Scientists at a California-based sleep research company say they have achieved something that once belonged only to science fiction. According to researchers at REMspace, two people were able to communicate with each other while both were asleep and lucid dreaming. The experiment involved two experienced lucid dreamers.
Both participants were sleeping at their homes while their brain activity was monitored remotely in real time. The goal was to test whether a simple message could be sent, received, and confirmed during a lucid dream without waking the participants. REMspace claims the experiment succeeded.
Lucid dreaming is a condition in which a person becomes aware that they are dreaming while still asleep. In many cases, the dreamer can think clearly and sometimes control actions inside the dream. This phenomenon usually happens during REM sleep, a stage marked by intense brain activity and vivid dreams.
During the experiment, researchers tracked the participants’ brain waves using specialized equipment. When the system detected that the first participant had entered REM sleep and achieved lucidity, a server generated a word and transmitted it to the sleeper through earbuds.
The word was “Zhilak,” a made-up term designed to avoid confusion with existing languages. While still dreaming, the first participant reportedly heard the word and repeated it aloud. His response was recorded and stored by the system without waking him.
About eight minutes later, the second participant entered a lucid dream. The stored message was then sent to her through the same method. She also repeated the word during her dream and later confirmed the experience after waking up.
REMspace says this was the first recorded instance of two people exchanging a message entirely within a dream state. The company described the event as the first-ever “chat” between humans inside dreams.
The technology used in the experiment combined brain-monitoring hardware, a central server, and wireless communication. By analyzing EEG signals, the system identified when the participants reached lucid REM sleep and timed the message delivery carefully to avoid waking them.
Although REMspace has not released full technical details, researchers say the key was aligning the audio message with the brain’s dream-processing phase so it became part of the dream rather than a disturbance.
REMspace founder and CEO Michael Raduga said, “Yesterday, the idea of communicating in dreams felt like something out of science fiction. By tomorrow, it will be so common we won’t be able to imagine life without it,” he said.
Raduga believes REM sleep could become the next major technological frontier after artificial intelligence. According to the company, REM sleep allows people to experience a fully developed reality where they can see, hear, touch, smell, feel pleasure and pain, and even change their body or identity, all without the limits of the physical world.
While the results are still preliminary, scientists say dream communication could have serious real-world applications if confirmed. One possible use is in mental health treatment. Therapists could help patients with PTSD or anxiety safely confront difficult memories in controlled dream environments.
REMspace itself has acknowledged that the experiment has not yet been independently verified or published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Until that happens, many researchers remain skeptical.
REMspace says it has spent nearly five years developing its dream communication technology. The company claims that additional participants have also successfully interacted with the system during dreams.
