Methodology and Sources

1Scope and status#

1.1 This is the technical companion to the consumer Methods page. It describes the DreamGate app as built at the version shown above.

1.2 Some features on the Methods page are marked as planned, such as optional wearable sync and personal prompts drawn from your journal. They aren't part of the app yet, and this page doesn't describe them as if they were.

2The practices and their evidence#

2.1 Lucid dreaming research is mostly small studies and online induction studies with self-reported outcomes. Results vary widely between people, and some researchers have called for caution about possible downsides, such as sleep disruption and blurred dream–reality boundaries (Soffer-Dudek, 2020). DreamGate is built around that caution.

2.2 DreamGate doesn't name researchers or institutions to suggest they endorse or are affiliated with it. They don't, and the references in section 10 are for further reading.

3The rest check#

3.1 Before a night cue can play, the app runs a fixed set of rules on your phone. They are checked in this order, and the first rule that fails keeps cues off and shows the reason. Ambient sound is never gated.

3.2 Sleep history (optional). If you turn it on, the rest check also uses your sleep times from Apple Health or Health Connect: for each night it takes whichever of the Health record or your own entry shows less sleep. It can add a pause; it can never allow a cue that your own check-ins would block, and a test enforces that. Missing or failed Health data falls back to your own entries.

3.3 It fails closed. Missing, outdated or unreadable data keeps cues off. If the app can't read your rest history at all, cues stay off for the night. The rules are checked again at the moment a cue would play, not only when the screen opens.

3.4 Known limitation. The morning clarity rating is a single 1–5 score. The rest check reads a low average as "your mornings have felt foggy", but someone who simply doesn't remember dreams may rate low for that reason too. That errs towards rest, which is the safe direction. A separate "how rested do you feel" rating is under consideration [TO CONFIRM: update if the check-in changes].

4Safety questions#

4.1 The app asks three questions before any night cue or the night glow can be used:

1. "Have you ever had a seizure, or been told to avoid flashing or flickering light?"
2. "Do you often find yourself awake but unable to move, or have frightening experiences, as you fall asleep or wake up?"
3. "Do you have times when you feel disconnected from yourself or your surroundings, or lose track of time without knowing why?"

4.2 Each answer can be "yes", "no" or "not sure". Any answer other than "no" keeps night cues and the night glow off. Skipped, outdated (from an older question set) or unreadable answers count the same as "yes". You can review your answers at any time in Settings.

4.3 The questions describe experiences rather than naming conditions, and the app never labels or diagnoses anything from the answers.

5Sound safety#

5.1 Sound clips don't loop on their own. The app restarts each short clip while a session is active, so if the app is suspended or stalls, sound stops at the end of the current clip rather than playing indefinitely.

5.2 All sounds are bundled with the app. Nothing is streamed.

5.3 The sounds in current test builds are placeholders. DreamGate makes no claim that any sound changes brain activity, induces a particular state or causes a lucid dream [TO CONFIRM: describe the final cue sounds and their rationale before release].

6Light safety#

6.1 Night glow. An optional slow red glow while night sound plays: one cycle every 6 seconds (about 0.17 Hz). WCAG 2.3.1 sets three flashes per second as the threshold to stay under; the glow is more than 15 times slower than that and fades smoothly rather than flashing. It's off by default, and it needs all of these: safety answers all "no", the setting turned on, the phone's Reduce Motion off, and night sound playing.

6.2 Red night mode. In red mode every colour on screen has zero green and zero blue components (pure #FF0000 on true black). Hierarchy comes from size and weight, never dimmer reds, so text stays at about 5.25:1 contrast. On OLED screens only the red sub-pixels light up. LCD screens still use a backlight, so some broad-spectrum light remains. DreamGate makes no claim that red mode protects melatonin or improves sleep.

6.3 No fast motion anywhere. Nothing in the app flashes faster than 3 Hz. The brief launch mark holds for 500 ms and fades once, and it doesn't fade at all with Reduce Motion on.

7On-device features#

7.1 Morning sorting. The app splits a morning capture into dream content and tasks (actions, ideas and worries) using simple text rules on your phone. Recurring themes, such as "water" or "hallways", are counted, never interpreted. You review and confirm every card.

7.2 Speech to text. Voice capture uses your phone's built-in recogniser in on-device mode only. If your phone can't do on-device recognition for your language, voice capture stays off. No recording is kept.

7.3 Sun-based theme. Sunrise and sunset are calculated on your phone with NOAA's solar position equations, from a location rounded to 0.1° (about 10 km) before it's stored. Without a location, or where the sun doesn't rise or set (polar day or night), the app uses 07:00–19:00 local time.

8What DreamGate doesn't claim#

DreamGate doesn't claim to:

• induce lucid dreams, or guarantee any result;
• diagnose, treat or monitor any sleep or mental health condition;
• measure your sleep stages, heart rate or brain activity (the app reads no live sensors; with your permission it reads only past nights' sleep times from Health);
• interpret what your dreams mean;
• protect melatonin or circadian rhythms through red mode;
• change brainwaves through sound.

9Planned work, and what would change here#

Sleep history is now available as an option: with your permission, the app reads past nights' sleep times from Apple Health or Google Health Connect, on your phone, to pre-fill hours slept, suggest a Wake Back to Bed time, and make the rest check more careful (section 3.2). It doesn't read live data or trigger anything automatically. Detecting sleep stages in real time and cueing automatically remain research, with no date.

10References#

• Aspy, D. J. (2020). Findings from the International Lucid Dream Induction Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1746. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01746
• Aspy, D. J., Delfabbro, P., Proeve, M., & Mohr, P. (2017). Reality testing and the mnemonic induction of lucid dreams: Findings from the national Australian lucid dream induction study. Dreaming, 27(3), 206–231. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000059
• Irish, L. A., Kline, C. E., Gunn, H. E., Buysse, D. J., & Hall, M. H. (2015). The role of sleep hygiene in promoting public health: A review of empirical evidence. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 22, 23–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2014.10.001
• LaBerge, S. (1980). Lucid dreaming as a learnable skill: A case study. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 51(3, Pt 2), 1039–1042. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1980.51.3f.1039
• Soffer-Dudek, N. (2020). Are lucid dreams good for us? Are we asking the right question? A call for caution in lucid dream research. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 13, 1423. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2019.01423
• Stumbrys, T., Erlacher, D., Schädlich, M., & Schredl, M. (2012). Induction of lucid dreams: A systematic review of evidence. Consciousness and Cognition, 21(3), 1456–1475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2012.07.003
• W3C (2024). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Success Criterion 2.3.1: Three Flashes or Below Threshold. https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/
• NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory. Solar calculation details (NOAA Solar Calculator). https://gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/calcdetails.html

11Version history#