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Milan 2010: french designer Mathieu Lehanneur presented a bed for curing insomnia in the Zona Tortona district of Milan last week.

The bed lulls users to sleep by enclosing them in automatically-closing curtains then gradually dropping the temperature and lighting, while levels of gentle white noise rise to block out external sounds.

Called Once Upon a Dream, the project was designed for champagne marque Veuve Clicquot’s hotel in Rheims, France.

It was shown alongside an installation called Gloriette by the Campana Brothers (see our movie about it filmed at the brothers’ studio in São Paulo).

Photographs are by Felipe Ribon.

See all our stories about Milan 2010 in our special category.

The information below is from Lehanneur:

Once upon a dream by Mathieu Lehanneur

After the quality of domestic air with ‘Andrea’, Mathieu Lehanneur has turned his attention to the quality of sleep. Designed for the Hôtel de Marc at Rheims, where guests of the Veuve Cliquot champagne house often suffering from jet lag stay, ‘Once upon a dream’ is the ideal room for swift rest-&-resynchronization – sweet deams guaranteed. Between the Sand Man and home cinema, this unit for slumber was designed using tried and tested data gathered in physiological studies for treating people who suffer from chronic insomnia. (Which was the case of the Widow Cliquot, the founder of the firm).

Based on Docteur Alain Nicolas ’s work, specialist of sleep in France (Lyon), going to sleep is like stepping off into another state, sifting down into consciousness by successive stages. Each phase is stage-set by the story-teller (Lehanneur), preparing mind and body for abandonment to sleep.

Chapter 1 : automatic curtain closure, the interior show begins. Visually re-defined, the mental slate of the sleeper-to-be is erased for change of consciousness and production of dream.

Chapter 2 : Overall room temperature falls 2° to 19° C.

Chapter 3 : With barely a touch, the user activates the automatic light dimmer via the plant hanging over the bed – a reminiscence of the briar protecting Sleeping Beauty. In fifteen minutes, light dims from 1000 Lux to 0.

Chapter 4 : During the light-dimming phase, low-volume white noise acoustically isolates the sleeper from external sounds. This purr created by adding together barely audible frequencies is used to put certain patients into a Non Ordinary State of Consciousness (NOSC) prior to telepathic experiments. The brain homes in on the neutral swish, and with ideal body temperature, sleep comes.

Chapter 5 : Wake-up. Temperature rises by 2°. Light intensity increases from 0 to 2500 Lux in fifteen minutes. A new day begins.

Once upon a dream was lauched in Milan last week together with the “Gloriette” by the Campana’s brothers. It will be set in Reims at the Hôtel du Marc after a world tour trip.

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