I guess it’s old news since the patent is from 2003, but I see that Stephen LaBerge, the most famous lucid dream researcher and lucid dream author in the world, has a patent on “substances that enhance recall and lucidity during dreaming.”

Patent number 20040266659, to be exact.

Here’s a summary of his patent, in his own words:

“This invention relates to the field of Lucid Dreaming and the enhancement of dream recall and dream lucidity through memory enhancing drugs, including the class of substances that comprise Acetylcholine Esterase inhibitors (AChEls). Lucid dreaming involves dreaming while knowing that you . . . → Read More: Did you know Stephen LaBerge has a patent on substances that cause Lucid Dreaming?]]> I found something really wild tonight.

I guess it’s old news since the patent is from 2003, but I see that Stephen LaBerge, the most famous lucid dream researcher and lucid dream author in the world, has a patent on “substances that enhance recall and lucidity during dreaming.”

Patent number 20040266659, to be exact.

Here’s a summary of his patent, in his own words:

“This invention relates to the field of Lucid Dreaming and the enhancement of dream recall and dream lucidity through memory enhancing drugs, including the class of substances that comprise Acetylcholine Esterase inhibitors (AChEls). Lucid dreaming involves dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming. AChE inhibitors (AchEl’s) inhibit the normal metabolic inactivation of Acetylcholine (ACh) by inhibiting the enzyme, Acetylcholine Esterase (AChE), leading to accumulation of Ach. AchEl’s are most commonly used to enhance memory, particularly in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Ach is also well known to be important in REM and thus is suggested herein to enhance dreaming and lucidity.”

Whoa! What did that just say?

(This makes me think of the movie Lawnmower Man, where the doctor gives Jobe drugs and then makes him a genius by combining it with virtual reality games.)

Pretty amazing stuff. If there’s anyone out there who could invent a lucid dreaming pill, I’d put my money on LaBerge.

You can read all the details of Stephen LaBerges lucid dreaming drugs patent here.

This got me curious – what other patents are there related to dreaming and lucid dreaming?

Quite a few actually.

We’ve got a patent for Equipment and methods used to induce lucid dreaming in sleeping persons, with LaBerges name attached to this one too.

This looks like a patent for the Nova Dreamer device, which detects REM and flashes a light with the idea that it will show up in the dream, and the dreamer will recognize this signal and know he or she is dreaming.

On a similiar but-this-probably-won’t-really-work idea, someone filed a patent titled Dream State Teaching Machine, which detects Rapid Eye Movement and then plays a prerecorded message in your ears via headphones, with the idea that you’ll hear it and become lucid.

There’s a not-too-exciting Dream Detection & Method System patent. Eh, next.

Ohhh – what’s this? Somehow someone got away with filing a patent for a Device that Records Dream Recollections ; also known as a tape recorder, or in this case, a digital recorder. What makes this different than a normal recording device? Not sure. Maybe because it looks like an alarm clock and sits by your bed?

Then this last one I found is pretty neat:

It’s called an “Apparatus for facilitating analysis of dream activity.” In more exciting terms, it detects your REM states, signals a sound to wake you when an REM period is over, and contains a voice activated recorder. The device is attached above your bed on the wall; the idea then is that it gently wakes you up once your dream is over and you can record your dream without even getting out of bed simply by using the voice-activated recorder.

I’d use it!