Somni
UX RESEARCH
SPECULATIVE DESIGN
FIGMA
I'm fascinated by the human brain, and more specifically, by how much we don't know about it. Somni started as a conversation between me and two friends about the one part of human experience nobody has figured out how to record: dreams. Over one weekend we turned that into a speculative design app that captures and replays them, aimed at people with insomnia and PTSD.
SPECULATIVE DESIGN · FIGBUILD
MARCH 2026
3 DESIGNERS, 1 WEEKEND
SOMNI-APP.JPG
001 AT A GLANCE
A design for the future.
The idea for Somni was born one late night. I got a notification from the Health App counting my steps for the day, and I started to think about how much of the human sensory experience is tracked, and how much we have left to track. One area stood to me, the one area I always wish I can track, but it seems almost impossible: dreams. Introducing Somni, a speculative design app that allows users to track their dreams, specifically designed for those with insomni and PTSD.
002 IDEATION
Dreams aren’t meant to be tracked, but what if…
From the moment we close our eyes to the moment we wake, our brain processes an enormous amount of information, yet 90% of people forget their dreams within minutes. What if it didn’t have to be this way?
HOW MIGHT WE
Make subconscious emotional signals during sleep visible so people experiencing stress, insomnia, or recurring nightmares can better understand their mental wellbeing?
003 THE SOLUTION
KEY INSIGHT FROM RESEARCH
Across cases of insomnia, stress, and PTSD, we found overlapping emotional patterns during sleep, not just symptoms in isolation. This formed the basis of our 3 features, detailed below.
DREAM DIARY
Somni treats each dream as data, not just a memory. What used to be a fragmented, forgettable memory becomes a searchable, analyzed record of what your subconscious has been processing.
SOMNI ASSISTANT
Grounded in imagery rehearsal therapy, a technique used to treat recurring nightmares in PTSD, this is where Somni moves from measuring the subconscious to actually influencing it. Somni's AI guide lets users actively rewrite dreams’ ending.
OVERALL INSIGHTS
A single bad night feels random, but a week of them tells a different story. The insights dashboard surfaces trends across nights so users can see the shape of what their subconscious has been signaling, not just one dream in isolation.
Somni turns your dreams into data you can actually understand — and rewrite.
AND… THERE’S MORE
Somni pairs with a wearable sleep mask that tracks REM activity and emotional signals in real time. The mask is designed to detect brainwave activity, eye movement, stress signals, and heart rate variability.
004 WALKTHROUGH
005 REFLECTION
Somni was the first time I pushed myself to create something that was completely out of the box in such a short time span (3 days!!). I had so much fun creating the vision for this project with my team, and learning how much meaningful human experience we humans have left to explore. Thank you to my wonderful team, Kimmi Zhao and Arshia Narula, from whom I learned to be a better designer. Somni, I hope to see a world with you in it soon.
Thanks for staying awhile, until next time!