with Gentle
Test the preset to ensure you have the correct volume
Use swipe gestures to read 4 short slides explaining the app's principle of operation.
Start the app, attempt to reenter the dream when you hear the reminder at night.
You can tap the screen to create a blank dream journal entry at night (marks dream times)
Turn off the app in the morning.

The beginner mode is intended to hide the complexity of the app, at least for the first few days as you are getting used to the idea of sleeping with an EILD device on your mattress.

Here's a youtube video which introduces some of the features of the app

Astro-Biological clock

This idea takes a lot of words to express, but once you see it in action, you would understand it pretty easily.

The circadian rhythm and resulting sleep cycles are influenced by the amount of light in any given day and the sunset/sunrise times. Melatonin secretion (Dim light melatonin onset) starts approximately 2 sleep cycles after sunset, and is triggered by low light and inactivity.

The app takes all this complexity and hides it by letting you rotate the outer dial of the app to pick you bedtime and wake-up time. Once you have done so, you would instantly see when you will dream on the given night. (all the markers on the dial rotate at once).

For each marker, you can assign a reminder that may (or may not) be played once the app detects a high probability of you being in REM. It does not detect REM. It guesses intelligently based on light sleep stages that preceed REM.

Here's a tutorial on how to configure reminders

This feature is really cool, as it lets you:

See how much hours of sunlight are in a given day (thus estimate when your body would want to start releasing melatonin)
Estimate which of your dreams would happen during darkness. (Highest chance of lucid dreaming is during the last 2 sleep cycles AND when it is still dark outside).
Estimate your progress through a sleep cycle (see how close is the sun arrow to your dreaming marker).
Estimate if it is a good time to awaken (how close is the sun arrow to the dreaming marker.

The silver an black arrows remember the last time you started and stopped the app. So if you went to sleep at 1:30, woke up at 9:00 and reported 6 dreams, chances are you would want to repeat this. If you go to sleep at 1:30 the next night and wake up at 9, everything would be good. But if all of the sudden you go to sleep at 2:30, the sleep patterns would be messed up, and you may only recall 1-2 dreams, because your body is adjusting it's sleep cycle.

All of these are just my observations from the few months during which I've used the app daily. This is not a medical fact and the understanding of the sleep cycles would likely be refined in the future.

Sleep history

Even if you are not using the app for lucid dream induction with DEILD, you will still love the sleep history. If you wake up after your dreams to record them, you may have a journal full of scribbled notes. they are hard to analyze for dreamsigns, and are VERY difficult to plot.

Sleep history lets you create dream journal entries with a tap of a button. Exact time of the dream is recorded, and over time you are looking at a screen like the one above. There are 4 types of events currently available within the app

Dreams are green: use these to mark dream awakenings when you remember dream fragments
Awake episodes are red: use these to mark periods when you were unable to fall asleep
No recall is gray: you may or may not remember a dream for this awakening
Sleep onset latency is black: this indicates the onset of the 1st light sleep stage of the 1st sleep cycle.
Rise time is orange

This information alone is enough to help estimate your sleep cycles. If you wake up after a dream, you know that the dream reported marks a light sleep stage at the end of the sleep cycle (or beginning of the next cycle). By matching the dream markers against built-in rulers above, you would be able to estimate which sleep cycle you are looking at.

Sleep onset latency is also really cool, as I experiment with that, I notice that after ~25 minutes after getting in bed, I turn over and after that I do not remember much. This closely coincides with the SOL provided by the app. This would calm your concerns about insomnia, because the app would show you when you started your first sleep cycle (which is often sooner than what it feels like)

On the history screen, each dream marker brings you to it's corresponding dream journal entry, so you can easily see the precise time of a dream, along with any notes that you might've taken about the dream.

Over time, I expect that this kind of analysis would be able to reveal a lot of information about dreams (for example eating a spicy chipotle wrap at 2PM may manifest itself as a burning dream of battle and anxiety at 3AM, as your body tries to expel the foreign substance

). Such occurences are normally forgotten, but with a comprehensive dream journal, you would be able to see the effect of food, supplements and stress on your dream performance.

This feature was first introduced in the Android version, but over there all events were of the same color. with the iPhone Singularity Experience, you can see your dreams stacked on top of each other day by day. You will see when you do not dream or do not feel like making the tiny effort to report the dream. Such days should be investigated.

Additionally, each day, the app collects 19 sleep scoring metrics , (I'm providing 19 out of about 40 that I have) which I cannot easily plot within the app. Instead, I'm offering you an opportunity to email yourself the data to be plotted using professional data analysis tools, like Excel or Open Office. Sometime after the app's approval, I will post a spreadsheet here : My Data » Lucid Dreaming App that will let you copy/paste your data to see detailed plots of the sleep metrics.

This data includes :

Activity count - arbitrary measure of human activity, ranging from 0 (completely still ) to tens of thousands for high intensity motion
Index of body movements: large and small.
Body movement duration: if you got out of bed, this would spike
Sleep Depth: the most interesting metric, predicts deepest sleep, which is followed by the lightest sleep and REM
Times when the app has delivered reminder - use these to estimate the app's effectiveness and look for dreamsigns in your dream journal
Times when you have reported the dream - roughly predicts the end of a sleep cycle
Various metrics of activity intensity.

Together, these metrics would help you understand (or confuse the hell out of you) how your dreaming unfolds. I've been looking at data like that for the past 6 months, and it's tough to analyze. This is why the files that I'm giving you are divided into Raw, high resolution research data and processed data. Plot either one, do your own research. DO NOT COPY MY APP's ALGORITHMS INTO CHEAP KNOCKOFFS! You have the permission to use the data for personal use, but not for any commercial use.

The app includes a self - hypnosis script, which is intended to help you learn DEILD faster. Memorize the script and recite it in your own voice before going to bed. This would "drill" you to perform DEILD upon awakening before your body gets too awake to be able to reenter dreams consciously.

I'd be glad to answer your questions.

Thank you!

Ev · 12-12-2011 07:03 PM

This post is reserved as I compile an FAQ regarding the app

-Which Devices is the app available on?

iPhone 4, iPhone 4GS, iPod4GS running iOS 5.0 +

Not supported: Anything with 3 in it, iPad1,2.

**tommo** · 12-13-2011 01:24 AM

I will be buying the iPod tomorrow from your affiliate link, so I guess I'll by the app sometime this week, or whenever the iPod arrives!
Really excited!

**ShadowOfSelf** · 12-15-2011 04:26 PM

-Which Devices is the app available on?

iPhone 4, iPhone 4GS, iPod4GS running iOS 5.0 +

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I get confused with the amount of ipods there are but, will this work on my Ipod 4g running ios5? its not the 'S'... If so why not?

Ev · 12-15-2011 04:59 PM

Originally Posted by ShadowOfSelf

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I get confused with the amount of ipods there are but, will this work on my Ipod 4g running ios5? its not the 'S'... If so why not?

You are right, there's no iPod4GS, the iPod4G will work.

**ShadowOfSelf** · 12-15-2011 05:09 PM

Thats a relief. Look forward to testing this out.

**xXTITANXx** · 12-15-2011 06:35 PM

Wow, this apps sounds AMAZING

Wanna try it so hard... but I have a iPod 3G

**TeaSea** · 12-15-2011 10:23 PM

Argh, this is almost enough to make me buy an iPod...

Originally Posted by tommo

I will be buying the iPod tomorrow from your affiliate link, so I guess I'll by the app sometime this week, or whenever the iPod arrives!
Really excited!

What's this about an affiliate link?

**tommo** · 12-16-2011 12:21 AM

Originally Posted by TeaSea

Argh, this is almost enough to make me buy an iPod...

What's this about an affiliate link?

On his website, he just has a link to the Apple Amazon store. He gets 7% of the price if you buy it through that link.
I actually don't think I can buy it from there though. It's an American store, they always refund my money and say
we can't sell to Australia, go buy one for 25% more at your local store.... lol....

Ev · 12-16-2011 01:08 AM

Originally Posted by tommo

On his website, he just has a link to the Apple Amazon store. He gets 7% of the price if you buy it through that link.
I actually don't think I can buy it from there though. It's an American store, they always refund my money and say
we can't sell to Australia, go buy one for 25% more at your local store.... lol....

Actually it might be a bit less

I saw some iPods 8GB at a local walmart for 187$, while they are about 200 online.

Anyways, the app is now ready for sale. It's name is Singularity Experience, it is 5$US, works on iPhone4, iPod Touch 4th generation.

Here are some promotional codes, first come first serve (expires January 15th)

Y4F4E7TXRRFT
HREKJWTXTTKF
LNKLYX9FE4W3
NJ474REKXHYX
7PRANJ6W7FYL

LN3KLFL3TYET
HKAA66TK7R97
HNT4EFEP9MH9
FHMMTWYF3FWJ
J4RKWH7PXFAH

W3MHWWFFW6AM
X3HHK9KPW6FN
PH37HLMARPT4
X7J9XPPTHFKW
ETR3RWWMEAXY

here's how to redeem a promo code
Redeeming a Free Promo Code for an iPhone App - iPhone How To Docs - Inner Fence

**Kitties** · 12-16-2011 01:21 AM

This looks awesome! Thank you for the code~ I just downloaded it, will try it out tonight or tomorrow night.

**tommo** · 12-16-2011 01:34 AM

Originally Posted by Ev

Actually it might be a bit less

I saw some iPods 8GB at a local walmart for 187$, while they are about 200 online.

Anyways, the app is now ready for sale. It's name is Singularity Experience, it is 5$US, works on iPhone4, iPod Touch 4th generation.

Hm, ok maybe they are just the same here. I also saw one at Kmart (basically walmart I think) for $187 too. Online here (at the Apple store) they are $220.
Oh well, I would buy it from your link if I could. Thought that counts right?

Can't wait to download this app. Might have to wait until Christmas to get it, hopefully there's still some promo codes left lol

**Malac Reborn** · 12-16-2011 11:12 AM

Regarding the sleep metrics function, would it be possible for users to submit their data towards a publicized centralized database? I'm sure you could see the scientific benefit in this. It would also be beneficial for there to be a program that could compile such data into a generalized format, pinpointing numeric averages of all night by night measured activity - on the individual and group level.

**Choi** · 12-16-2011 01:27 PM

Just bought it

Looks awesome, will start using it tonight. Thank you so much Ev!

Ev · 12-16-2011 04:37 PM

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by Somii

Regarding the sleep metrics function, would it be possible for users to submit their data towards a publicized centralized database? I'm sure you could see the scientific benefit in this. It would also be beneficial for there to be a program that could compile such data into a generalized format, pinpointing numeric averages of all night by night measured activity - on the individual and group level.

I'm putting together a spreadsheet which will let you plot data in excel. Right now there's a bug in the data processing, so the High resolution file may get corrupted. I'll be fixing that for the next release. The Singularity file is still good though, and you would be able to plot that one to see how your sleep unfolds. If you report dreams upon awakening using the app, you would be able to see what kind of activity pattern preceeded the dream.

If you want to submit your data for the database, you can include science at luciddreamingapp.com when you email yourself the data. It takes quite some time to analyze it, even with a template spreadsheet, so I cannot analyze and respond to individual data submissions.

**ShadowOfSelf** · 12-16-2011 04:55 PM

Sweet, nice one EV. I hope some codes are still valid by the time I get home! Glad to also see your focused on continuing with the app and looking to the future.

**tommo** · 12-17-2011 01:14 AM

Are you going to make it possible to compile the data on Mac OS?
I would imagine it would be a lot simpler than windows. Since you could just use some of the same code you use to display it on the iPod/iPhone.
Just a guess though.

**Shan** · 12-17-2011 04:34 AM

Just bought it, looks cool. The calibration doesnt seem to work though; it calibrates so that the progress bar is almost full, then it plays a sound but then it gets stuck there. Is this a known bug? Are there any fixes?

Ev · 12-17-2011 04:47 AM

Originally Posted by Shan

Just bought it, looks cool. The calibration doesnt seem to work though; it calibrates so that the progress bar is almost full, then it plays a sound but then it gets stuck there. Is this a known bug? Are there any fixes?

Hi Shan,

Thank you for buying the app. When the calibration bar is filled, the status below should change to "Calibration Completed/App is ready to use". Does it say "Calibrating" in your case? The Android version proceeded directly to the app, but in this version you have to select either the Beginner or Singularity Tab to work with the app.

Btw, I found a couple of major bugs that I have fixed. These affect how the app logs data, so the High Res data is corrupted, and the sleep quality % is also wrong. I hope that the update will come out before the 21st, otherwise, it will be some time after the 29th (when iTunes review team comes back from vacation).

In terms of data analysis, I will publish a spreadsheet with formulas and graphs. Simply copy-paste your data in there and it will be plotted. Very simple.

**Shan** · 12-17-2011 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by Ev

Hi Shan,

Thank you for buying the app. When the calibration bar is filled, the status below should change to "Calibration Completed/App is ready to use". Doe
s it say "Calibrating" in your case? The Android version proceeded directly to the app, but in this version you have to select either the Beginner or Singularity Tab to work with the app.

Btw, I found a couple of major bugs that I have fixed. These affect how the app logs data, so the High Res data is corrupted, and the sleep quality % is also wrong. I hope that the update will come out before the 21st, otherwise, it will be some time after the 29th (when iTunes review team comes back from vacation).

In terms of data analysis, I will publish a spreadsheet with formulas and graphs. Simply copy-paste your data in there and it will be plotted. Very simple.

Sounds good Ev!

No it gets stuck on "calibrating". Its like the bar is NEARLY full, it misses like half a centimeter... When it's in that state, i can't press the stop button either but i can switch to the different tabs like beginner, singularity etc.

**ShadowOfSelf** · 12-17-2011 12:44 PM

Couple questions from the first night -
1. Is it possible to lock the screen and this app still work? Because even on the lowest brightness the app gives of a vague white light, when the reminder changes to yellow theres hardly any noticeable difference at all unless your looking directly at the screen, which I don't intend to do. Also im contemplating whether leaving a lit screen on for the whole night is a good idea.
2. The graph is quite confusing im not really sure what im looking at. The 'dreamz' app, as you can see from screenshots on that thread shows a basic overview of your rem stages at what time, which helped me a lot and would be more interesting to someone who isnt into all these technical graphs, but i cant use these two apps at once.
3. Dont know if its just me but the whole app is slightly too complicated, and I have to watch your youtube videos before it really starts making sense, which means ive got nothing to refer back to unless I want to sit through another vid.

Im not being an ass, just providing some feedback so your app can be made more accessible, as at the moment, I dont think it really is. Definetly Has great potential though. Keep it up.

Ev · 12-17-2011 05:00 PM

Originally Posted by Shan

Sounds good Ev!

No it gets stuck on "calibrating". Its like the bar is NEARLY full, it misses like half a centimeter... When it's in that state, i can't press the stop button either but i can switch to the different tabs like beginner, singularity etc.

I will investigate the issue.

Couple questions from the first night -
1. Is it possible to lock the screen and this app still work? Because even on the lowest brightness the app gives of a vague white light, when the reminder changes to yellow theres hardly any noticeable difference at all unless your looking directly at the screen, which I don't intend to do. Also im contemplating whether leaving a lit screen on for the whole night is a good idea.
2. The graph is quite confusing im not really sure what im looking at. The 'dreamz' app, as you can see from screenshots on that thread shows a basic overview of your rem stages at what time, which helped me a lot and would be more interesting to someone who isnt into all these technical graphs, but i cant use these two apps at once.
3. Dont know if its just me but the whole app is slightly too complicated, and I have to watch your youtube videos before it really starts making sense, which means ive got nothing to refer back to unless I want to sit through another vid.

Im not being an ass, just providing some feedback so your app can be made more accessible, as at the moment, I dont think it really is. Definetly Has great potential though. Keep it up.

You may be experiencing the "first night effect". This is when your body's awareness of the external object in bed is heightened. I could not sleep too well with my Android app the first few nights either. See if the pattern persists.

1) Running the accelerometer requires the screen to be on. There's no way around it. I can put the black "screensaver" back. Currently it only shows when the phone is not plugged into the power outlet after 2 minutes.

2) I will be posting a full excel spreadsheet for plotting data along with the next update. that will plot your data better than anything else out there.

3) The question of simplicity has been bugging me too for quite some time. Thank you for bringing this up again. What specifically do you find too complicated?

**ShadowOfSelf** · 12-17-2011 05:52 PM

Originally Posted by Ev

You may be experiencing the "first night effect". This is when your body's awareness of the external object in bed is heightened. I could not sleep too well with my Android app the first few nights either. See if the pattern persists.

1) Running the accelerometer requires the screen to be on. There's no way around it. I can put the black "screensaver" back. Currently it only shows when the phone is not plugged into the power outlet after 2 minutes.

2) I will be posting a full excel spreadsheet for plotting data along with the next update. that will plot your data better than anything else out there.

3) The question of simplicity has been bugging me too for quite some time. Thank you for bringing this up again. What specifically do you find too complicated?

1. I dont know what to suggest, id prefer my room to be completely dark, then have the reminder come on. At the moment by rooms slightly lit up from the app just running normally on lowest brightness.
2.Thats nice, for people that have excel though. Im lazy, and like most people will just want to get an brief idea of the sleep they just had, not have to plug it in upload and copy all graphs and what not over. Again im trying to help, i want people to buy this app and continue to use it, not be put off it after the first night.
3.Well, calibration was fine. As soon as i want on the singularity tab it was kind of a wtf moment. I had to press things randomly to see what happens as it doesnt really say, then I had to watch your vids just to work out how to change little things like what time i was going to sleep.

My overall suggestions would be less buttons and options. From opening the app the very first time > Calibration > Pick what time your going to bed and waking up > what reminder you would like to be played once detected in rem > Start. When you wake up and open the app it will have an option to record your dream, then will produce a basic rough graph showing you your rem stages through the night. Maybe an 'advanced' tab/button that opens up all the options currently present if you wanted to get technical. Using your knowledge from the graphs after a while you would be able work out when you are usually in/out of rem, then in the advanced tab be able to tweak individual stages. A daily rough rem graph is really whats missing for me at the moment.

Ev · 12-17-2011 07:57 PM

Sorry for the WTF effect. I feel the same way about the human body. WTF is going on with it?

I've been doing sleep research for close to 8 months now, and the patterns that I see within sleep are puzzling and upredictable. Singularity Tab is my attempt at helping you understand what's going on without looking at spreadsheets with million table cells.

This is why there's a rotating dial on the singularity screen - it helps you get a rough understanding of when your dreams would happen (each marker is an end of a sleep cycle).

Unfortunately, a pretty graph that most sleep apps out there draw for you with REM on top, light sleep and deep sleep are deceiving at best. There's no such thing as detecting REM through the mattress. At best, it can be predicted, and even then, the predictions may be wildly off.

Consider the image below. Green and gray markers are dreams. Blue are lucid dreams. Is there a predictable pattern of dreaming? I don't see one, and this is after looking at multiple days of history at once. Today's pattern of dreaming does not predict tomorrow's pattern.

How can you hope to predict when you will be dreaming based on a single day line graph which tells you that your "REM" happened at such and such time? Your awakening time, time in bed, diet and caffeine intake may put your body in a completely different mode of operation.

Such single line "REM" graphs simply deceive you, because there's no way for you to verify that you indeed have been dreaming at that time! They do not offer you the ability to mark your dreams to confirm or deny that you've indeed been dreaming.

What I'm offering is a verifiable way to test when you have been dreaming, and over time adjust your body's internal clock to dream at predictable intervals.

In terms of simpler interface, it is already in the app. There's a beginner mode with 1 button and 4 presets. You can test the reminder to find out what it looks and sounds like:

-Gentle Preset - always shows the blue reminder for 60 seconds, then 12 seconds of audio
-DEILD preset - you can configure the reminder's light duration and audio duration
-Silent - no reminders
-Custom - reminders played in order, as on the singularity Tab.

If you are put off by the app after 1 night of use, the app is not for you. I cannot create an app that appeals to everybody. There are simpler and less feature rich apps for lucid dreaming out there. There's DreamZ, Dream Alarm, dREaM Alarm. One of them may be easier to work with. Hell, if you return this one to apple, you can try all 3 of them for the same price. Maybe they will work better?