The waking trials is a set of portraits depicting the first and last moments of consciousness in a night's sleep. Participants agreed to spend one full night in a modified bed, which is designed to wake them using a variety of stimulus, including: strobe lights, sprayed water, recorded gunshots, popping balloons, falling candy and other objects, fans, smelling salts, springing mousetraps, reflected sunlight, mountain dew, and others. The before photograph is triggered by the photographer, and the after photograph is triggered by the waking participant.