Android Mobile Application with arduino Lilypad: Advanced Biological Clock for human and Lucid dreamer

Abstract

In Hong Kong, people always complain that they cannot get a good quality sleeping. Some of them said that "I slept 10 hours last night but I still feel sleepy". From the view of biology, there is a term called sleep cycle. The time for one sleep cycle is about 1.5hours and maybe varies in different individuals. If people sleep more than they need, they will feel uncomfortable. From the news of Science, we know that we can monitor the sleep cycle by heart beat and other physiological parameters. With recording and some calculation, we can know what the best sleeping time is for different individual. On the other hand, the traditional wakes up methods also bother us to get a good sleep. Because an old style alarm clock cannot wake you up at the right timing. If it wakes you up at wrong timing, you will also feel uncomfortable. Therefore, I would like to develop an application to improve the sleeping of people. First of all, we need to calculate the sleeping time for highest efficiency. For example, the time now is 10:00PM. Peter wants to sleep 8 hours. Then, the app collects the sleep data and predicts the sleep cycle of peter is 1.4 hour. So, the best length of time is 8 div 1.4 =7. So, it will wake Peter up after 7hours. The apps will wake Peter up mildly step by step. For example, it will play a mild music or give a mild vibration. Finally, he will feel that he wake up naturally and feel comfortable. Moreover, there is one more application on the REM phrase. Before going to discuss this application, we need to know what Lucid Dream is first. Stickgold, R. & Walker, M. P. (2009) stated that "In some cases, the dreamer is able to deliberately modify the events of his/her ongoing dream". According to Moorcroft W.M. (2013), "Lucid dreaming means being aware that you are dreaming while you are dreaming". And Moorcroft W.M. (2013) also pointed out that "Many people also report that while having a lucid dream, they have the ability to modify the dream in minor to major ways." Dement, W., & Wolpert, E. (1958) indicated that the eyes move rapidly when someone is dreaming and the movement may relate to the direction that the dreamers looking inside their dreams. Therefore, the device can notice Peter is dreaming by detecting the REM. When Peter is dreaming, the LED lights under the eye mask will notice him by blinking a dark red light, so he will aware that he is dreaming and start to control his dream.