Imagine if you could create the perfect dreams night after night. Well, one professor aims to help us do just that with a new iPhone app.

Professor Richard Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire, has teamed up with app developers Yuza to create Dream: ON, a specially designed iPhone app that they claim can help influence our dreams.

So how does it work? Before going to bed, you use the Dream: ON app to choose what kind of dream you would like to have - the menu includes simple pleasures such as a walk in the countryside or lying on the beach - and when you would like to wake up.

When placed on the bed, the app begins to monitor your sleep pattern. Once it has detected that you have entered the dream phase of sleep (normally when the body stops moving), the Dream: ON app begins to play a ‘soundscape’ that has been carefully designed to help create the desired dream.

The thinking is that, as you dream, the mind will conjure up your desired situation to correspond to the sounds being heard. A gentle alarm will then wake you up at your desired time.

The use of the app will form part of a mass-participation study on dreams conducted by Professor Wiseman. While 10,000 people are already expected to take part in the experiment, which was launched at the Edinburgh international science festival, you can still download the Dream: ON app and take part; the app is free and participants are encouraged to share their dreams via Facebook and Twitter. Find out more at www.dreamonapp.com

What do you think? Will you be using the app to make your dreams better? Tell us your thoughts on Twitter or in the comments box below...

Picture credit: Rex and Dream:ON