The Golden Ratio Applied To Remee

Look up the Golden Ratio on the net if you don't know what it is... I'm not going to explain it here. But I am going to use phi to explain how you can mathematically calculate your REM cycles.

Most of us do not know the exact length of our own sleep cycles. The average cycle lasts 90 minutes, so that is the number I will use for this example. If you know how long your cycles typically are, you can replace 90 with a more appropriate number.

If A is your sleep cycle, then B is ( A * 1/1.618 ), and C is ( A * ( 1 - 1/1.618 ) ):

A = 90 minutes
B = 55.6 minutes
C = 34.4 minutes

When you look at a hypnogram, you can literally see the Golden Ratio towards the latter sleep cycles. I don't know why it is not evident in the earlier ones, but I hypothesize there are additional iterations of phi extended into those instances as well. What I mean is that looking at your first sleep cycle, we should all agree that you don't have 34.4 minutes of REM. We all know the REM cycle is much smaller during the first few cycles and grows larger towards the end. So if you take the value of C above and plug it back into the formula, you get this:

A = 34.4 minutes
B = 21.2 minutes
C = 13.13 minutes

Now 13 minutes of REM during your first sleep cycle is sounding much more reasonable, and very likely. As you build on this theory, you can calculate the duration of REM during each sleep cycle throughout the night. I think these numbers provide a good base-line to conduct further tests. What I'm most interested in, though, are the later sleep cycles - why waste effort on smaller targets when there are larger ones at the end? Not to mention the likelihood of remembering a dream from the last sleep cycle of the night as opposed to the first, but I digress.

Looking at the 5th cycle of some hypnograms, you can see it is very likely that the original figures of B = 55.6 and C = 34.4 could be applied here. For this reason, I'm suggesting that you set the initial delay of your Remee timer to 35 minutes (rounding up since we can't program seconds). As for the signal interval, you'll have 56 minutes of REM remaining which we'll plug back into our formula:

A = 56 minutes
B = 34 minutes
C = 21 minutes

Now we'll take the 34 and plug it back into the equation to generate a shorter interval and increase our chances of seeing the light while still using a "Golden" value:

A = 34 minutes
B = 21 minutes
C = 13 minutes

And there you have it - the Golden Remee configuration:

Sleep Cycle = 90 minutes
Golden Delay = 34 minutes
Golden Interval = 13 minutes

Why would this work? Well it might not if you don't typically have 90 minute sleep cycles. Plug in your own numbers, then program your Remee. Why does everything else in the known universe obey the Golden Ratio to some degree? Why would our own rhythmic cycles be exempt from this cosmic constant?

FYI, in tracking my own sleep cycles (mentioned in an earlier post), I've seen them decline to around 55 minutes in length (wow, imagine that, one of the first golden numbers above!). Using that number, I have programmed my Remee with the following:

Sleep Cycle = 55 minutes
Golden Delay = 21 minutes
Golden Interval = 8 minutes

Additionally, I would not wear the Remee all night. Again, stop trying to hit a smaller target in the beginning when it will be much larger towards the end. Apply the numbers you've obtained from the formulas above to the nap mode settings. Set an alarm for 6 hours after laying down. When the alarm goes off, put on your Remee, turn it on, hold the button for 3 seconds to go into nap mode, and go back to sleep. Make sure you have another alarm set to get up for the day :-)

Here is a diagram if you know your cycle duration (sorry, didn't look pretty with tabs, so I put slashes instead):

Sleep Cycle / Golden Delay / Golden Interval
30 / 11.46 / 4.38
35 / 13.37 / 5.11
40 / 15.28 / 5.84
45 / 17.19 / 6.56
50 / 19.10 / 7.29
55 / 21.01 / 8.02
60 / 22.92 / 8.75
65 / 24.83 / 9.48
70 / 26.74 / 10.21
75 / 28.65 / 10.94
80 / 30.56 / 11.67
85 / 32.47 / 12.40
90 / 34.38 / 13.13
95 / 36.29 / 13.86
100 / 38.20 / 14.59
105 / 40.11 / 15.32
110 / 42.01 / 16.05
115 / 43.92 / 16.78
120 / 45.83 / 17.51

Enjoy!

Day 4 of using the Remee yielded the best lucid dream of my life! First I'll tell you about experimenting with different settings, then I'll tell you about the dream.

The first day I kept the defaults and just changed the brightness settings throughout the day (I sleep during the day). Started on low - woke up after a sleep-cycle like we do every time, and didn't recall seeing it at all so changed to medium and went back to sleep. Still didn't see it and that's as far as I got before getting up for the night (I work nights).

The second day I plugged in my golden ratio numbers from above and used the high-brightness setting. Still did not see any flashes during the day.

Third day I used Remee's online config tool to adjust the brightness to 100% of how bright it can go (default high setting is only 70% brightest possible). If you're confused, it doesn't matter. I still did not see any lights, however did recall a dream where I was taking a picture with a camera and trying to figure out how to turn off the flash. Probably related, but I don't even recall the camera flashing in the dream.

Fouth day, I used the online tool and changed the flash routine to something a little more abrupt. Before, the lights were pulsing back and forth kind of like Kit from Knight Rider. Now I changed them just to blink obnoxiously. I still had the brightness on high (100%). The first time it woke me up right away. I turned it down to medium (which is the old default high value). The second time it woke me up again. Turned it down to Low (which is the old default medium value). Did not recall seeing any flashes to trigger my lucid dream, however, here is the dream from my journal entry I wrote immediately upon awakening:

I just had the most amazing lucid dream of my entire life! I remember it starting and I remember it ending very clearly but I'm missing some of the middle. Maybe it will come back to me as I write.

Me and my wife were walking in a library. There was an awful smell like a dirty diaper - we looked at each other and laughed. She was there for something so I found an empty room to wait for her. I had a backpack with me and couldn't decide if I should set it on a chair or outside a 2nd door which was outside. All of the sudden (I don't recall seeing any blinking lights, however I was awoken twice before this from them blinking) I realized I was waiting to see the blinking lights again and became totally lucid.

I thought they were going to wake me up again so I wanted to move fast. Felt myself getting too excited so I controlled my breathing and began to rub by hands together. It was perfect - I felt in total control - the dream was very solid and not fading at all. I still felt a sense of urgency expecting to be awoken by the lights again, but was really calm.

I stepped out in the hallway and began looking closely at things - some things were glimmering - like very faint sparkling - when I looked really close. I wanted to push my hand thru the matter of a shelf of books, so I put my hand right up in front of it and pushed my hand right into the middle of it. Began to get really excited again and thought that if I do things that defy physics of the real world, the more excited I would get and possibly awaken from the dream, so I didn't want to do anything too crazy, just wanted to explore where I was.

It's hard to remember what I did next in the hallway - dream is really fading now. I remember my wife coming back and we went into another room together, but I'm missing that entire part of the dream. The next thing I remember is being in Gusty's driveway (my friend who died 8 years ago) near the street, and an ex-girlfriend is sitting on top of a white cooler questioning me about why her recent boyfriend broke up with her and why she should get back together with me. I was still totally lucid, but some aspects of the dream were starting to set in as reality.

We were standing there talking for what seemed to be a couple minutes. It felt like it had been a long time since I had first gone lucid - maybe like 10 minutes or more. I think the longest one I'd ever had before was 2 or 3 minutes, so this one was starting to feel really long. I was aware of the risk of accepting the dream and falling out of lucidity so I just kept rubbing my hands together thinking about the fact I was still dreaming.

Turned around and saw Gusty. Usually when I have dreams about him they only last a few moments until the dream changes somehow, but this felt different. I still felt in control and that the dream was still very solid - not yet starting to fade. I looked right into his eyes at arms distance away and said "Gusty, how are you man?" and he said something and smiled. He was in a group of 3 or 4 people and they all turned towards the front door of his house and began to walk.

I yelled "Gusty!" and he turned around and looked. I yelled "I love you man!" He smiled and kept walking towards the house. After he got a few steps I yelled again "Gusty... I love you man!" and he smiled again and continued to walk. He was right up to the door and I yelled a 3rd time, for some reason thinking about the scene from the Gospel of John when Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he loves him. I yelled "Gusty... I love you man!" and saw his face become sad that I said it a 3rd time. I walked up to him and gave him a big hug and really held on for a second to feel him in my arms. I let him go so he could be on his way and walked back down to the end of the driveway where my ex was still sitting and talking to me.

Started to think about what else I could try to do before the dream ends, still expecting flashing lights to wake me at any moment. Looked down at the ground and there were frozen ice circles all over the ground like they were forming almost like puddles but from the ground up, not falling from the sky. Then it hit me - I can fly!

I walked over to the field next to Gusty's, looked up and jumped - I was flying. Floated back down slowly and felt the rush of excitement in my stomach. "This is what it's all about" I thought with the biggest smile across my face. Continued to jump and fly for a few seconds at a time and the dreamscape turned from day to night. I was seeing city lights below me like from an airplane at night. Slowly blacked out more and more and I woke up in the living room at mom & dad's house.

I was so excited about the dream I just experienced. It was 5AM or 6AM and my wife was in the kitchen cooking a huge meal for later that day. I stood there in the doorway with a big smile on my face and said "It worked - I just had the best lucid dream ever!" She said "Cool!" and was excited about it too. I asked her if she had been up all night cooking or if she woke up early and started. I don't remember what she said. I told her I was gonna go write my dream down in my journal and walked back into the living room. Then I woke up for real. Wow!

With all the negative responses to Remee, I thought I'd offer a positive one... so there you have it.

This is a bit above my head. How do you figure out your REM cycle time?

That was in a previous post - I mentioned using a stop watch.

You don't have to use a stopwatch. Put a paper and pencil on your nightstand. Write down the time when you lay down to sleep. Each time you awaken during the night, record the time. The next day when you wake up, review the times you recorded. It may be something like "23:00, 2:15, 4:47, 5:53, 6:50". I would interpret that as the following:

23:00 - 2:15, 3 hrs 15 minutes. You probably missed waking up after your 1st cycle and fell back asleep. Can't figure out your 1st or 2nd cycle this time because you don't know start/stop times for each. But in my opinion, the first few cycles are not the ones you are after anyway.

2:15 - 4:47, 2 hrs 32 minutes. Seems kinda long for a cycle. Again, maybe you missed waking between 3rd and 4th. Would skip this one too.

4:47 - 5:53, 1 hr 6 minutes. Looks like a good one to me! Record 5th cycle 1 hr 6 minutes on a more permanent piece of paper.

5:53 - 6:50, 57 minutes. Looks like another good one (so long as your alarm didn't go off at 6:50 to wake you up). Record 6th cycle as well.

Do this for as many days as you can - the higher the sample rate, the better you can find trends. If you consistently see your 4th cycle around 1 hr 10 minutes, your 5th cycle around 1 hr 5 minutes, and your 6th cycle around 1 hr, then go ahead and plug in any of those numbers and target that cycle. Make sense?

I think I need to focus on awakening naturally after each dream. Currently, I sleep like a corpse, dreaming away.