In Inception, a spinning top tells a dream from waking life. I wanted that top on my desk, as a quiet nightly practice for noticing when I’m dreaming.

Lucid dreaming isn’t a gift, it’s a habit: asking “am I dreaming?” often enough that you ask it in your sleep too. Spintop builds that habit in three small moments a day. In the morning you tell your dream in the dark; in the day a few quiet checks ask whether you’re dreaming; at night two minutes with the top and an intention. A wooden top on a lamplit desk keeps count: the more you practise, the longer it spins.

Download the APK · Stillcraft page · Source on GitHub

What’s inside

Tell it in the dark

At waking, a dim red screen you can use half asleep. Type or say the dream aloud; pause too long and the words pale, the way a dream does. Then one question: did you know it was a dream?

Your dream signs

School and exams, running late, lights that won’t turn on, a childhood home, water: the app finds what keeps happening in your dreams by itself. Nothing to tag. Add a sign of your own in your own words.

After a lucid dream. It glows and doesn't fall.
After a lucid dream. It glows and doesn't fall.

Reality checks

A few times a day, at moments you can’t guess, “Are you dreaming?” with one check that dreams get wrong: count your fingers, read a line twice, pinch your nose and breathe. One tap on “Checked”.

The ritual before sleep

Two minutes of MILD, the best-tested way into lucid dreams: recall your last dream, look at tonight’s sign, and hold the top spinning while you repeat the intention. Then the lamp goes down.

At waking. Dim enough to tell it half asleep.
At waking. Dim enough to tell it half asleep.

The top keeps count

Dreams remembered, checks and rituals wind it up, glimmers and lucid dreams most of all. A missed day loosens it a little, nothing more. Each lucid dream adds a brass ring; the morning after one, it glows and doesn’t fall all day.

Quiet and private

Warm walnut and lamplight, dim enough for bed. Dreams stay on the phone: no account, no internet, no tracking.

One question. And the signs in that dream.
One question. And the signs in that dream.

Three moments a day

  What you do Why it helps
Morning Tell the dream, say how clear it was Remembered dreams are the ones you can wake up in
Day A few reality checks The question becomes a habit and turns up in sleep
Night Recall, tonight’s sign, the intention You fall asleep expecting to notice

Good to know

Does it actually work?

Reality checks, a dream journal and MILD are the techniques with the best evidence behind them, and the app puts all three into one small daily routine. Most people need a few weeks of practice; a first glimmer of “wait, is this a dream?” usually comes before the first fully lucid dream.

I don’t remember my dreams

Start with the morning: tell anything, even one word or a feeling, before you sit up. Recall grows within days of doing this, and the signs appear once a few dreams are in.

What does it keep?

Your dreams, checks and rituals, on the phone only: no account, no ads, no internet permission at all.

Get it

  • Requires: Android 9.0 (API 28) or newer. No Google services needed.
  • Permissions: Notifications and vibration. No internet; telling a dream aloud uses your phone’s own speech recognition.
  • License: MIT
  1. Download the APK on your phone.
  2. Open it and allow installs from this source when Android asks.
  3. Pick when you go to bed and wake, and spin the top.

Download the APK · Stillcraft page · Source on GitHub

Spintop is part of Stillcraft, a shelf of small, free, open-source apps for everyday life: no ads, no accounts, and your data stays on your phone. A new one appears here every few days.