A new venture capital venture is tapping into the performance that can be manipulated during lucid dreaming, Fortune reports. Lucid dreaming is the state of being aware that you are dreaming during the sleep cycle and being able to control or manipulate the dream narrative. Approximately 70% of people have experienced this phenomenon at least once in their lives.
Founded earlier this year, Prophetic is entering a new unconscious market with an innovative headset called ‘Halo’. Allowing clients to lucid dream can unlock productivity at night; For example, according to Fortune, engineers can write code in their sleep.
People spend approximately one-third of their lives sleeping. Prophetic wants to create a conscious sleep state by eliminating the lack of activity that occurs during sleep. Working in collaboration with Afshin Mehin, designer of Neuralink N1 for Elon Musk’s brain implant company, Prophetic aims to take sleep to a new level of control.
Halo is worn like a crown and is intended to give users control over their dreams. According to Prophetic’s website, the device uses a combination of ultrasound and machine learning models created using EEG and fMRI data to determine when users are in REM sleep to trigger and stabilize lucid dreams.
“Together we will seek answers to life’s biggest questions,” the site teases.
Prophetic is expected to price the Halos between $1,500 and $2,000, as data from the institute is scheduled to arrive in spring 2024 and the devices are scheduled to ship in spring 2025. The product is based on ongoing research at the Donders Institute in the Netherlands, which targets specific brain regions and ultrasound frequencies for optimal lucid dream induction.
The company has shown strong interest, generating “several hundred thousand dollars in booking revenue” within the first few weeks of bookings opening, signaling a potentially large user base eagerly awaiting the product’s launch. Some experts are skeptical that lucid dreams can be turned into useful tools.