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| Photo by Christopher Klutts, via Wikimedia |
If a person doesn't enjoy getting out of bed in the early hours of the day, they're usually just labeled as "not a morning person." Recent research, however has suggested that this could be a symptom of a more serious condition.
Anticipation Deprivation Malady, or ADM, is estimated to afflict 20-50 million Americans on a regular basis. A lack of anything to look forward to in the day causes a drop in chemical messengers in the brain that usually trigger a feeling of alertness and focus. Most people deal with this by drinking caffeine-rich beverages, but regular use can lead to a chemical dependence that over time can cause its benefits to become negligible.
A company based in Alaska, where sleep issues can be very severe due to the strange daylight patterns during the summer and winter, has developed what they believe to be a solution. DayDream Inc. has been doing tests with their DDA-04, an ADM compensator device, for the last three years. And the results look promising.
The device stimulates the emotions that would come with a person having something they’re looking forward to in the morning. Levels start at 1, which equates to the feeling of having a new cereal to try out, and go up to 10, which would be on par with how a nine year old feels knowing that they're going toDisneyland .
A company based in Alaska, where sleep issues can be very severe due to the strange daylight patterns during the summer and winter, has developed what they believe to be a solution. DayDream Inc. has been doing tests with their DDA-04, an ADM compensator device, for the last three years. And the results look promising.
The device stimulates the emotions that would come with a person having something they’re looking forward to in the morning. Levels start at 1, which equates to the feeling of having a new cereal to try out, and go up to 10, which would be on par with how a nine year old feels knowing that they're going to
A person places the electrodes on their temples, sets their wake up time and intensity setting, and goes to sleep. The device then wakes them up by stimulating the emotions. After the electrodes are removed, the effects last just long enough for a person to get up, get dressed, and go about their day.
Critics of the device claim that prolonged use at high levels could lead to a mental breakdown. Devin Starr, a researcher who left the company last year under conditions he chose not to talk about, said that there was a high risk that the device could: "Cause a person to just snap. One minute they're fine. The next day, they ditch work or school and go sit by a river all day, backpack through Europe, or, in the most severe cases they wouldn't be able to handle life anymore. Teasing the mind with false hope for the day like that? A person might try to kill themselves."
When Mr. Starr's concerns were brought up during a KeyWeekly interview with DayDream, their spokesperson Clarissa Ocean acknowledged that there are still some bugs to work out with the current prototype. None of the volunteers, however, had yet to suffer any sever effects.
"The worst case was with an earlier model. The volunteer quit his job, broke up with his girlfriend, cursed out all of our staff, and hitchhiked all the way to Cabo down in Baja California to be a fisherman. Some of our staff believe it was a combination of having the device at too intense a setting coupled with watching Shawshank Redemption every night for a whole week."
Ocean also pointed out that many target customers are currently on antidepressants, which have been known to increase a person's chance of having suicidal thoughts. They figure that if the FDA approves of those, then their device, which is both less invasive and less habit forming, should not raise any alarms.
"If that’s where we’re setting the bar, our product should be just fine.”
When Mr. Starr's concerns were brought up during a KeyWeekly interview with DayDream, their spokesperson Clarissa Ocean acknowledged that there are still some bugs to work out with the current prototype. None of the volunteers, however, had yet to suffer any sever effects.
"The worst case was with an earlier model. The volunteer quit his job, broke up with his girlfriend, cursed out all of our staff, and hitchhiked all the way to Cabo down in Baja California to be a fisherman. Some of our staff believe it was a combination of having the device at too intense a setting coupled with watching Shawshank Redemption every night for a whole week."
Ocean also pointed out that many target customers are currently on antidepressants, which have been known to increase a person's chance of having suicidal thoughts. They figure that if the FDA approves of those, then their device, which is both less invasive and less habit forming, should not raise any alarms.
"If that’s where we’re setting the bar, our product should be just fine.”
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