Can people really share a dream? A tech start-up says it's linking minds during sleep - Salam
Assalamu alaikum - A neurotech start-up says it managed something straight out of sci‑fi: sending a word from one person’s dream into another’s while both were asleep.
REMspace claims their test used two lucid dreamers. One person heard a random word through headphones and said it in their dream, and the other dreamer reportedly picked up the same word about eight minutes later.
If true, this would be a big step for brain–computer interfaces, combining AI, brain imaging and sleep science. But experts remind us the tech is very new, expensive and complicated, and regular use is far off.
The company says it used sleep headgear and a “dream language” method to monitor two lucid dreamers. Sensors including EEG were used to sync the participants and spot when they reached REM sleep, the stage with vivid dreams. During REM, one sleeper was played a random word via headphones. REMspace says that sleeper heard the cue and spoke it inside their dream, and that the second dreamer later recognised the same word in their own dream - what they call “dream‑to‑dream communication.”
However, the claim hasn’t been independently verified or published in a peer‑reviewed journal, and many scientists say there’s no clear proof that information actually passed between the two brains.
David Melcher, a psychology professor and researcher, notes that while researchers can sometimes infer what someone is seeing or thinking using tools like EEG and fMRI, sending words between sleeping people is much less certain. Some studies show that at certain sleep stages, sounds or words can activate brain areas that process sound, but whether lucid dreamers reliably hear and understand words is still unclear and needs more study.
Experiments like this require monitoring lots of bodily signals and complex decoding tools. The equipment is costly and running the studies takes months of skilled neuroscientists’ time. From a practical view, dream‑to‑dream links might be mostly for fun rather than medical benefit.
Dr Bobby Jose, a neurosurgery specialist, says current technology cannot decode specific dream content. There’s lots of electrical activity in the sleeping brain, but we don’t have tools that can translate those signals into precise words or thoughts. Truly transmitting or decoding dreams would need far more advanced BCIs, and such tech would also raise serious ethical and privacy concerns.
Lucid dreaming itself is well established: people can be aware they’re dreaming and sometimes influence the dream. Some research has found distinct brain patterns for lucid dreaming, and earlier studies have shown limited two‑way communication is possible - for example, lucid dreamers perceiving cues and responding with eye movements. But no peer‑reviewed work has shown information being sent between two separate dreamers, so REMspace’s claim remains unproven and beyond current mainstream neurotech.
Despite rapid BCI advances, experts say dream communication is still a research‑only idea. The most mature BCI applications today are medical - stroke rehab, prosthetics and communication for people with paralysis - not entertainment or shared dreaming.
For now, the field is experimental and may take years before any reliable dream‑to‑dream communication is possible. Still, the idea of friends or family dreaming together sounds interesting - and as Muslims we can be curious, but cautious, about technologies that probe the mind. Wa Allahu a'lam (and God knows best).
https://www.thenationalnews.co