Electroneural device from the early
1960's reputed to dramatically cut down time spent
sleeping. According to theory, one put one set of
electrodes behind one's ears, and one set over each
eyelid and turned on the juice -- voila ! instant
dreamland. One hour of this (with accompanying vivid dreams) was supposed to be as relaxing as eight hours of the natural method. A triumph of
Soviet technology! The end to unproductive lying-about when tractors were to be made!
Science fiction writers, notably
Isaac Asimov, and
R. A. Lafferty featured it in stories,
NASA was green with envy, and every hip person in the
Free World coveted one under the name "electrosleep".
If only it were so. Attempts by westerners to try such devices themselves were met with vigorous stonewalling on the part of the Russian medical establishment, who always had a few testimonials ready to hand, but no boxen for trial or purchase. Nowadays, Russian sleep machines are to be found in museums of quack medicine. Even Russian web sites are loath to claim anything but "increased likelihood" that one can fall asleep by this method. On Keelynet there are a few circuit diagrams available, but I've yet to hear from anyone who's either built or used one. A shame.