Are you trying to track your sleep so you can get a better night’s rest? You’re already using apps on your smartphone during your waking hours, so why not add at least one more to improve your sleep cycle and get your circadian rhythm in tune?
Download some of the best sleep apps today and find the amazing sleep you’ve been missing.
Types of sleep apps
Just as all sleep trackers and monitors differ, so do sleep apps. For instance, some offering sleep monitoring by measuring your personal data including breathing rates, pulse, snoring, and motion. Others provide you with mood-enhancing sleep ambiance options such as light, nature sounds, or relaxing sound cues to help you fall asleep faster and wake up feeling recharged.
There are even guided meditation and sleep hypnosis apps if you’ve been wondering how to change your habits through cognitive behavioral therapy methods.
No matter what kind of sleep app you choose, you can expect the following:
- You’ll need to keep your smartphone by your bed, charged.
- You’ll pay for a one-time download or monthly subscription unless the app is free (in which case you’ll probably want to upgrade to premium levels.)
- You’ll need to learn the exact parameters of the app to make the most of its inherent benefits.
- You may want to buy peripheral devices, such as wearables or monitors, to get more out of your sleeping app.
Excited by the thought of feeling better when you’re in and out of bed? Find your perfect sleep app now.
Related Article: Best Sleep Aids
Best for Sleep Ambiance: Noisli
Offering a wide range of sounds, Noisli helps you get to sleep by allowing you to choose your perfect combination of noise versus quiet. After listening to all the sounds, you can loop them as you please, creating the ideal sleeping track to allow you to drift off each night. Additionally, you can adjust the handy turn-off timer so it doesn’t continue all night long.
Buy on iTunes: Noisli
Best Sleep Hypnosis App: Sleep Deeply
Currently only available for iOS, Sleep Deeply walks you gently through the beginning stages of sleep so effectively that the app won a Best Medical app award in 2011. The sound of the hypnotist’s voice provides a calming effect that produces relaxation.
Need to de-stress but don’t want to fall asleep? Sleep Deeply has a hypnosis session for that, too, giving you more than your money’s worth in one app.
Buy on iTunes: Sleep Deeply
Best Guided Meditation App for Sleep: Room to Breathe Meditation
Learning how to breathe correctly is a core necessity for any type of guided meditation. Consequently, Room to Breathe Meditation helps insomnia sufferers who battle nightly with high degrees of anxiety.
Allow this guided meditation app to keep your thoughts from spinning in a never-ending stress cycle. You can add music as needed to boost your feelings of serenity and self-control.
Buy on iTunes: Room to Breathe Meditation
Best Sleep Monitoring/Analytic App: Sleep Cycle
For less than a dollar, you can use your iPhone to not only track your sleep habits, but recommend better sleeping choices with the Sleep Cycle app.
This app makes use of your smartphone accelerometer to measure your movements while at rest. Then, its algorithms take all the data into consideration to pick the right time to sound your iPhone’s alarm. When used regularly, the Sleep Cycle app enables you to consistently improve the quality and duration of your bedtime hours.
Buy on iTunes: Sleep Cycle
Best Alarm Clock: Rise Alarm Clock
Sometimes, sleep isn’t about when you get to bed or how much REM time you experience. It’s about what wakes you up in the morning.
The Rise Alarm Clock app offers a plethora of alarm types from gentle to jarring so you can figure out what makes you feel refreshed versus what turns you into a moody morning monster. Its settings are easy to follow, and the sounds turn off just as simply.
Buy on iTunes: Rise Alarm Clock
Best Free Apps:
Although free sleep apps usually lack the depth or programming of their pay-to-use counterparts, there are a few worth mentioning.
- Pzizz: Maybe you need a 30-minute catnap. Perhaps you’re more interested in seven hours of blissful slumber. Either way, the Pzizz app can make your sweet sleep dreams come true. This ambient sounds app uses acoustics and dreamscapes to calm your head and send you off to la la land.
- Sleep Cycle: Want to start tracking your sleep cycles? This may be a good first choice in app technology. Sleep Cycle uses your smartphone’s mic to listen to your movements during sleep. It then turns the input into charts to help you get a basic understanding of how you can get a better sleeping experience.
Use Your Smartphone to Sleep
Not only have we done the heavy lifting for you, but we’ve added insights so you can quickly uncover which sleep apps make the best sense for your situation. Whether you want to wake up more refreshed or get a handle on your sleep apnea, you’ll find answers among the sleep apps offered that we’ve highlighted.
Related Article: 6 Best Sleep Trackers
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