Features | 01 May 2018

Join the fight against cancer and #SleepLikeAHero with the DreamLab app

There’s nothing quite like a good night’s sleep, but what if you could make it even better? Find out how to #SleepLikeAHero with the new DreamLab app and help in the fight against cancer…

Your smartphone is pretty amazing – it’s hard to imagine life without it. But every night while you’re off snoozing, it just sits there, idle. Surely there’s a more productive way to harness all that latent (super) power, right? It’s time to #SleepLikeAHero with DreamLab

DreamLab is an app from Vodafone Foundation designed to speed up essential cancer research. Simply by downloading the app for Android or iOS on any network and switching it on while you slumber, you can add your phone to a massive, virtual super computer processing huge volumes of data.

Sounds pretty great, but how does it work? Let’s take a closer look at the detail:

How does it work?

The DreamLab app supports Imperial College London’s Project DRUGS (Drug Repositioning Using Grids of Smartphones) research to analyse billions of combinations of existing cancer drugs, and potentially help to identify more effective combinations of existing drugs to treat cancer. And, the more people who choose to #SleepLikeAHero, the faster this data can be processed.

To give you a bit of an example, while a desktop computer with an eight-core processor running 24-hours a day would take 300 years to run through all the sums required, a network of 100,000 smartphones running six hours a night could get the job done in just three months!

A new device can run up to 60 calculations, solving up to 24,000 problems in six hours if fully charged and plugged in. That’s a number that’s not to be sneezed at! Plus, you can see how many calculations your phone’s carried out to date in the app and share it with your family and friends on social – a nice little stat to wake up to.

A new device can run up to 60 calculations, solving up to 24,000 problems in six hours!

Will it chew through my data?

Short answer: no. Not only will DreamLab help you #SleepLikeAHero, it’s completely free for Vodafone UK customers or those running the app via Wi-Fi.

However, those connecting via other networks needn’t be deterred either. Running the app for six hours a night will use around 500MB of data per month. But by choosing how much data you’d like to donate before you switch the app on, you’ll ensure you’re not left out of pocket.

Get involved!

Ready to make a major difference with your eyes closed? DreamLab is available right now and free to download for iOS and Android so let your friends know. It’s easy to #SleepLikeAHero.