Free · Open source · Build it yourself
Know when
you're dreaming.
OpenLucid listens to your sleep through an EEG headband and whispers a soft sound when you are probably dreaming. So the question "Am I dreaming?" can follow you inside.
Educational, not medical advice.
One night, four steps.
A small crew works through the night so you don't have to.
The headband listens
A consumer EEG headband picks up the tiny electrical whisper of your brain, all night long.
It recognizes REM
Every 30 seconds, open-source sleep science guesses your stage: awake, deep sleep, or dreaming.
A whisper
During stable REM it plays a soft sound you trained that evening to mean: am I dreaming?
You signal back
Realize you're dreaming? Look left-right-left-right. Your eyes still move in REM, and the app writes it down.
Your brain data never leaves your house. No cloud. No account. No electricity into anyone's head.
Local
Everything runs on your own laptop and phone. Your nights are files you own.
Open source
Every line of code is public under the MIT license. Read it, change it, share it, teach with it.
No headband yet?
Fake Moose, a built-in simulated headband, lets you try everything before you buy anything.
The software.
Made to be as easy as possible: download, unzip, double-click. And every line open, if you'd rather build it yourself.
The app
Windows today, as an early preview: live brainwaves, contact check, eye check and whole-night recording. Android, iPhone and iPad, Mac and Linux follow from the same code.
The Diary Keeper
An optional server for your nights and dream journal. Runs on your own computer, with Python or Docker. No cloud of ours.
The code
Flutter for the app, Python and FastAPI for the server, MIT license. Recordings follow the research standards (EDF+, BIDS-EEG).
Will it work?
Maybe.
Sound cues during REM sleep have helped some people become lucid in sleep labs. At home, with a consumer headband, the evidence is weaker and still being studied. OpenLucid doesn't promise you lucid dreams. It gives you an honest way to find out what works for you.
Built in public.
Every step, including the wrong turns, written for people who are new to all of this.
Day 4b: building the night recorder
Checkpoint 03 in code: a Start night button that writes EEG and movement to an EDF+ file every second, in a BIDS folder, checked with MNE. And the four mistakes on the way.
ReadDay 4: planning the first real night
Before sleeping with the headband: people turn over, lie on their side and move without knowing. How OpenLucid will recognise that instead of mistaking it for brain activity.
ReadExplainer: meet the night crew
A 90-second animated introduction to OpenLucid and its characters.
Read the scriptStart tonight.
No programming experience needed. Begin with the simulated headband, and add a real one when you're ready.