Seen At 11: New Mask Could Make Users Masters Of Their Dreams

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- As you get ready to go to sleep tonight, think about what you want to dream about.

With new technology it just might be possible to dream that dream, and even control the action as a dream master.

"You think of a purple cow, you turn a corner, and there's a purple cow," dream expert Thomas Piesel explained.

As CBS2's Kristine Johnson reported, Piesel uses a new type of sleep mask to conjure imagery in his dreams.

"Anything we can imagine we experience directly," he said.

It uses a programmable light pattern designed to turn on when you're in a semi-wakeful state to control what you see and do in your dreams. It's called 'lucid dreaming.'

"You can walk through walls, you can even talk to the dream itself," he said.

Piesel has written about dreams and has volumes of dream journals. Now, he's added a technology to his dream control arsenal.

"It's a sleep mask designed to allow people to enhance their dreams to have better dream recall, have more vivid dreams," dream mask developer Duncan Frazier said.

Frazier and Steve McGuigan developed the dream mask called Remee. They said the sleeping mind can recognize the color and brightness of the embedded lights, allowing the wearer to be more conscious of their dreams.

"We're kind of pinging your waking mind with these patterns so at the very least you're getting a little more attention to your dreams," Frazier said.

Sleep expert Dr. Daniel Erichsen said this is illustrated in these brainwave patterns where there is little difference in a sleeping and waking mind.

"Lucid dreams are an overlapping state between sleep and wakefulness," Dr. Erichsen said, "Dream sleep which you see here is very similar to wakefulness."

He's not convinced that light patterns will affect the lucid dreaming state.

"There's no harm in it, but there's no evidence that it works," he said.

The developers and Piesel all claim that understanding and controlling dreams can help address issues with creativity, personal problems, even confronting nightmares.

"A good dream can actually carry you through a day. You have a terrible nightmare and you wake up and you ruined your entire day," McGuigan said.

Dream experts said the way to confront nightmares is head on, to be bigger and bolder in your dreams, and take control.

If you need a dream mask to help you get there it will cost you about $100.