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We all know the benefits of a good night's sleep, and yet many people are in need of sleep help in order to get good sleep on a regular basis. Whilst normally we'd advise against smartphones and backlit screens before bed, there are a few exceptions, such as sleep monitoring apps.
Whilst some sleep monitoring apps require you to purchase additional tracking devices that can be costly, there are some that don't require a tracker at all. These apps will usually use the sensors built into your smartphone and are often a cheaper and convenient way to keep track of your sleeping habits. This can be of great benefit in finding out where you need the most sleep help.
If you're looking for some sleep help, look no further than our list of sleep monitoring apps to help you track and improve your sleeping habits.
1. Sleep Cycle
If you want to try waking up when your sleep is at its lightest then Sleep Cycle could be the app for you. It's available for both iPhones and Android smartphones so it's available for most people looking to improve their sleep. Sleep Cycle records the percentage of your sleep quality and the average time you spend in bed, it then highlights when your shortest night of sleep happens. By using your accelerometer built into your phone to track the sleep stages, the app is able to gently wake you during the lighter stages of sleep. This will help you to feel fully rested and refreshed and prevent that groggy feeling that can come from waking at a deep period of sleep.
The microphone built into your phone can also pick up sounds and vibrations which are analysed to determine which stage of the sleep cycle you are in. It then pinpoints the optimal time to wake you up within a 30-minute window of a time previously set by you.
2. Pillow
Free to iPhone users, Pillow is a sleep tracking and analysis alarm clock that monitors your sleep. It has a clean and simple design, making it easy to use, which is great as nobody wants to feel stressed setting up an app that monitors how you sleep.
The app uses some of the most recent sleep research and creates a picture of your sleep through motion and sound detection and analysis. The stages of your sleep will be tracked in a diagram, highlighting the points when you are awake, in REM sleep, light and deep sleep phases. It can also use the data it collects to provide statistics on your sleep session.
Because the app is fully integrated with Apple's Health apps, you can use it to get in-depth sleep help and a deeper understanding of your sleep. It uses various information such as your blood pressure, heart rate, weight and caffeine and alcohol consumptions to show you how these factors affect your sleep quality.
3. SleepBot
This sleep monitoring app is free for both iPhone and Android users. It uses your smartphone's accelerometer to track motion in order to identify and monitor your sleep cycle. SleepBot will create detailed tables, breaking down data on your sleep history, wake times, hours of sleep and sleep debt. This information can then be used by you to determine what kind of further sleep help may be needed.
4. MotionX-24/7
This sleep app helps you track your sleep by monitoring the motion of your body whilst you're in bed. By doing so, it can assess the quality of your sleep. MotionX-24/7 records audio clips when you snore or move around in the night, thus identifying how you slept. You also have the option to set a wake-up time within the app in order to wake up at the optimal time in your sleep cycle. You can even use this sleep monitoring app to play white noise or soft music which will fade out once you fall asleep.
5. Sleep Time
Whilst not a free sleep monitoring app, Sleep Time is still affordable for most people and provides you with a range of different types of sleep help. It can monitor light and deep sleep and produced graphs based on the data it acquires through your smartphone's accelerometer. Sleep Time rates your sleep and provides an average efficiency percentage to help you identify how well you sleep on an average night. It also gives you the option to pick different sounds such as waves or a gentle rainforest storm to help you drift off. The only downfall is that it won't work if your phone locks at night, so if you can change your settings to keep your phone open - you should.
Sleep Time is very similar to Sleep Cycle in many ways and will let you set a smart alarm which can pinpoint the optimum time to wake you up - such as when you are in a light sleep phase. This will help you feel refreshed and fully rested when you wake up.
6. Smart Alarm Clock
If you wondered what you sound like when you sleep, Smart Alarm Clock could be the app for you. It's available for a small fee on iPhones and records noise disturbances through the night. It will also create graphs and other visual aids to help you understand more about the duration of your sleep, the times of disturbances and whether you talk or snore in your sleep.
7. Sleep As Android
This sleep app also uses your phone's built-in accelerometer to track when you're awake and when you're sleeping. It does this by monitoring your muscle movements. To access all the Sleep As Android features you will have to pay a small fee but this allows you to share your sleep data and backup any information to a SleepCloud.
Having an app to track your sleep can be hugely helpful in identifying the areas where you can improve the way you sleep, but what it can't do is make you comfortable at night. To make sure you get the most comfortable night's sleep, take a look at our website and order a Sonno mattress today.
