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These are weird, wonderful and odd stories and all true; for quiz masters needing new and unique material and those who enjoy reading about the slightly bizarre side of real life.

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The Dream Machine

Keith Hearne's Dream Machine could spell the end of ruined sleep for thousands of sufferers from nightmares whilst others may be able to control their fantasies.

The machine is based on a tiny sensor, clipped onto the nose to measure Inhaled and exhaled air. It Is connected in turn to an alarm. When you dream your breathing rate rises. When you have a nightmare It rises even more. The device is adjusted to trigger the alarm at nightmare breathing level. The result is that when the horrors begin, the alarm goes of and you wake up.

If all goes well, the device will be followed by a more sophisticated version which converts ordinary dreams into lucid dreams, in which you know you are dreaming, can control your actions, and remember what happened.

This time, since the object is to stay asleep, the alarm is replaced by four tiny impulses, generated by a battery, delivered through a wristband, and triggered when the sensor realises you are dreaming.

The subject is told that each of the four impulses corresponds to a word. This ... Is ... A .. Dream. You might be walking down the road in your dream, the impulses hit your wrist, you do a double take (because it is an incongruity), you look at your wrist, you don’t see any wires, and it clicks that this is the cue, and you are lucid. Once you realise you are dreaming you are in a fantastic world. Lucid dreams usually only last for two or three minutes, but they can last for half an hour.

Mr Karl Weiss, managing director of Incam, the firm which holds the rights to the machine, said that while they could guarantee the Nightmare Interrupter, the Dream Machine does not work for some people. For others the strongest shock is only sufficient to trigger lucidity, yet some find it extremely unpleasant. There is also the problem of potential customers who might be reluctant lo go to bed wired by the nose to a battery.