Brain-cleaning sleeping cap gets US Army funding

Headlines from 2055:<p><i>Ransomware gang releases man from MyBrain sleeping cap after family pays $10M</i><p><i>CEO: users can opt-out of dream-based ads, monitoring -- but face degraded platform experience</i><p><i>Police use bulk collection of brain data for secretive warrants</i>

I have to wonder how much of this support is the military trying to find a technological workaround so they can keep using schedules that intentionally leave everyone sleep deprived all the time, instead of just adjusting those schedules to let people get enough sleep.<p>While the worst cases of that are generally in the Navy (for example, entire ship crews running on 4 hours of a sleep a night as standard practice, serving as a major factor in those lethal collisions back in 2017), it&#x27;s pretty common for Army grunts to get six hours of sleep a night or less while on deployment.

When one thinks of making &#x27;supersoldiers&#x27; the first thing that comes to mind is making soldiers physically stronger, but in modern warfare this offers little benefit. However, decreasing the need for sleep offers a huge benefit according to JASON scientific advisory council[0]. Part of this is that modern warfare doctrine is built around exhausting the enemy. The JASON report stated that &quot;At present there is no clear path to a major breakthrough in [sleep management], but if such a development occurs... it could seriously alter the balance of engagement.&quot; Now that we&#x27;re starting to at least understand the reason why we sleep, we&#x27;re may be getting close to said breakthrough.<p>It is quite something to see that the Army rather than DARPA is working on this project. DARPA works on crazy ideas to see if they work at all, the Army Research Labs only tend to work on things that aren&#x27;t that crazy.<p>[0]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;irp.fas.org&#x2F;agency&#x2F;dod&#x2F;jason&#x2F;human.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;irp.fas.org&#x2F;agency&#x2F;dod&#x2F;jason&#x2F;human.pdf</a>

FDA approval for transcranial electric&#x2F;magnetic stimulation has been around since 2008 for major depression, 2013 for migraines, and 2018 for OCD [0], so it wouldn&#x27;t surprise me if they hold some therapeutic value for sleep disorders as well.<p>I just hope these devices are particularly well-regulated for sleep, however, because I imagine sending the wrong signal for even a few nights&#x27; sleep could do some serious damage.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fda.gov&#x2F;news-events&#x2F;press-announcements&#x2F;fda-permits-marketing-transcranial-magnetic-stimulation-treatment-obsessive-compulsive-disorder" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fda.gov&#x2F;news-events&#x2F;press-announcements&#x2F;fda-perm...</a>

Part of the &quot;brain cleaning&quot; they are talking about is the clearing of amyloid plaques, which occurs during Slow-Wave Oscillations (SWOs) during N3&#x2F;N4 sleep.<p>There has already been great research in this area, so I wish they would describe what else they are doing.<p>We&#x27;re stimulating SWOs at our start-up <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;soundmind.co" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;soundmind.co</a> in order to improve sleep performance - links to research are on our &quot;how it works&quot; page.

Is there any evidence that neuromodulation can actually impact the glymphatic system and stimulate the flow of fluids?<p>Do we know how the glymphatic system works in enough detail yet? This sounds like a useful research tool full of interesting sensors. But referring to it as &quot;brain cleaning&quot; strikes me as premature.

Imagine if we could largely eliminate sleep, it seems like science fiction for now, but what if?

There are few trigger words I detest more than “warfighters” to refer to what we already have a word for- soldier.

The title is somewhat misleading, I think. Nevertheless, this sounds like very interesting research.<p>It is astonishing how much we have learned about the brain and how it works, but there so much to learn I doubt we will ever run out of questions to ask.

Linda Nagata&#x27;s The Red Trilogy Series (an excellent read, IMO) explores some of the consequences of technologies that help manage a person&#x27;s brain-state in extreme environments (sleep deprivation, trauma, PTSD, etc.): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;g.co&#x2F;kgs&#x2F;HK1KoT" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;g.co&#x2F;kgs&#x2F;HK1KoT</a>

kinda terrifying to be completely honest.