Dr. Guilio Tononi of the University of Wisconsin-Madison is working on a gadget that uses transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to help people move into deeper levels of sleep.

TMS sends a harmless magnetic pulse through your skull to alter brain activity. In experiments, sleeping volunteers immediately began reproducing the slow, deep waves seen in Stage Three and Stage Four sleep.

“With a single pulse, we were able to induce a wave that looks identical to the waves that the brain makes normally during sleep,” said Giulio Tononi.

Scientists refer to four stages of sleep. In Stage One, the body becomes more relaxed; some areas of the brain are already “asleep.” In Stage Two, or light sleep, theta brain waves signal changes in how the brain is working. Stage Three is a deep sleep characterized by both theta and finally delta waves, the deepest stage of sleep. Finally, Stage Four sleep, with only delta waves, arrives, driving your body’s respiration, heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature to its lowest point during your day.

The safety of the device is still being tested, but it sounds like a great napping tool - ie if you feel tired during the day, use this device, skip stages 1 & 2 of sleep, and wake up a few minutes later, refreshed. Personally, I’ve never mastered the art of the power nap, but polyphasic sleep has aways fascinated me. Anyway, check out the article at LifeScience.com.