Sleep is an essential part of overall health. It plays a vital role in recharging the body and replenishing the energy lost throughout the day. It is recommended that you get 7-9 hours of sleep a night to achieve full rest.
However, not everyone can get enough sleep regularly for various reasons. People cut back on sleep voluntarily for work or school, while others are for leisure. Some are not able to actually get sleep due to internal or external stressors, physical pain or underlying health conditions.
Lacking sleep can cause a detrimental impact on a person’s mind and body. Just a night without sleep can greatly affect your productivity, mood and appetite the next day. When done in long term, it can result in more serious health problems like diabetes and heart problems.
If you are having trouble sleeping, it is important to address it right away. There are solutions like a mattress for side sleepers as well as other bedroom accessories that can help you get comfortable and ultimately achieve a restful shuteye.
In addition to that, here are some apps that may help you through your sleep cycle.
1. Pillow
Pillow is an app that syncs with your Apple watch or smartwatch to monitor sleep. It analyzes your sleep stages and monitors heart rate, respiratory rate and blood oxygen levels as well as environmental audio levels that may affect your sleep. The app not only measures the duration of your sleep but also provides a scientifically backed sleep analysis based on the data it can gather.
Its features include a smart alarm clock to wake you during the lightest sleep stage, sleep trend tracking, sleep aid sounds and personalized insights and tips for better quality rest. It provides useful data to help you understand how you sleep.
2. Somryst
Somryst is an FDA-approved app that provides cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). It primarily serves as a trainer for the sleep muscles, deliberately helping the user to adjust sleeping habits and reduce the symptoms of their insomnia. It has six self-paced lessons that patients can take as long as 9 weeks. The lessons focus on exercising sleeping habits that will help the user fall asleep faster and stay asleep for a longer period of time.
Currently, Somryst offers a prescription-only app that can be used by adults 22 years old and beyond, diagnosed with chronic insomnia.
3. Muse
Muse is a great app for those who simply need some relaxation and to turn off their brain at night. Its approach is rooted in meditation and calming the mind. The app gives access to over 500 guided meditations with instructors that specialize in different focuses, including sleep. Muse also offers “Go-To-Sleep” content for personalized sleep support.
You can also purchase a special sensor-speckled headband that will translate your brain activity into meditations perfect for you. It can help you understand your brain patterns better and control stress, which can help you get quality sleep and improve your overall sleep cycle.
4. Headspace
Headspace is another great meditation and sleeps app. It focuses on mindfulness and relaxing the mind to help you fall asleep. The app makes sleep and meditation, fun, engaging and filled with positivity.
Headspace provides access to guided meditation, sleep meditation and breathing exercises. It also features “sleepcasts” on its free version, which are 45 to 55-minute-long audio experiences. This is good for those who enjoy more visual storytelling and guidance when meditating. Additionally, Headspace offers audio like sleep sounds from nature and peaceful music pieces to fall asleep into and short daily video series that can greet you upon waking up to start your day right.
5. Calm
Calm is taking relaxation and meditation experiences to a new level. The app primarily focuses on improving mental health for a calmer and more positive mood and way of life. Of course, it does include support for achieving a relaxing sleep and rest.
The app gives access to guided meditations in lengths of 3 to 25 minutes, so users can choose which fits their schedule best. Topics include calming anxiety and deep sleep. It also features bedtime stories for kids and adults. Some of its audio is read aloud by celebrities read like Matthew McConaughey.
6. Sleep Cycle
The Sleep Cycle Alarm app performs sleep tracking to record your sleep habits. The alarm wakes you during light sleep by setting a window of time to wake up. The sleep app senses your sleep movements and rings to wake you at the optimal time in your sleep cycle. It also wakes the user up gently with selected alarm melodies, which works great for the non-morning person who hates alarms. If connected to the Apple smartwatch, it will send gentle vibrations to the wrist.
The Sleep Cycle app’s free version gives access to its alarm feature as well as sleep statistics. While its paid version offers add-ons like a sound recorder for monitoring snores and sleeps talking and sleep aids like narrated stories and calming audio.
Sleep Your Nights Away
With all the stressors in the environment, it’s not always easy to get a relaxing sleep. But there are easy and effective ways you can try to ease worries and relax your mind to achieve an energizing shuteye. Make use of one or a combination of these sleeping apps to sleep better and develop sleeping habits that will be beneficial for your mind and body.