A startup company called Prophetic is developing a wearable device that will elicit lucid dreams. The device, called Halo, will help spark the unique experience of lucid dreaming when desired.

According to WebMD, lucid dreams are when you know that you’re dreaming while you’re asleep. You are aware that the events flashing through your brain aren’t really happening, but the dream seems vivid and real. You may even be able to control how the action unfolds, as if you’re directing a movie in your sleep.

Studies reveal that about half of people may have had at least one lucid dream in their lifetime, but they don’t happen often, usually only a handful of times in a year. They are most common during rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep.

Lucid dreaming can create the ultimate virtual reality experience, says Vice, in which dreamers can “fly, make a building rise out of the ground, and talk to dream characters.” Wesley Louis Berry III, chief technology officer at Prophetic, claims that lucid dreaming can help with PTSD, reduce anxiety, and improve mood, confidence, motor skills, and creativity.

But WebMD warns that lucid dreams can also trigger poor sleep quality because the vivid dreams can wake you and make it harder to fall asleep. Lucid dreams can also cause confusion, delirium, and hallucination in people with certain mental health disorders because they blur the line between what’s real and what’s imagined.

But the Prophetic team is optimistic that their product will change lives for the better.

“The benefits are really outstanding,” Berry says. The company uses a non-invasive technique called transcranial focused ultrasound (TUS) to probe the brain and interact with neural activity. Using a wearable headband, called Halo, the developers hope that TUS will induce or stabilize lucid dreams.

TUS is a relatively new development that scientists say has the ability to modulate brain activity and “could be a useful tool in in the treatment of clinical disorders characterized by negative mood states, like depression and anxiety disorders,” says a 2020 study.

“One of the key things that lucid dreaming has given me in my waking life is that the world is more enchanted,” said Eric Wollberg, CEO of Prophetic. “When you have experienced something so extraordinary, it really imbues life with a certain level of enchantment and mystery and profundity.”