Opinion: WAKE is FAKE, but WAKEFULLY is REAL

My phone hasn’t stopped blowing up since February 11, the day the hit show “Inventing Anna” premiered on Netflix.

For those of you who haven’t seen it or binged it, like me, (for research!) — Shonda Rhimes brings it again in a deliciously scandalous story, with a tagline that says it all: “Inspired by the true story of a total fake.” 

The “true story” bit refers to Anna Sorokin, and the “total fake” bit refers to her made-up persona as German-heiress Anna Delvey, who conned New York’s elite out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

You almost root for her, as you realize how quickly you, too, have fallen for fake. 

But the reason my phone blew up, has to do with the hot-yet-skeevy, scrumptious-yet-scammy boyfriend character, Chase Sikorski, and his dream app, Wake.

Episode 2 of the show opens on a TED Talk, where Chase lays out his vision for the app with a hypothesis: “What if I could cloudsource your dreams?”

Sounds kinda cool, no? [Spoiler alert: Chase turns out to be a fake, and so is his app.]

What’s it to me?

As the founder of a similarly dream-quantifying app called Wakefully, I care deeply about dreams. Specifically, I care about empowering humans to harness this incredible built-in resource — as a mindful daily practice for mental awareness. 

Call it self-therapy, before your feet hit the floor.

INVENTING ANNA — WHO’S THE “REAL” CHASE AND WHY DO I CARE?

The internet rumor mill has been abuzz about who’s the real Chase, and is the Wake app real?? 

Here’s the skinny — Chase is rumored (known) to be based on a tech entrepreneur named Hunter Lee Soik, and the Wake app is inspired by his never materialized app, Shadow. 

In 2013, Lee Soik raised over $80k on Kickstarter. By 2015 it was clear he had just bailed on the project, leaving a trail of irate backers demanding info, the app, or their money back.

Unlike Anna Sorokin, who collaborated with the show’s creators, Soik remained mum, and in Dubai. So naturally, names were changed. 

Hunter became “Chase,” and Shadow became “Wake” –– Are we getting there on what I’m about to say?

WAKE is FAKE, but WAKEFULLY is REAL. (As in, download on the App Store real.)

The character, Chase, reveals a much less noble aspiration than Soik’s TED Talk proposed. This guy wants IN on your subconscious, so he can sell you more s**t. Think about it for a moment: Your deepest thoughts, secret wishes; your fears, traumas ––your most personal data–– he’d sell to the highest bidder.

Knock, knock! Have you been dreaming about death? Big Pharma magically has the solution right on your social media feed. You’re welcome.

OK. SO WAKEFULLY IS REAL, BUT HOW IS IT DIFFERENT?

Before I get into the differences, let’s hit the similarities — like Shadow/Wake, Wakefully helps you track and understand your dreams.

And… that’s it — that’s all she wrote. 

Wakefully is the 1st consumer app to make dream-driven, personalized insights accessible to anyone who dreams. Our patent-pending conversational AI is an interactive journal by day, as well as a mindful bedtime coach.

Wakefully brings conscious intention to your unconscious motivations, giving you agency over your emotions, so you’re not led by your own blind spots.

Nothing is as personal as our dreams.

Biologically, dreams are designed as a safe space, a sort of playground of our mind. Handling such data requires the highest integrity for the dreamer’s privacy, and in my opinion, exploiting or selling such data is immoral. 

We maintain that the commercialization of dream data is a dangerous invasion of user privacy. Check out Wakefully’s privacy policy for our stance on this topic.

CURIOUS WHAT PEOPLE ARE DREAMING ABOUT THESE DAYS?

We’ve tracked dreams from our early users from the beginning of the Covid crisis in 2020 until 2022 –– over 25,000 dreams. Here’s a glimpse into what people were dreaming about then vs now:

WHY DID I CREATE WAKEFULLY?

35 billion dreams are produced by human minds globally every day. 

35 billion stories — stories told By us and ABOUT us.

Scientific research tells us the vast majority of our dreams directly reflect our worries, anxieties, and the challenges behind them — our hopes and goals and the self-limiting beliefs that prevent us from achieving them. 

But sadly, we’ll forget 95% of our dreams by the time we crawl out of bed. All these insights, answers to fateful questions, and solutions to life-changing problems — all gone.

Unused. 

Unharnessed. 

Wakefully is building a Global Dream Wisdom Bank™, guided by a team of dream experts, psychologists, and behavioral health doctors.

Because, if knowledge is power, then there is no greater power than knowing your truth.