Somni

Inspiration

Our inspiration came from one of our team members who struggled with sleep after experiencing a car accident. In the weeks that followed, they began having recurring nightmares related to the event. Although therapy and sleep trackers exist, they realized there was no real way to understand or process what was happening within these dreams. As we learned more about this experience, our team began to question why something so emotionally significant disappears the moment we wake up. We recognized that there are currently no tools that help people meaningfully access or reflect on their dream activity. This led us to ask: What if dreams could be recorded, visualized, and analyzed to help people better understand the emotions their minds are processing during sleep? Somni was born from this question.

What it does

Somni measures and visualizes subconscious emotional signals during sleep, turning dreams into insights that help users understand and improve their mental wellbeing. Specifically, Somni works to enhance our sense of interoception, our ability to perceive internal emotional and physiological signals, transforming subconscious dream activity into a new sensory signal for understanding mental wellbeing. By doing this, Somni has the potential to help countless numbers of individuals who currently face sleep issues, whether it be PTSD, chronic insomnia, or stress. Somni accomplishes this through a speculative wearable sleep mask equipped with neural and biometric sensors that capture physiological signals during REM sleep, including eye movement, brainwave activity, heart rate variability, and stress responses. By combining these signals with AI models, Somni works to reconstruct a visual interpretation of the user’s dream to then use an analysis of emotional and mental wellbeing. For the first time, users are able to visualize and analyze their dreams after they occur, enhancing their interoception and ability to assess mental triggers that may cause different types of sleep issues. By making dream activity visible and interactive, Somni converts subconscious emotional processing into a perceivable sensory interface, enabling individuals to identify hidden stress patterns, uncover root causes of emotional distress, and improve their mental wellbeing over time.

How we built it

We began by conducting user research, asking people in our lives whether dream-related stress or recurring nightmares were issues they had experienced. After confirming that this was a common challenge, we turned to secondary research to understand how dreams and sleep conditions are currently monitored. Through this research, we discovered that a large population of people suffer from sleep-related conditions yet have few tools that help them meaningfully process their dream experiences. We then narrowed our scope and identified features that could support these users, building on existing therapeutic techniques such as Image Rehearsal Therapy. From there, we used Figma Make to ideate and create the initial structure of our app, iterating on the concept before manually refining the design and building out interactive prototypes. We also designed and developed our presentation slides in Figma to clearly communicate our concept and user journey.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges we faced was balancing the relationship between the physical product and the app experience. Because Somni relies on a hardware device to capture subconscious sleep signals, we had to carefully think through how the hardware would function and how that data would translate into a meaningful and intuitive digital interface. Another major challenge was designing appropriate safeguard rails. Since our product deals with highly sensitive subconscious and emotional data, we had to think deeply about privacy and ethical use. This led us to build protections around data ownership, clinical integration, and emotional safety to ensure users remain in control of their information and are supported rather than overwhelmed. Finally, we encountered several prototyping and design challenges while learning new tools like Figma Make. Translating a speculative concept into a clear user experience required multiple iterations and continuous refinement of our interface and storytelling.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

One of our biggest accomplishments was learning how to use Figma Make throughout this project. Our team had limited experience with the tool beforehand, but it allowed us to quickly explore ideas and expand our design perspective. Using Figma Make helped us prototype concepts more efficiently and iterate on our designs in ways we hadn’t done before. We’re also particularly proud of identifying a problem that affects many people, including us, and translating that insight into a thoughtful design solution. Through our prototyping and creative storytelling, we are proud of the fact that we were able to communicate the potential impact of our idea in a meaningful way.

What we learned

As we designed Somni, we discovered that there are many significant human experiences beyond those that we are consciously capable of perceiving. Dreams are perhaps one of the most potent examples of this, as we are capable of processing emotions, memories, and stressors in our minds when we are sleeping, but we are almost never able to retain any of the insight from these experiences when we wake up. Another significant learning from this project was the need for grounding speculative ideas in existing research. Techniques like imagery rehearsal therapy heavily influenced how we enabled users to change or reinterpret unpleasant dream experiences in Somni. By grounding speculative ideas in actual psychological practices, we managed to create a forward-thinking solution while still making it feel connected to real human needs. Finally, this project has allowed us to understand the potential of designing for emerging perceptions. Through the improvement of interoception and the visualization of subconscious thoughts, Somni has shown the potential for technology to improve the ways in which humans perceive their own emotions and cognitive processes. Designing for emerging senses has many considerations in terms of ethics and emotions, but it also presents opportunities for improving the ways in which humans interact with their own mental well-being.

What's next for Somni

However, there is room for expansion and enhancement in terms of the technology and its reach to other user groups. In the future, Somni could be enhanced with more advanced neural sensors and immersive technologies such as virtual reality or mixed reality, which could enable the user to fully visualize the dream environment rather than simply being able to see it on a screen. This would be beneficial in terms of the user’s experience with the subconscious signals and would take interoception to the next level. In addition, Somni could be expanded beyond its use as a tool for individuals with PTSD and insomnia and be used as a tool for individuals in therapy and others interested in self-discovery and emotional management. As the technology and the sensors improve, Somni could go from being simply a tool that interprets dreams to being something that can help individuals understand and improve their mental state through the insights they gain from their subconscious mind.