With such a large choice of sleep apps in the market, which one is actually the best? What app produces the best results? Surprisingly, this question is rather hard to answer due to the large range of purposes that each sleep app serves. What might be the best for one person may be the worst for another. At the end of the day, it really depends on what you want to use the sleep app for, whether that’s to track your sleep cycles, use it to help combat a sleep disorder or as a tool to simply help you nod off quicker, there’s something for everyone.
Many of these apps require a paid subscription to use their services, however, almost all of them offer a free trial so you can try before you buy. Here are some of the apps Mattressman found to be the best in a range of categories…
Are you simply intrigued by your sleep pattern and what your sleep cycle entails? Sleep Cycle is a fantastic app for this very reason, helping you track your stages of sleep throughout the night, it provides you with the statistics in the morning. Sleep Cycle uses your microphone to listen to sounds as you sleep to help determine the quality of sleep you get. Another feature of the app includes a smart alarm which is designed to wake you up in the lightest stage of the sleep cycle, overall helping you feel more refreshed when you wake up.
A tool to help you focus, Noisli can be used in many aspects of your life rather than just sleep. It works by amalgamating a variety of sounds in order to create your perfect sound environment, with the aim of helping you focus. Allowing you to customise your own background sounds and volumes, as well as listen to curated playlists designed to keep distractions at bay, this tool is also extremely useful for sleep. Sometimes silence is deafening – so using an app that allows you to customise noises to help you create your ideal sleeping environment is a no-brainer.
One of the more popular apps, Calm helps you drift to sleep through bedtime stories, sleep soundscapes, relaxing music, nature sounds and sleep meditations. With a variety of different audios and sounds to help you fall asleep, you may recognise a range of famous voices that read for the app: Kate Winslet, Harry Styles, Matthew McConaughey, Idris Elba and many more all provide a soothing voice to fall asleep to. This isn’t all that Calm offers as you can use these tools to help you unwind in the day and meditate too.
With the mission of bringing health and happiness to the world, Headspace specialises in guided meditations, articles, videos and animations relating to meditation. Whilst there are thousands of meditation apps around, Headspace sets itself apart from the rest by recognising the importance of science, as well as its ancient roots, in the practice of meditation. Conducting mindfulness meditation clinically validated trials, you know that Headspace offers services based on scientific research aiming to help improve stress, focus and more. On top of all this, Headspace has a dedicated section to help improve your sleep, utilising sleepcasts, music and a range of audio experiences to improve how you get to sleep at night.
Targeting anyone who has sleep issues, Sleep Easy will ask you what aspects you believe are stopping you from achieving good sleep. This can range from sleep-related or medical diagnoses such as insomnia, depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, to aspects including specific emotions you’re feeling such as anger or shame, as well as lifestyle factors like being a night owl, being on-call or frequently changing time zones.
Pioneered by Dr Richard Shane, Sleep Easy provides a 14-day program that is clinically proven to help you fall asleep and sleep deeper. It involves listening to a short audio clip in the daytime, designed to inform you more about sleep, your mind and your body. Secondly, it includes a 30-40 minute audio clip to play when you’re going to sleep. The method talks you through a way to engage body sensations that create the neurophysiological signals of falling asleep, guiding you to deep and better sleep.
