The Promise of Dream Technology

Talk by Ken Raj Leslie

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS

Date: January 22, 2025 Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm Location: Room 113, Carnegie Hall Acadia University

kenneth.leslie@acadiau.ca

https://psychology.acadiau.ca/ken neth-leslie.html

Title: The Promise of Dream Technology

By Dr. Ken Raj Leslie (Acadia University)

Abstract: The discovery of REM sleep in 1953 revolutionized our understanding of dreaming. Subsequent work in the 1980s showed that dreamers can become aware they are dreaming and influence the dream, i.e., lucid dreaming. Early attempts at lucid dream technology failed commercially. The advent of wearable technology has created new opportunities for dream tech. Dr. Leslie founded MotionBed Inc. in 2021 as a sleep tech startup. He is developing an Apple Watch and iPhone system called DreamDirector, that helps users remember and influence their dreams. Dr. Leslie has been working with the Acadia Institute for Data Analytics (AIDA) since 2022 to develop real- time REM sleep detection technology for the purpose of dream engineering.

 

Brief Bio: Dr. Leslie is interested in applying discoveries and insights from psychology and neuroscience to create value in the real world. He has worked as a consumer neuroscientist in the private sector and is an expert in using brain and body measures to understand human responses. Dr. Leslie has also used fMRI to study the human mirror neuron system and its role in unconscious mimicry and empathy. He also has experience recording from individual neurons and helped identify a novel form of synaptic plasticity called synaptic scaling (Turrigiano et al., 1998). Dr. Leslie has an abiding interest in sleep and dreaming, and has studied dream incorporation, lucid dreaming, and the role of the vestibular system in sleepiness. In 2021 Dr. Leslie founded a start-up company called MotionBed Inc. in Kentville that is developing a consumer dream directing system, called DreamDirector.AI, that will allow users to influence their own dreams.

 

Access poster here

Go back