Dream-capture

<p><strong>Why this helps:</strong> Cognitive offloading research finds that moving open mental "loops" out of working memory onto an external surface lowers cognitive arousal; a polysomnography-verified study found a brief bedtime to-do list shortened sleep onset by roughly nine minutes (Scullin et al., *Journal of Experimental Psychology: General*, 2018, summarized in CNN health reporting, 2025). Dream-capture applies the same offloading idea to the morning: getting a fading dream out of your head and onto the page so it stops tugging at your attention. The memory-retrieval angle is well supported; any "interpret your dream" claim would be speculative and is deliberately avoided here.</p><h4>Morning surface (appears when the alarm or wake window ends)</h4><p><strong>Header:</strong> Before it fades</p><p><strong>Body:</strong><br>Dreams slip away within the first few minutes of waking. If something stayed with you from the night, this is the moment to catch it. One tap. No tidy sentences required.</p><p><strong>Primary button:</strong> Capture it<br><strong>Secondary link:</strong> Nothing tonight</p><h4>Capture screen (one-tap voice, default)</h4><p><strong>Top line:</strong> Just talk. We are listening, not grading.</p><p><strong>Recording state:</strong></p><ul><li>Mic indicator with a soft waveform</li><li>Caption under the waveform: Speak in whatever order it comes back to you. Fragments are fine.</li><li>Button: Done</li></ul><p><strong>If the user prefers to type, a small toggle reads:</strong> Type instead</p><p><strong>Text-entry placeholder:</strong><br>A face, a place, a feeling. Whatever you still have.</p><h4>Gentle morning framing (shown after saving)</h4><p><strong>Header:</strong> Caught.</p><p><strong>Body:</strong><br>That is enough. You do not need to make sense of it, and you do not need to decide what it means. Some mornings the page will be full and some mornings it will be a single word, and both are a good record. Over time you may notice the same rooms, the same people, the same weather returning. Or you may not. Either way, the night had your attention for a while, and now it is set down where you can find it.</p><p><strong>Button:</strong> Start the day</p><h4>Empty-handed path (user wakes with nothing)</h4><p><strong>Header:</strong> Nothing this morning</p><p><strong>Body:</strong><br>That happens more nights than not, and it is not a loss. A blank page is still part of the record. Close this whenever you are ready.</p><p><strong>Button:</strong> Close</p><h4>Settings copy</h4><ul><li><strong>Morning capture prompt</strong> — Show the dream-capture surface when I wake. Default: On.</li><li><strong>Default input</strong> — Voice or Text. Default: Voice.</li><li><strong>Storage</strong> — Dream entries are kept on your device. Toggle: Back up encrypted. Default: Off.</li><li><strong>Reminder window</strong> — Offer capture only within: 10 / 20 / 30 minutes of waking. Default: 20 minutes.</li></ul><h2>Sources</h2><ul><li>Scullin, M. K. et al., *Journal of Experimental Psychology: General*, 2018 — bedtime to-do list shortened sleep onset (~9 min), polysomnography-verified; cognitive-offloading mechanism.</li><li>CNN Health, "Racing thoughts during sleep: How to stop them," 2025 — summary of offloading and unresolved-task intrusion at sleep transitions.</li></ul>