Letting a computer observing our night time is a strange idea. We work with computers all day, and we certainly expect this third of our lifetime being free from technology, often too invasise.
However the launch of the first version has been such an unexpected success... Let Frédéric Descamps, the creator of Dream Recorder , answer the most frequenlty asked questions about this application.

Frédéric, Dream Recorder is used today by hundreds of people. Were you expecting this success ?
Of course not :-) When we first released the application in November 2006, we had never expected so many people would download it, use it, and actually spend 45$. Beyond the curiosity of seing oneself sleeping — which you can do once or twice with the trial version — buying Dream Recorder implies a regular use, on long term. So I guess the reasons why we invented Dream Recorder for our own use match the needs of many.

Why would people use it ?
I guess there are two kind of users. Those who use it for working on dream recollection and those who use it for monitoring their recovery, as many sportsmen. Some users discovered they are sleep walking or have sleep apnea.

Why would you remember your dreams ?
That's very personal, and I guess every user will have a different answer. Some of my friends are creative professionals working in film and animation design. Dream Recorder was initially intended for them. Dreams are an endless source of insipration. The images, the situations and characters you meet there can be re-used for their creations. But again, I think each user has a different incentive.

How does Dream Recorder facilitate dream recollection ?
We naturally forget dreams. Their memory vanish very quickly. We all have dreams, even if some of us never remember them. I know many people sleeping with a notepad on the night table but rarelly using it. They just forget, being too sleepy or just because writing requires full conciousness. Telling about them does not. So Dream Recorder is simply a voice controlled dictaphone that reminds you to tell about your dream, gently waking you up with sounds when you just had a dream.

Being waken-up by a computer during the night is not fun at all, isn't it ?
Sure, but it depends how. We have chosen very smooth sounds like waves or winds sounds. Dream Recorder will just try once during a user defined time window. It will not beep all night !

How does it know you just had a dream ?
Does it read your mind ?
No. It's just a software, not a Harry Potter jinx :-) It uses body motions to reconstruct the sleep cycles. Body motion are one of the numerous indicators for sleep states. Schematically, we move, roll in bed and re-adjust the pillows before and after REM phases. This is not a hundred percent efficient estimator. It would never compete with an electroencephalogram. Compared with real EEG data, it reaches an accuracy of about 75%... without all the wiring ...

So Dream Recorder is based on scientific data ?
It is. I personnaly have a PhD in physics instrumentation and making measurement apparatus is my main job. We had the occasion to develop some monitoring systems for sleep researchers using NMR. The idea of Dream Recorder occured to our mind at this occasion.

Do sleep recordists use Dream Recorder on a professional level ?
No. Body motions are not sufficiently precise indicators for health care. They measure brain waves, sometimes skin conductivity or heart rate. But all these require a complicated preparation of the sleeper, connecting them with many wires, and this would not suit with a regular use. However body motions are sufficient for our purpose, dream recollection and fun.

This means that Dream recorder could wake the sleeper when he is actually not dreaming.
Yes, it could. But if a sound is emmited while deeply asleep, you will not even notice it... it would only wake you up if you'd have selected a black heavy metal track in your iTunes library, which is not recommended :-)

About disturbance, the backlight of the screen could be annoying ?
Sure, we but managed to minimize this discomfort. I am very sensitive to light myself, and Dream Recorder is not disturbing my sleep. First it's not a flash, but the backlight smoothly switches on and off. Then while falling into sleep, the screen light was indeed disturbing me, as I was focussing my attention on the computer. Therefore I usually postpone the first snapshot time by one hour, letting me time to fall asleep. Once sleeping, I do not notice the light at all.
By the way, press the space bar for five seconds and Dream Recorder will stop recording.


What about the wake-up zone ?
What does that mean, waking up at the right time ?
This means that Dream Recorder will wake you up at the end of a sleep cycle, before starting another one. When you naturally wake up, without an alarm clock, you come back to a full state of waking at these transition times, noticing the light through the shutters for instance. Dream Recorder will reproduce this mechanism by emitting a wake-up sound at this exact instant, before starting a new cycle.

This is paradoxical, you mean waking up earlier but at the right time is better than sleeping further ?
This will depend from the user. The waking up will be smoother and natural, and you will feel the alarm clock as being less aggressive. The body needs more time to recover full awareness when being awaken during a normal or deep sleep phase. Hormons also play a role here (anabolic cycles). Dream Recorder avoids the sleepy feeling and bad mood we sometimes experience. It will wake you up earlier, at the natural sleep instant, giving you more time to be prepared for the day. However, this is all depending on users. We have many of them reporting they use this application only for this specific feature.

Why having included an alarm clock with voice snooze then?
If our body had not enough recovery time, you could skip the wake-up phase and Dream Recorder then act as a classical alarm clock, with this difference that it has a voice snooze. Growl and sleep ten more minutes. Dream Recorder provides as great comfort to the user.

How do we know if we had enough sleep ?
Well ... this all depends on your perception and experience. Statistics are there to monitor your bed times, and the cumulated durations of the sleep phases. Our body recovery essentially happens during deep sleep phases. Dream Recorder is also a tool for adjusting and understanding our sleep better. Many sportsmen use it to get an estimate of their night time recovery.

What would say to a person hesitating using Dream Recorder ?
Be open-minded and curious. Do not hesitate to ask for another test period for trying it during your holidays if you've downloaded it earlier but had not time to test it. Ask for missing features. Finallly, if i'd have only one advice, do it for fun :-)