Thread: DreamMaker Vs. RemDreamer

A simple question. Has anyone invested money in BOTH of these? I am curious about the relative merits of these two devices.

Thanks

Hi Doc Tech,
I have written reviews of both on this forum:

http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...2&postcount=89
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...1&postcount=50

NovaDreamer is still the best in my opinion.

Vortex.

Vortex, excellent info - thanks. So in summary - you felt the RemDreamer had better REM detection.

That's my issue with the Dreammaker. I think it is highly dependent on position of the mask, a few mm one way or another relative to the optimal position and you're screwed.

The Dreammaker widget also gives audio cues to help you position the mask. But using it in the dark and fusing with dip switch positions is a bitch. It's pretty much impossible to adjust the mask position - remove the widget and reposition the dip switches to where you want them - amd still maintain optimal location

So if I'm having REM detecion issues with the Dreamaker - I guess your guidance is to give the remdreamer a shot? Money is not a big issue - if it's 200 bucks and it works great, it's worth it.

I'm a very light sleeper. Even on the lowest setting - the dreamamker brightness often wakes me up. What is the comarparison between minimum brightness levels on these devices?

Yeah, REM Dreamer has much better REM detection (I haven't tried the DreamMaker with the new widget though). They both have their downsides, The controls are a nightmare on both, on the RD they are way to complicated, on the DM there is not enough control and they are inaccessible on both.

I'd recommend looking for a good secondhand NovaDreamer - a more recent one as some are over 15 years old now and the InfraRed emitter degrades on them making them a lot less sensitive, this can be repaired though (email me if you want more info on this).
REM Dreamer lights are less bright than DM or ND but if you want to make them even less bright just angle the LED away from the centre of the eye, as the beam is quite narrow. I have just put ultra bright LEDS in my ND, and a voice message recorder is in the pipeline.

Vortex.

So as a follow-up on this thread, I came up w/ a simple method of positioning my Dreamaker better. For anyone who owns that device - perhpas this will be of interest.

I took a business card and held it up to my face below my left eye, and marked off the locations of my left pupil and middle of the nose. This represents the ideal horizontal position of the infrared LED from the middle of the nose cut-out.

I put the mask on wo/ the strap and guided a pencil horizontally over my left pupil to try to get a sense of where the pencil aligned (vertically) with the infrared emitter. I hope that's clear.

The bottom line is that I had the board a little low in the mask. I'm actually getting better detection at this point now that I raised it some. I think this method is easier to implement than fusing with the widget piece - as per my previous explaination.

I did a sensitivity test on the NovaDreamer for someone recently and I found I could move the mask about 1 inch / 2.5 cm either way before the sensitivity was seriously affected, which is pretty good as they always move around a bit when your sleeping.
Also if anyone is interested there is a sensitivity test mode on the NovaDreamer that they never told you about in the instructions. To access it remove the batteries and replace them while holding down the reality test button - the lights will flash once and then when you press the button again it makes a Beep-Meep noise and starts to self test the InfraRed Emitter and detectors. It will give a score between 0 and 255 by flashing the LED's (0 bad - 255 perfect). Best done in complete darkness as the detector is confused by other forms of light.

Vortex.